Voice from the Cave

  CHAPTER 21 _THE CARDBOARD BOX_

  While Penny and Louise were puzzling over the strange writing foundinside the jade charm, Mrs. Deline appeared in the doorway of the bathhouse. Barely in time to escape detection, the girls hid the tinyelephant and the paper in the sand.

  Mrs. Deline crossed the beach to speak to the girls. Her hair was dampand stringy, her face pinched and blue from cold.

  "Here's your suit!" she snapped, slapping the wet garment into the sandat Penny's feet. "I hope you enjoyed the swim! I'm sure I didn't."

  Turning her back, the widow marched to the hotel.

  The moment Mrs. Deline had disappeared into the white brick building,Penny dug the jade elephant and paper from the sand.

  "Let's get dressed," she urged Louise. "We've no time to waste."

  So thrilled were the girls over what they had accomplished that theycould talk of nothing else. Penny felt that by obtaining the jadeelephant she had proven her case.

  "You thought I was only jealous of Mrs. Deline," she told Louisetriumphantly as they dressed in adjoining booths. "Now what do you say?"

  "That you're a genius!" Louise praised. "Mrs. Deline certainly is mixedup in some shady business."

  Once dressed, the girls wrapped the jade elephant in a handkerchief andcarried it to the hotel. Jerry was nowhere to be found, and a bellboytold Penny that her father had gone for a walk.

  "Perhaps we can work the message out ourselves," Penny suggestedhopefully. "Let's try."

  In their hotel room, the girls spent an hour attempting to decipher thestrange jargon of letters appearing on the paper. At the end of thattime. Penny tossed aside her pencil in disgust.

  "This is a job for an expert," she declared. "I certainly don't classifyas one."

  The telephone jingled. Penny answered it and was delighted to hearJerry's familiar voice. He was down in the lobby and had been told thatthe girls wished to see him.

  "We certainly do!" Penny answered gaily. "Hold everything! We'll be withyou in a jiffy."

  The elevator being entirely too slow, the girls raced down the stairs.Breathlessly they started to tell Jerry what they had learned.

  "Not here!" he said quickly. "Let's go outside where we won't beoverheard."

  Once out in the open with no one close by, Jerry lent an attentive ear toPenny's tale of their afternoon adventure. He did not have much to say inreturn, but he studied the jade green elephant and the paper with deepinterest.

  "You don't think it's anything?" Penny asked in disappointment.

  "On the contrary, it may be something of very great importance," hereturned soberly. "I'll take this to Headquarters. We have an expert oncodes who should be able to break it in a short while."

  The girls hoped that Jerry would invite them to accompany him, but he didnot do so. Instead he said:

  "Penny, you were telling me that Mrs. Deline had buried a package in thesand. Any luck in finding it?"

  "Not a bit."

  "You don't think that she went back there and dug it up herself?"

  "We didn't see any footprints."

  "How did you mark the place?"

  "By a stick that someone removed."

  "Not a very reliable way to take observations," Jerry remarked. "Ever trythe clock system?"

  The girls looked blank.

  "For example," Jerry illustrated, "imagine that the landscape is like theface of a clock. Now what do you see on the hour of two?"

  "I don't get it," Louise complained.

  "Oh, I do!" laughed Penny. "A big tree!"

  "That's right," agreed Jerry. "And at the hour of six?"

  "Why, a signboard!" chuckled Penny. "At the hour of seven there's a bigsand dune!"

  "If you picture things in your mind as if they're on the face of a clockit's much easier to remember and keep them in proper proportion. Now,using that same system can you recall anything more about the place whereMrs. Deline buried the package?"

  "Not very much," Penny admitted. "I didn't take notations at the time."

  "Speaking of signboards, I remember one," Louise said thoughtfully. "Itwas a long distance back from the beach, slightly to the right. Acigarette advertisement."

  "That's right!" agreed Penny.

  "Perhaps that will help some," Jerry said. "We'll have to find thepackage."

  "Then you believe Mrs. Deline is an Enemy Agent?" Penny asked eagerly.

  "I've thought so for quite a while now," Jerry admitted. "I didn't say itfor fear of building up your hopes. Anyhow, we've got to work quietly inthis business."

  "Poor Dad," Penny murmured, "I'm afraid it will break him up to learn thetruth. Do you say I should tell him right away, Jerry?"

  "Why not?" Jerry demanded, his eyes amused. "Your father may have a fewthings to break to you too, Penny."

  "Meaning what?"

  "I'll let your father do his own talking," Jerry said, getting up fromthe hotel bench. "Have to go now."

  "Wait!" Penny pleaded. "You've not told us anything. Do you think Mrs.Deline has been aiding that flier who escaped from a Canadian prisoncamp?"

  Jerry deliberately let the question pass. "Listen!" he said urgently. "Imay not see you girls again until after dinner. Want to help me tonight?"

  "Doing what?" Penny asked.

  "I want you to lead me to the place where Mrs. Deline buried thatpackage."

  "We'll do our best."

  "Then if I don't see you earlier, meet me here at nine o'clock. It shouldbe dark by that time."

  "We'll be here," Penny promised, her eyes glowing.

  At dinner that night the girls told Mr. Parker of their appointment tomeet Jerry. Penny would have explained about the package, but before shecould do so, Mrs. Deline joined the group. Mr. Parker immediately invitedher to dine with them. To the annoyance of Penny and Louise she acceptedwith alacrity.

  The girls fully expected that Mrs. Deline would make some reference tothe incident of the afternoon. Instead she avoided the subject, talkingof her experiences in China and the Orient. Despite their prejudice,Penny and Louise were compelled in all honesty to acknowledge tothemselves that the widow was a brilliant, entertainingconversationalist.

  Over the coffee cups Mrs. Deline spoke casually of a play which wasshowing at the local theatre. Before Penny could say a word, Mr. Parkerhad suggested that he buy tickets for the night's performance.

  "I'd love to go," Mrs. Deline accepted instantly.

  "Good!" Mr. Parker, approved. "I'll get four tickets."

  "Two," Penny corrected grimly. "Louise and I already have anappointment."

  "That's so," Mr. Parker recalled belatedly.

  Mrs. Deline looked so pleased that Penny was sorely tempted to abandonthe meeting with Jerry. Only the realization that the task ahead wasvitally important, kept her silent.

  At eight o'clock Mr. Parker and Mrs. Deline left the hotel for thetheatre. With an hour to kill, Penny and Louise were very restless. Theyread the evening paper and watched the clock.

  "Here's an interesting news item," Penny remarked, indicating a briefstory on an inner page of the paper. "It says an enemy submarine wassighted not many miles from here--just off the coast."

  "Did they get it?" Louise inquired absently.

  "I guess not. The story doesn't say, except that the air patrol droppedbombs."

  "Wonder what a single sub was doing so close here?" Louise speculated."Oh, well, we've nothing to fear."

  A clock chimed the hour of nine. On the first stroke, the girls arose andhastened to keep their appointment with Jerry. The night was closing indark. Along the shore no lights were showing for the dim-out was rigidlyenforced at Sunset Beach.

  "Where's Jerry?" Penny asked as they reached the bench where they hadpromised to meet him. "Hope he didn't forget."

  Ten minutes elapsed. Penny was examining the luminous dial of her wristwatch when someone came striding down the gravel path.

  "H
ello," Jerry greeted the girls. "Sorry to have kept you waiting. Allset for adventure?"

  "Lead on!" Penny laughed.

  Taking each of them by an elbow, Jerry guided the girls down the desertedbeach. Twice they passed guards who merely stared and allowed them topass unchallenged.

  "Any news about that code?" Penny questioned as they walked along.

  "It's a tough one to break," Jerry replied briefly. "Experts have beentrying to take it apart ever since I left you girls this afternoon."

  "Then it really is something?" Penny asked, scarcely daring to hope.

  "It certainly is," Jerry replied heartily. "We're pretty sure now thatMrs. Deline is mixed up in a bad business. But we can't act until we knowabsolutely."

  "This will be a horrible shock to Dad," Penny remarked. "He's at thetheatre with Mrs. Deline now."

  "At least she's out of the way, so there's no chance she'll see us atwork," Jerry commented. "Think you can find the place to dig?"

  Penny had marked it well in her mind, but at night everything lookeddifferent. After some uncertainty, the girls agreed upon the dune wherethe package had been buried.

  "With the tide low we'll have plenty of time," Jerry said. "Well, let'sgo! Was the package buried deep?"

  "Not more than a foot," Penny supplied.

  "Then if it's here, we'll find it. Let's block this area off and cover itsystematically."

  For an hour the trio toiled. Twice one of the beach guards passed by andPenny was surprised that he paid no heed to what they were doing.

  "Orders!" Jerry chuckled. "You didn't think we could come out here andprowl around without questions being asked? The guard was tipped off.He'll help us by whistling if anyone comes this way."

  Louise, who had been industriously digging, gave a low cry.

  "Find something?" Jerry demanded.

  "I'm not sure. I think so."

  The next instant Louise lifted a small package from its sand tomb. BeforeJerry could warn her, she had torn apart the pasteboard cover.

  "Why, it contains pencils!" she exclaimed in disgust. "Pencils!"

  Jerry leaped to her side. One glance and he took the box from her.

  "Those objects may look like pencils," he drawled. "But take it from me,they're a bit more deadly."

  Penny had moved close. She and Louise stared in awe at the collection.

  "Bombs," Jerry explained briefly. "One of these little pencils containsenough explosive to blow us all to Kingdom Come!"