Ghost Beyond the Gate

  Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Brenda Lewis and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  Ghost Beyond the Gate

  _By_ MILDRED A. WIRT

  _Author of_ MILDRED A. WIRT MYSTERY STORIES TRAILER STORIES FOR GIRLS

  _Illustrated_

  CUPPLES AND LEON COMPANY _Publishers_ NEW YORK

  _PENNY PARKER_ MYSTERY STORIES

  _Large 12 mo. Cloth Illustrated_

  TALE OF THE WITCH DOLL THE VANISHING HOUSEBOAT DANGER AT THE DRAWBRIDGE BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR CLUE OF THE SILKEN LADDER THE SECRET PACT THE CLOCK STRIKES THIRTEEN THE WISHING WELL SABOTEURS ON THE RIVER GHOST BEYOND THE GATE HOOFBEATS ON THE TURNPIKE VOICE FROM THE CAVE GUILT OF THE BRASS THIEVES SIGNAL IN THE DARK WHISPERING WALLS SWAMP ISLAND THE CRY AT MIDNIGHT

  COPYRIGHT, 1943, BY CUPPLES AND LEON CO.

  Ghost Beyond the Gate

  PRINTED IN U. S. A.

  _CONTENTS_

  CHAPTER PAGE 1 LOST ON A HILLTOP 1 2 AT THE LISTENING POST 11 3 AN UNPLEASANT DRIVER 20 4 STOLEN TIRES 26 5 AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW 35 6 FRONT PAGE NEWS 43 7 QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS 52 8 A FEW CHANGES 58 9 AN OPEN SAFE 68 10 TALE OF A GHOST 75 11 BY A CEMETERY WALL 85 12 FLIGHT 91 13 A BLACK MARKET 100 14 A FAMILIAR FIGURE 107 15 GHOST IN THE GARDEN 117 16 A DOOR IN A BOX 125 17 ADVENTURE BY MOONLIGHT 134 18 THROUGH THE CELLAR WINDOW 142 19 A BAFFLING SEARCH 151 20 ACCUSATIONS 157 21 MRS. BOTTS' REVELATION 166 22 A PARK BENCH 173 23 FORGOTTEN EVENTS 180 24 TRICKERY 190 25 FINAL EDITION 203

  CHAPTER 1 _LOST ON A HILLTOP_

  The little iceboat, with two laughing, shouting girls clinging to it,sped over the frozen surface of Big Bear River.

  "Penny, we're going too fast!" screamed Louise Sidell, ducking to protecther face from the biting wind.

  "Only about forty an hour!" shrieked her companion gleefully.

  At the tiller of the _Icicle_, Penelope Parker, in fur-lined parka,sheepskin coat and goggles, looked for all the world like a jolly Eskimo.Always delighting in a new sport, she had built the iceboatherself--spars from a wood lot, the sail from an old tent.

  "Slow down, Penny!" pleaded her chum.

  "Can't," shouted Penny cheerfully. "Oh, we're going into a hike!"

  As one runner raised off the ice, the boat tilted far over on its side.Louise shrieked with terror, and held tight to prevent being thrown out.Penny, hard pressed, sought to avert disaster by a snappy starting of themain sheet.

  For a space the boat rushed on, runners roaring. Then as a sudden puff ofwind struck the sail, the steering runner leaped off the ice. Instantlythe _Icicle_ went into a spin from which Penny could not straighten it.

  "We're going over!" screamed Louise, scrambling to free her feet.

  The next moment the boat capsized. Both girls went sliding on their backsacross the ice. Penny landed in a snowdrift at the river bank, her parkaawry, goggles hanging on one ear.

  "Are you hurt, Lou?" she called, jumping to her feet.

  Louise sprawled on the ice some distance away. Slowly she pulled herselfto a sitting position and rubbed the back of her head.

  "Maybe this is your idea of fun!" she complained. "As for me, give mebronco busting! It would be a mild sport in comparison."

  Penny chuckled, dusting snow from her clothing. "Why, this is fun, Lou.We have to expect these little upsets while we're learning."

  The sail of the overturned iceboat was billowing like a parachute.Slipping and sliding, Penny ran to pull it in.

  "Take the old thing down!" urged Louise, hobbling after her. "I've hadenough ice-boating for this afternoon!"

  "Oh, just one more turn down the river and back," coaxed Penny.

  "No! We're close to the club house now. If we sail off again, there's notelling where we'll land. Anyway, it's late and it's starting to snow."

  Penny reluctantly acknowledged that Louise spoke pearls of wisdom. Large,damp snowflakes were drifting down, dotting her red mittens. The windsteadily was stiffening, and cold penetrated her sheepskin coat.

  "It will be dark within an hour," added Louise. Uneasily she scanned theleaden sky. "We've been out here all afternoon."

  "Guess it is time to go home," admitted Penny. "Oh, well, it won't takeus long to get the _Icicle_ loaded onto the car trailer. Lucky we upsetso close to the club house."

  Setting to work with a will, the girls took down the flapping sail. Aftermuch tugging and pushing, they righted the boat and pulled it toward theRiverview Yacht Club. Closed for the winter, the building looked cold andforlorn. Penny, however, had left her car in the snowy parking lot, whichwas convenient to the river.

  "Wish we could get warm somewhere," Louise said, shivering. "It must beten below zero."

  Pulling the _Icicle_ behind them, the girls climbed the slippery riverbank. Snow now swirled in clouds, half-curtaining the club house.

  "I'll get the car and drive it down here," Penny offered, starting towardthe parking lot. "No use dragging the boat any farther."

  Abandoning the _Icicle_, Louise went with her chum. A dozen steps tookthe girls to a wind-swept corner of the deserted building. Rounding it,they both stopped short, staring.

  On the snow-banked parking lot where the car had been left, there nowstood only one vehicle, an unpainted, two-wheel trailer.

  "Great fishes!" exclaimed Penny. "Where's the coupe?"

  "Maybe you forgot to set the brake and it rolled into a ditch!"

  "In that case, the trailer would have gone with it." Her face grim, Pennyran on toward the parking lot.

  Reaching the trailer, the girls saw by tire tracks in the snow that thecar had been detached and driven away.

  "I knew it! I knew it!" Penny wailed, pounding her mittens together. "Thecoupe's been stolen!"

  "What's that across the road?" Louise demanded. "It looks like anautomobile to me. In the ditch, too!"

  Taking new hope, Penny went to investigate the little ravine. Through ascreen of bare tree branches and bushes, she glimpsed a blur of metal.

  "It's the car!" she cried jubilantly. "But how did it get across theroad?"

  Penny's elation quickly died. Drawing nearer, she was dismayed to seethat the coupe appeared to be lying on its stomach in the ditch. Fourwheels and a spare had been removed.

  "Stripped of every tire!" she exclaimed. "The thief ran the car out hereon the road so we couldn't see him at work from the river!"

  "What are we going to do?" Louise asked weakly. "We're miles fromRiverview. No houses close by. We're half frozen and night is coming on."

  Penny, her face very long, had no answer. She measured the gasoline tankwith a stick. All of the fuel had been siphoned. She lifted the hood,expecting to find vital parts of the engine missing. However, everythingappeared to be in place.

  Seeking protection from the penetrating wind, the girls climbed into thecar to discuss their situation.

  "Can't we just wait here until someone comes along and gives us a lift totown?" suggested Louise.

  "Yes, but we're on a side road and few cars travel this way duringwinter."

  "Then why not go somewhere and telephone?"

  "The nearest stores are at Kamm's corner, about two miles away."

  Louise gazed thoughtfully at the soft snow which was banking deeper onthe windshield of the car.

  "Two miles in this, facing the wind, will be a hard hike. Think we oughtto try it, Penny?"

  "I'm sure I don't want to. And we needn't either! Do you remember SaltSommers?"

  "The photographer who wor
ks on your father's newspaper?"

  "Yes, he spends his spare time as an airplane spotter. His station isover in the hills not more than a half mile from here! Why not tramp overthere and ask him to telephone our folks?"

  "Are you sure you know the way?"

  "I was there once last summer," Penny said confidently. "One follows aside road through the woods. I'm sure I can find it."

  "All right," Louise consented, sliding from behind the steering wheel."If we're going, let's move right along."

  Stiff with cold, the girls trudged past the club house and on down theroad. Snow was falling faster and faster. Several times they paused towipe their frosted goggles.

  "This promises to be a man-sized blizzard," Louise observed uneasily."It's getting dark early, too."

  Penny nodded, her thoughts on what she would say to her father when shereached home. The car had been fully insured, but even so it would not beeasy to replace five stolen tires. Ruefully she reflected that Mrs.Weems, the kindly housekeeper who had looked after her since her mother'sdeath, had not favored the river trip.

  "Oh, don't take it so hard," Louise tried to cheer her. "Maybe the thiefwill be caught."

  "Not a chance of it," Penny responded gloomily.

  A hundred yards farther on the girls came to another side road whichwound upward through the wooded hills. Already there was an ominous dusksettling over the valley. Penny paused to take bearings.

  "I think this is the way," she said doubtfully.

  "You think!"

  "Well, I'm pretty sure," Penny amended. "Salt's station is up there ontop of one of those hills. If this snow would stop we should be able tosee the tower from here."

  Slightly reassured, Louise followed her chum across a wooden bridge andup a narrow, winding road. On either side of the frozen ditches, tallfrosted evergreens provided friendly protection from the stabbing, icywind. Nevertheless, walking was not easy for the roadbed bore a shell oftreacherous ice.

  Confident that they soon would come to the airplane listening post, thegirls trudged on. Penny, anxious to make the most of the remainingdaylight, set a stiff pace.

  "Shouldn't we be coming to the station?" Louise presently asked. "Surelywe've gone more than a half mile."

  "The post is a little ways off from the road," Penny confessed, peeringanxiously at the unbroken line of evergreens. "We should be able to seeit."

  "In this blinding snow? Why, we may have passed the station withoutknowing it."

  "Well, I don't think so."

  "You're not one bit sure, Penny Parker!" Louise accused. "We were crazyto start off without being certain of the post's location."

  "We always can go back to the car."

  "I'm nearly frozen now," Louise complained, slapping her mittenstogether. "There's no feeling in one of my hands."

  Penny paused to wipe the moisture from her goggles. From far down theroad came the sound of a laboring motor. She listened hopefully.

  "A car, Lou!" she cried. "Everything will be all right now! We'll hail itand ask the driver for a lift."

  Greatly encouraged, the girls waited for the approaching vehicle. Theycould hear it climbing a steep knoll, then descending. From the sound ofthe engine they decided that it must be a truck and that it might roundthe curve at a fast speed.

  Worried lest the driver fail to see them, the girls stepped out into themiddle of the road. As the truck swerved around the bend, they shoutedand waved their arms.

  The startled driver slammed on brakes, causing the big black truck toslide like a sled. Penny and Louise leaped aside, barely avoiding beingstruck.

  As they watched anxiously, the driver recovered control of the machine.He straightened out and brought the truck to a standstill farther up theroad.

  Penny seized her chum's hand. "Come on, Lou! He's going to give us aride!"

  Before they could reach the truck, the driver lowered the cab window.Thrusting his head through the opening he bellowed angrily:

  "What you tryin' to do? Wreck my truck?"

  Giving the girls no opportunity to reply, he closed the cab window.

  Penny saw that the man was intending to drive on. "Wait!" she calledfrantically. "Please give us a ride! We're lost and half frozen!"

  The man heard for he flashed an ugly smile. Shifting gears, he droveaway.

  "Of all the shabby tricks, that's the worst!" Penny said furiously. "Itwasn't our fault his old truck skidded."

  "But it is our fault we're lost on this road," Louise added. "How are weever to find the listening post?"

  Penny leaned against the leeward side of a giant pine. Already it was sodark that she could see only a few feet down the road. There were nohouses, no lights, nothing to guide her.

  "Penny, are we really lost?" Louise demanded, suddenly afraid.

  "We really, truly are," her chum answered in a quavering voice. "The postmust be somewhere near here, but we'll never find it. All we can do istry to get back to the car."