Signal in the Dark Page 23

  CHAPTER 22 _SALT'S MISSING CAMERA_

  From the suitcase, Penny lifted Salt's camera. With a cry of pleasure, hesnatched it from her hand and eagerly examined it.

  "Is it damaged in any way?" Penny asked.

  "It doesn't seem to be. So the professor had it all the time just as wethought!"

  "And here are the plates I tossed into the car the night of theexplosion!" Penny added, burrowing deeper into the pile of clothing."They're probably ruined by now."

  "Maybe not," said Salt, examining them. "The professor may have thoughtthey were unexposed plates and kept them for use later on."

  "Anyway, it was crooked of him to try to keep the camera," Pennydeclared. "Though I suppose such a small theft doesn't amount to much incomparison to the trick he nearly played on Mr. Johnson."

  "It matters to me," the photographer chuckled. "Am I glad to get thiscamera back! The plates won't do us any good now they are outdated, butI'll take them along anyhow. I'm curious to see if they would have shownanything of significance."

  "By all means develop them," urged Mr. Parker. "Anything else in thesuitcase?"

  In a pocket of the case Penny found several letters from Mr. Johnsonwhich she gave to her father. Knowing they would be valuable inestablishing a case of attempted fraud against the professor, he keptthem.

  "I wish Webb Nelson hadn't managed to escape," Penny remarked as the triowent downstairs again. "He must have started for Newhall, perhaps tocatch a train."

  "Any due at this time?" her father asked thoughtfully.

  "I wouldn't know."

  "Tell you what," Mr. Parker proposed. "We can do nothing more here. Wemay as well drive to the village again and press an inquiry for Webb."

  Once more the car with Salt as driver careened over the bumpy countryroad to Newhall. They reached the town without sighting anyone whoresembled the professor's helper.

  "Drive to the station," Mr. Parker instructed Salt. "There's an outsidechance Webb went there."

  The depot was a drab little red building, deserted except for asleepy-eyed station agent who told them there was no passenger trainscheduled to leave Newhall before six o'clock the next morning.

  "Any freight trains?" Mr. Parker inquired.

  "A couple are overdue," the agent said. "No. 32 from the east, and No.20, also westbound. No. 20's just coming into the block."

  Although it seemed unlikely Webb would take a freight train out of town,Mr. Parker, Salt and Penny, decided to wait for it to come in. They wentoutside, standing in the shadow of the station.

  "No sign of anyone around," Salt declared, looking carefully about. "Wemay as well go back to the lake."

  "Let's wait," Penny urged.

  No. 20 rumbled into the station, stirring up a whirlwind of dust andcinders. A trainman with a lantern over his arm, came into the station toget his orders from the agent. He chatted a moment, then went out again,swinging aboard one of the cars. A moment later, the train began to move.

  "Shall we go?" Mr. Parker said impatiently.

  Penny buttoned her coat as she stepped beyond the protection of thebuilding, for the night air was cold and penetrated her thin clothing.Treading along behind her father and Salt to the car, she started toclimb in, when her attention riveted upon a lone figure some distancefrom the railroad station. A man, who resembled Webb Nelson in build, hademerged from behind a tool shed, and stood close to the tracks watchingthe slowly moving freight.

  Then he ran along beside the train and suddenly leaped into one of theempty box cars.

  "Dad! Salt!" she exclaimed. "I just saw someone leap into one of thosecars! I'm sure it was Webb!"

  "Where?" demanded her father. "Which car?"

  "The yellow one. Oh, he'll get away unless we can have him arrested atthe next town!"

  "He won't escape if I can stop him!" Salt muttered.

  Racing across the platform, he waited for the car Penny had indicated.Although the train was moving faster now, he leaped and swung himself toa sitting position in the open doorway.

  "Look out! Look out!" Penny screamed in warning.

  Behind Salt, the man who had taken refuge in the car, moved stealthilytoward him, obviously intending to push him off the train. But thephotographer knew what to expect and was prepared.

  He whirled suddenly and scrambled to his feet. His attacker caught himslightly off balance, and they went down together, rolling over and overon the straw littered floor.

  Worried for Salt, Penny and Mr. Parker ran along beside the train. Thepublisher tried to leap aboard to help the photographer, but lacking theyounger man's athletic prowess, he could not make it. Already winded, hebegan to fall behind.

  Penny kept on and managed to grasp the doorway of the car, but sheinstantly realized she could not swing herself through the opening. Thetrain now was moving rapidly and gaining speed each moment.

  Inside the box car, the two men were rolling over and over, each fightingdesperately to gain the advantage. Penny could not see what washappening. Forced by the speed of the train, she let go her hold. Herfeet were swept from beneath her, and she stumbled and fell along theright of way.

  Before she could scramble to her feet, her father had caught up with her.

  "Are you hurt?" he asked anxiously.

  Penny's knees were skinned but the injury was so trifling she did notspeak of it. Her one concern was for Salt.

  "Oh, Dad," she said, grasping his arm nervously. "What are we going todo? That brute may kill him!"

  Mr. Parker shared Penny's concern, but he said calmly: "There's only onething we can do now. We'll have the station agent send a wire to the nextstation. Police will meet the train and take Webb into custody."

  "He may not be on the train by the time it reaches the next town! Oh,Dad, Salt may be half killed before then!"

  Penny and her father stared after the departing freight. The engineerwhistled for a high trestle spanning a narrow river, and the train beganto rumble over it.

  Suddenly Penny stiffened into alert attention. In the doorway of the openboxcar, she could see the two struggling men. Mr. Parker, too, becametense.

  As they watched fearfully, one of the men was pushed from the car. Herolled over and over down a steep embankment toward the creek bed.

  The other man, poised in the doorway an instant, then just before the carreached the trestle, leaped.