Hoofbeats on the Turnpike Read online

  CHAPTER 3 _INTO THE VALLEY_

  The slow train crept around a bend and puffed to a standstill at thedrowsing little station of Hobostein. Louise and Penny, their linen suitsmussed from many weary hours of sitting, were the only passengers toalight.

  "Yesterday it seemed like a good idea," sighed Louise. "But now, I'm notso sure."

  Penny stepped aside to avoid a dolly-truck which was being pushed downthe deserted platform by a station attendant. She too felt ill at ease inthis strange town and the task she had set for herself suddenly seemed asilly one. But not for anything in the world would she make such anadmission.

  "First we'll find the newspaper office," she said briskly. "This town isso small it can't be far away."

  They carried their over-night bags into the stuffy little station. Theagent, in shirt sleeves and green eye shade, speared a train order on thespindle and then glanced curiously at the girls.

  "Anything I can do for you?"

  "Yes," replied Penny. "Please tell us how to find the offices of theHobostein Weekly."

  "It's just a piece down the street," directed the agent. "Go past the oldtown pump, and the livery stable. A red brick building. Best one in town.You can't miss it."

  Penny and Louise took their bags and crossed to the shady side of thestreet. A horse and carriage had been tied to a hitching post and bycontrast an expensive, new automobile was parked beside it. The unpavedroad was thick with dust; the broken sidewalk was coated with it, as werethe little plots of struggling grass.

  In the entire town few persons were abroad. An old lady in a sunbonnetbusily loaded boxes of groceries into a farm wagon. The only other signof activity was at the livery stable where a group of men slouched on thestreet benches.

  "Must we pass there?" Louise murmured. "Those men are staring as if theynever saw a girl before."

  "Let them," said Penny, undisturbed.

  Two doors beyond the livery stable stood a newly built red brickbuilding. In gold paint on the expanse of unwashed plate glass windowwere the words: "Hobostein Weekly."

  With heads high the girls ran the gantlet of loungers and reached thenewspaper office. Through the plate glass they glimpsed a large,cluttered room where desks, bins of type, table forms and a massiveflat-bed press all seemed jammed together. A rotund man they took to bethe editor was talking to a customer in a loud voice. Neither took theslightest notice of the girls as they pushed open the door.

  "I don't care who you are or how much money you have," the editor wassaying heatedly. "I run my paper as I please--see! If you don't like myeditorials you don't have to read them."

  "You're a pin-headed, stubborn Dutchman!" the other man retorted. "Itmakes no difference to me what you run in your stupid old weekly,providing you don't deliberately try to stir up the people of thisvalley."

  "Worrying about your pocketbook?"

  "I'm the largest tax payer in the valley. If there's an assessment forrepairs on the Huntley Lake Dam it will cost me thousands of dollars."

  "And if you had an ounce of sense, you'd see that without the repairsyour property may not be worth a nickel! If these rains keep up, thedam's apt to give way, and your property would go in the twinkling of aneye. Not that I'm worried about your property. But I am concerned aboutthe folks who are still living in the valley."

  "Schultz, you're a calamity-howler!" the other accused. "There's nodanger of the dam giving way and you know it. By writing these hoteditorials you're just trying to stir up public feeling--you're hoping toshake me down so I'll underwrite a costly and unnecessary repair bill."

  The editor pushed back his chair and arose. His voice remained controlledbut his eyes snapped like fire brands.

  "Get out of this office!" he ordered. "The Hobostein Weekly can dowithout your subscription. You've been a pain to this community eversince you came. Good afternoon!"

  "You can't talk like that to me, Byron Schultz!" the other man beganhotly. Then his gaze fell upon Louise and Penny who stood just inside thedoor. Jamming on his hat, he went angrily from the building.

  The editor crumpled a sheet of paper and hurled it into a waste basket.The act seemed to restore his good humor, for with a wry grin he thenturned toward the girls.

  "Yes?" he inquired.

  Penny scarcely knew how to begin. Sliding into a chair beside theeditor's desk, she fumbled in her purse for the advertisement clippedfrom the Hobostein Weekly. To her confusion she could not find it.

  "Lose something?" the editor inquired kindly. "That's my trouble too.Last week we misplaced the copy for Gregg's Grocery Store and was Jakehoppin' mad! Found it again just before the Weekly went to press."

  "Here it is!" said Penny triumphantly. She placed the clipping on Mr.Schultz' desk.

  "Haven't I had enough of that man in one day!" the editor snorted. "Theold skinflint never paid me for the ad either!"

  "Who is J. Burmaster?" Penny inquired eagerly.

  "Who is he?" The editor's gray-blue eyes sent out little flashes of fire."He's the most egotistical, thick-headed, muddle-brained property ownerin this community."

  "Not the man who was just here?"

  "Yes, that was John Burmaster."

  "Then he lives in Hobostein?"

  "He does not," said the editor with emphasis. "It's bad enough having himseven miles away. You don't mean to tell me you haven't seen SleepyHollow estate?"

  Penny shook her head. She explained that as strangers to the town, sheand Louise had made no trips or inquiries.

  "Sleepy Hollow is quite a show place," the editor went on grudgingly."Old Burmaster built it about a year ago. Imported an architect andworkmen from the city. The house has a long bridge leading up to it, andis supposed to be like the Sleepy Hollow of legend. Only the legend kindabackfired."

  "You're speaking about the Headless Horseman?" Penny leaned forward inher chair.

  "When Burmaster built his house, the old skinflint didn't calculate ongetting a haunt to go with it," the editor chuckled. "Served him rightfor being so muleish."

  "But what is the story of the Headless Horseman?" Penny asked. "Has Mr.Burmaster actually offered a five hundred dollar reward for its capture?"

  "He'd give double the amount to get that Horseman off his neck!" chuckledthe editor. "But folks up Delta way aren't so dumb. The reward never willbe collected."

  "Is Delta the name of a town?"

  "Yes, it's up the valley a piece," explained Mr. Schultz. "You don't seemvery familiar with our layout here."

  "No, my friend and I come from Riverview."

  "Well, you see, it's like this." The editor drew a crude map for thegirls. "Sleepy Hollow estate is situated in a sort of 'V' shaped valley.Just below it is the little town of Delta, and on below that, a hamletcalled Raven. We're at the foot of the valley, so to speak. Huntley Lakeand the dam are just above Sleepy Hollow estate."

  "And is there really danger that the dam will give way?"

  "If you want my opinion, read the Hobostein Weekly," answered the editor."The dam won't wash out tomorrow or the next day, but if these rains keepon, the whole valley's in danger. But try to pound any sense intoBurmaster's thick head!"

  "You started to tell me about the Headless Horseman," Penny reminded him.

  "Did I now?" smiled the editor. "Don't recollect it myself. Fact is,Burmaster's ghost troubles don't interest me one whit."

  "But we've come all the way from Riverview just to find out about theHeadless Horseman."

  "Calculate on earning that reward?" The editor's eyes twinkled.

  "Perhaps."

  "Then you don't want to waste time trying to get second-hand information.Burmaster's the man for you to see. Talk to him."

  "Well--"

  "No, you talk to Burmaster," the editor said with finality. "Only don'ttell him I sent you."

  "But how will we find the man?" Penny was rather dismayed to have theinterview end before it was well launched.<
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  "Oh, his car is parked down the street," the editor answered carelessly."Everyone in town knows Burmaster. I'd talk to you longer only I'm sobusy this afternoon. Burmaster is the one to tell you his own troubles."

  Thus dismissed, the girls could do nothing but thank the editor and leavethe newspaper building. Dubiously they looked up and down the street. Thefine new car they had noticed a little while earlier no longer was parkedat the curb. Nor was there any sign of the man who had just left thenewspaper office.

  "All we can do is inquire for him," said Penny.

  At a grocery store farther down the street they paused to ask if Mr.Burmaster had been seen. The store keeper finished grinding a pound ofcoffee for a customer and then answered Penny's question.

  "Mr. Burmaster?" he repeated. "Why, yes, he was in town, but he pulledout about five minutes ago."

  "Then we've just missed him!" Penny exclaimed.

  "Burmaster's on his way to Sleepy Hollow by this time," the store keeperagreed. "You might catch him there."

  "But how can we get to Sleepy Hollow?"

  "Well, there's a train. Only runs once a day though. And it went throughabout half an hour ago."

  "That was the train we came in on. Isn't there a car one can hire?"

  "Don't know of any. Clem Williams has some good horses though. He keepsthe livery stable down the street."

  Their faces very long, the girls picked up their overnight bags and wentoutside again.

  "I knew this trip would be a wash-out," said Louise disconsolately. "Herewe are, stuck high and dry until our train comes in tomorrow."

  "But why give up so easily?"

  "We're licked, that's why. We've missed Mr. Burmaster and we can't go toSleepy Hollow after him."

  Penny gazed thoughtfully down the street at Clem Williams' livery stable.

  "Why can't we go to Sleepy Hollow?" she demanded. "Let's rent horses."

  Louise waxed sarcastic. "To be sure. We can canter along balancing theseovernight bags on the pommel of our saddles!"

  "We'll have to leave our luggage behind," Penny planned briskly. "Themost essential things we can wrap up in knapsacks."

  "But I'm not a good rider," Louise complained. "The last time we rode amile I couldn't walk for a week."

  "Seven miles isn't so far."

  "Seven miles!" Louise gasped. "Why, it's slaughter."

  "Oh, you'll last," chuckled Penny confidently. "I'll see to that."

  "I am curious to see Sleepy Hollow estate," Louise admitted withreluctance. "All that talk about the Huntley Dam interested me too."

  "And the Headless Horseman?"

  "That part rather worries me. Penny, do you realize that if we go toSleepy Hollow we may run into more than we bargain for?"

  Penny laughed and grasping her chums arm, pulled her down the street.

  "That's what I hope," she confessed. "Unless Sleepy Hollow lets us downshamefully, our adventure is just starting!"