The Vanishing Houseboat by Mildred A. Wirt

Author:Mildred A. Wirt
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781434430120
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2011-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER 15

THE FACE IN THE MIRROR

"I'm sleeping where?" demanded Jerry.

"In Room seven," repeated Mr. Parker with a smile. "You'll come back with a corking story."

"If I come back at all," said Jerry significantly.

"You needn't attempt it unless you wish," declared the newspaper owner, speaking soberly. "I know it's dangerous business, Jerry."

"I'm game to try it."

"I thought you would be, Jerry. You'll be armed, of course. I'll station guards somewhere around the house."

"Isn't that apt to give the whole thing away?" Jerry asked. "It isn't likely anything will happen if it's known we're watching the place."

"And the opposing paper may get wind of it too," Penny added. "Then your scoop will explode like a soap bubble."

"Perhaps, you are right," Mr. Parker admitted. "It would be better to have no guards in evidence, but I can't let you take too much risk, Jerry."

"Dad, I know how you could keep folks from suspecting that the house was being watched!" Penny cried.

"How?"

"You might give a big party there tonight. It would be killing two birds with one stone."

"I don't get your idea," Mr. Parker said, mystified.

Penny eagerly outlined her plan.

"For weeks, Dad, you've been saying you intended to entertain your staff. Now Mrs. Comstock's house was just made for a wonderful ghost party. Louise and I could plan all the entertainment, and serve refreshments. Everything would be run off just like an ordinary party. But the townspeople wouldn't suspect what was behind it all, and neither would the reporters of the opposing paper. All the while the party was in progress, Jerry could be keeping his eyes open. And if anything went wrong while he was staying in that room, there would be any number of helpers at hand."

"Well, I don't know," Mr. Parker said doubtfully. "It sounds a bit fantastic to me. Your thought would be to have the party last all night?"

"Into the wee small hours at least. Oh, Dad, it would work out beautifully. The folks invited to the party wouldn't need to know anything about why Jerry was in the house."

Penny was such a persuasive talker, that after Jerry had said he considered the idea a good one, Mr. Parker reluctantly gave his consent. Arrangements were made with Mrs. Comstock who since her meeting with the newspaper owner had been reduced to the state of a willing vassal.

"I'll leave all the plans for the party in your hands, Penny," her father said. "Can you take care of it on such short notice?"

"Yes, you invite the newspaper gang and I'll do the rest. You might sign over a couple of checks in blank. I'll have to arrange with a caterer to bring in food."

Armed with ample funds and a great zest for the enterprise, Penny lost no time in making preparations for the big party. However, she was not so busy that she forgot to call for a moment at Mud-Cat Joe's shed on her way back to Riverview. The Gates family not being in evidence, she wrote a hasty note, telling Mud-Cat where she had seen a houseboat resembling the one he had lost.

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