Penny rolled over in the snow, waving her skis in the air. She drew in her breath sharply. An old man with a dark beard had stepped from the shadow of the pine trees, a gun grasped in his gnarled hands!
CHAPTER
6
PENNY TRESPASSES
“Can’t you understand signs?” the old man demanded, advancing with cat-like tread from the fringe of pine trees.
“Not when I’m traveling down a mountain side at two hundred miles an hour!” Penny replied. “Please, would you mind pointing that cannon in some other direction? It might go off.”
The old man lowered the shotgun, but the grim lines of his wrinkled, leathery face did not relax.
“Get up!” he commanded, prodding her with the toe of his heavy boot. “Get out of here! I won’t have you or any other skier on my property.”
“Then allow me to make a suggestion,” remarked Penny pleasantly. “Put up another strand of barbed wire and you’ll have them all in the hospital!”
She sat up, gingerly felt of her left ankle and then began to brush snow from her jacket. “Did you see me make the jump?” she asked. “I took it just like a reindeer. Or do I mean a gazelle?”
“You made a very awkward jump!” he retorted. “I could have done better myself.”
Penny glanced up with genuine interest. “Oh, do you ski?”