“All right,” Penny suddenly gave in. “I’ll do that much.”
Reaching the cabin, Sara had Penny tramp about in the snow with her skis so as to give the impression that a visitor had walked several times around the building but had not entered.
“You’ll have to lock me in the loft,” she instructed. “Then take the key back to the woodshed and get away as quickly as you can.”
Sara pulled off her garments and hung them in the closet. With a mop she wiped up tracks which had been made on the bare floor. Then she climbed up the ladder to her room.
Penny turned the wooden peg, and retreating from the cabin, locked the door.
“Don’t forget!” Sara called to her from the window. “Come again soon—tomorrow if you can.”
Hiding the key in the woodshed, Penny tramped about the outside of the building several times before gliding off toward the boundary fence. As she began a tedious climb up the trail toward the Downey lodge, she saw the sled appear around a bend of the road.
Penny did not visit the Jasko cabin the following day nor the next. Along with other guests she was kept indoors by a raging snow and sleet storm which blocked the road and disrupted telephone service to the village.
Everyone at the Downey lodge suffered from the confinement, but some accepted the situation more philosophically than others. As usual Mr. Glasser complained because there were no daily papers. Penny overheard him telling another guest he was thinking very seriously of moving to the Fergus hotel where at least a certain amount of entertainment was provided.
“He’ll leave,” Mrs. Downey observed resignedly when the conversation was repeated to her. “I’ve seen it coming for days. Mr. Glasser has been talking with one of the runners for the Fergus hotel.”