Thorny grasped one of the long hand-levers and gently eased it forward. There was a grind of gears engaging and the bridge slowly crept down out of the sky.
Penny did not miss a single move. She noted just which levers the watchman pulled and in what order. When the platform of the bridge was on an even keel she saw him cut off the motor and throw all the gear back into its original position.
“Think you could do ’er by yourself now?” Thorny asked.
“Yes, I believe I could,” Penny answered gravely.
The old watchman smiled as he stepped to the deck of the bridge.
“It ain’t so easy as it looks,” he told her. “Well, here comes the Missuz now and we’re all ready for her. Last time she came along I was weedin’ out my corn patch and was she mad?”
As the black limousine rolled up to the drawbridge Penny turned her face away so that Mrs. Kippenberg would not recognize her. She need have had no uneasiness, for the lady gazed neither to the right nor the left. The car crept forward at a snail’s pace causing the steel structure to shiver and shake as if from an attack of ague.
“Dear me, I think this bridge is positively dangerous,” Louise declared. “I shouldn’t like to drive over it myself.”
As the old watchman again raised the cantilevers, Penny studied his every move.
“For a girl you’re sure mighty interested in machinery,” he remarked.