“Then Flora did.” Muttering under his breath, the seaman tramped back up on deck.
Perhaps ten minutes elapsed before Penny and Jerry heard a feminine voice speaking.
“That must be Flora,” whispered Penny. “What will happen when she tells them that she didn’t lock the door?”
The voices above rose louder and louder until the two prisoners were able to distinguish some of the words. Jake berated the girl as stupid while his companion showered abuse upon her until she broke down and wept.
“I never had the key,” they heard her wail. “I don’t know what became of it. You always blame me for everything that goes wrong, and I’m good and sick of it. If I don’t get better treatment I may tell a few things to the police. How would you like that?”
Jerry and Penny did not hear the response, but they recoiled as a loud crashing sound told them the girl had been given a cruel push into a solid object. Her cry of pain was drowned out by another noise, the sudden clatter of the motor boat engine.
Penny and Jerry gazed at each other with startled eyes.
“We’re moving,” she whispered.
Jerry started to fit the key into the door lock, only to have Penny arrest his hand.
“Let’s stay and see it through,” she urged. “This is our chance to learn the hide-out and perhaps solve the mystery of Atherwald’s disappearance.”