“I’ll get the car and drive it down here,” Penny offered, starting toward the parking lot. “No use dragging the boat any farther.”
Abandoning the Icicle, Louise went with her chum. A dozen steps took the girls to a wind-swept corner of the deserted building. Rounding it, they both stopped short, staring.
On the snow-banked parking lot where the car had been left, there now stood only one vehicle, an unpainted, two-wheel trailer.
“Great fishes!” exclaimed Penny. “Where’s the coupe?”
“Maybe you forgot to set the brake and it rolled into a ditch!”
“In that case, the trailer would have gone with it.” Her face grim, Penny ran on toward the parking lot.
Reaching the trailer, the girls saw by tire tracks in the snow that the car had been detached and driven away.
“I knew it! I knew it!” Penny wailed, pounding her mittens together. “The coupe’s been stolen!”
“What’s that across the road?” Louise demanded. “It looks like an automobile to me. In the ditch, too!”
Taking new hope, Penny went to investigate the little ravine. Through a screen of bare tree branches and bushes, she glimpsed a blur of metal.