Penny nodded, her thoughts on what she would say to her father when she reached home. The car had been fully insured, but even so it would not be easy to replace five stolen tires. Ruefully she reflected that Mrs. Weems, the kindly housekeeper who had looked after her since her mother’s death, had not favored the river trip.
“Oh, don’t take it so hard,” Louise tried to cheer her. “Maybe the thief will be caught.”
“Not a chance of it,” Penny responded gloomily.
A hundred yards farther on the girls came to another side road which wound upward through the wooded hills. Already there was an ominous dusk settling over the valley. Penny paused to take bearings.
“I think this is the way,” she said doubtfully.
“You think!”
“Well, I’m pretty sure,” Penny amended. “Salt’s station is up there on top of one of those hills. If this snow would stop we should be able to see the tower from here.”
Slightly reassured, Louise followed her chum across a wooden bridge and up a narrow, winding road. On either side of the frozen ditches, tall frosted evergreens provided friendly protection from the stabbing, icy wind. Nevertheless, walking was not easy for the roadbed bore a shell of treacherous ice.
Confident that they soon would come to the airplane listening post, the girls trudged on. Penny, anxious to make the most of the remaining daylight, set a stiff pace.
“Shouldn’t we be coming to the station?” Louise presently asked. “Surely we’ve gone more than a half mile.”