“Of course not, and if you must stay up, you’ll need a pair of shoes.” Sally found a pair of sandals, which although too large, would serve. After Penny had put them on, she said: “Let’s go to the pilot house, because I want you to tell Pop exactly what happened.”
“Did you notify police?”
“Pop sent the message. It may take a little while, but police should be at the Harpers’ almost anytime now.”
“Those men saw me taken aboard this boat,” Penny worried. “I’m afraid they’ll get away before the police arrive.”
The girls climbed to the pilot house where Captain Barker had just turned the wheel over to a helmsman. All members of the crew remained aboard, for with the Queen late on her run, there had been no opportunity as yet to put the men ashore.
“We may need all our hands tonight,” Captain Barker predicted. “No telling what may develop. I have one of those feelings.”
“Now Pop!” reproved Sally. “The last time you made a remark like that, we smashed a rudder. Remember?”
“Aye, I remember all too well,” he rejoined grimly.
Urged by Sally, Penny related everything that had happened at the Harpers’, and told of her endurance contest in the grass patch.
“We’ll head back that direction and see what’s doing,” Captain Barker offered to satisfy her. “Maybe we’ll catch sight of those rascals in their boats.”