“Safely beached on a shoal,” Captain Barker assured her tenderly. “There’s nothing to worry about. All the passengers have been taken to hospitals or to their homes. A preliminary check has shown only one man lost, an engineer who was trapped at his post when the explosion occurred aboard the Florence.”
“Pop, you were marvelous,” Sally whispered. “You saved the waterfront.”
“And nearly lost a daughter. Sally, why did you try to get into that burning building?”
Sally drew a deep, tired sigh.
“Never mind,” said Penny kindly. “We know why you went in—it was to find the brass lantern.”
Sally nodded. “When I got to the basement, flames were shooting up everywhere,” she recalled with a shudder. “I realized then that I couldn’t possibly find the lantern or anything else. I tried to get back, but smoke was everywhere. That was the last I remembered.”
“It was Jack who saved you,” Penny said, but he cut in to insist that the credit belonged to her rather than to him.
In the midst of a good-natured argument over the subject, a nurse came to say that Penny and Jack both were wanted on the telephone.
“The police department calling,” she explained.
They were down the hall in a flash to take the call. Captain Brown of the city police force informed them they were wanted immediately at police headquarters to identify Sweeper Joe, the Harpers, and Clark Clayton who had been arrested at the railroad station. Adam Glowershick also had been taken into custody.