“Penny, tell me more about this fellow Oaks,” Mr. Parker urged his daughter. “I suppose he did his best to stop the saboteur?”
“It seemed so to me,” Penny replied slowly. “He was a miserable marksman, though. I guess he must have been excited when he fired.”
Following a trail of moving lights, the trio soon came to a group of policemen who were examining footprints in the mud of the river bank.
“This is where the saboteur got away,” Penny whispered to her father. “Do you suppose the fellow is still hiding in the woods?”
“Not likely,” Mr. Parker answered. “A job of this sort would be planned in every detail.”
The newspaper owner’s words were borne out a few minutes later when a policeman came upon a clump of bushes where an automobile had stood. Grass was crushed, a small patch of oil was visible, and the soft earth showed tire imprints.
Penny, her father and Jerry, did not remain long in the vicinity. Satisfied that the saboteur had made his get-away by car, they were eager to report their findings to the Star office.
Mr. Parker telephoned DeWitt and then joined the others at the press car. As Salt Sommers climbed aboard with his camera, an automobile bearing a News windshield sticker, skidded to a stop nearby.
“Too bad, boys,” Salt taunted the rival photographers. “Better late than never!”
Already news vendors were crying the Star’s first extra. Once well away from the bridge, Mr. Parker stopped the car to buy a paper.