Old Noah selected a half dozen bottles and started to heave them through the porthole. Before he could do so, Wessler blocked the opening.
“Just a minute, Grandpa,” he said. “What’s in those bottles?”
“Messages which I wrote with my own hand,” Old Noah replied earnestly. “Would you like to read them, my son?”
“That’s exactly what I intend to do,” said Wessler.
With a suspicious glance directed at Penny and Louise, he reached into the box and selected one of the corked bottles.
CHAPTER
24
A MESSAGE IN THE BOTTLE
Failing easily to retrieve the message in the bottle, Jard Wessler smashed it against a wall of the ark. Picking up the folded paper, he flashed his light across the writing.
“‘The hour of the Great Deluge approaches,’” he read aloud. “‘Come to my ark and I will provide shelter and comfort.’”
Penny and Louise relaxed. The message was one that Old Noah had written. Unless Wessler opened another bottle he would not suspect that they were the authors of other messages pleading for help.
“Stand back and allow me to throw my bottles into the stream!” Old Noah cried angrily. “Even though you are a guest aboard my ark, your actions are not pleasing.”