“Accident,” admitted Burt. “Even before the bridge was blasted, I had seen the fellow around the docks. One day I overheard him talking to Breneham, and what they said made me suspicious. After getting involved in the mess myself, I made it my business to investigate. I managed to meet one of the saboteurs at the Parrot, but he proved too shrewd for me.”
“You woke up in the alley,” Penny recalled.
“Yes, after that I watched a place I’d learned about on Fourteenth Street. Figured I had all the dope. But as I started for the police, someone hit me with a blackjack. That’s the last I remember until I came to at the woods shack.”
Penny and her father were pleased to know that the young man was recovering from his injuries.
After chatting with him for a time, they left the hospital and proceeded toward the ark in the mud flats.
“I confess I don’t know what to say to Noah,” Mr. Parker declared as they approached the gangplank. “Sheriff Anderson insists the ark is a nuisance and must go.”
Penny paused at the edge of the stream. It had started to rain once more, and drops splattered down through the trees, rippling the quiet water.
“Poor Noah!” she sighed. “He’ll be unwilling to leave his home or his animals. This ark never can be floated either.”
“I’ll be glad to pay for his lodging elsewhere,” Mr. Parker offered. “Naturally, he’ll have to forsake his pets.”
Crossing the gangplank, Penny called Old Noah’s name. There was no answer. Not until she had shouted many times did the old fellow come up from the ark’s hold. His arms were grimy, his clothing wet from the waist down.