“I suppose so,” he answered, knowing from her voice that something serious was wrong. “What’s up?”
“We’ve learned plenty about Professor Bettenridge, Dad. Unless something is done quickly, he may sell his fake machine to Mr. Johnson.”
“But what can I do about it?” the publisher asked.
“Can you get hold of the Major and bring him with you?” Penny pleaded. “Professor Bettenridge may be the man he’s after!”
“Maybe I can reach him!” Mr. Parker agreed. “If I have luck I’ll be out there within twenty or thirty minutes. I’ll come as fast as I can.”
Before hanging up the receiver, Penny gave her father detailed instructions for reaching the lake and told him where to park. Leaving a dollar bill to pay for the call, she then hastened back to find Salt.
The photographer was nowhere near the cabin and she was afraid to call his name lest she be overheard by the Bettenridges.
As she stood in the shadow of the building, she heard voices from the beach. Someone with a lighted lantern was coming up the trail, and soon she distinguished two figures—Professor Bettenridge and Webb.
“That’s the story you’ll have to tell Johnson,” she heard the professor say. “Tell him that somehow you got the two mines mixed up as you were loading them onto the boat and dumped one that was never meant to explode.”
“But he saw us load the mine.”