“We can use the food after we make camp,” Mr. Parker decided briskly. “A warm meal will be much better.”
Penny subsided into hurt silence. Since the party had left Riverview she felt that she had been pushed far into the background. Mrs. Deline had made no attempt to talk to her. On the other hand, the widow fairly hypnotized Mr. Parker with her dazzling smile and conversation.
“Dad,” Penny began, determined to get in a word, “just before you came home this afternoon, something queer happened.”
“That so?” he inquired carelessly.
“Yes, I turned on the radio, and a station I’d never heard before came in. The announcer said: ‘Attention Comrades, this is the Voice from the Cave.’”
“Sounds like a juvenile radio serial.”
“Oh, but it wasn’t, Dad! I’m sure it was an outlaw station. Then the announcer spoke very rapidly in a language I’d never heard before. It really sounded like code.”
“Sure you didn’t imagine it? You know you do get ideas, Penny. Especially when you’re on the prowl for a mystery to solve.”
“Aren’t children quaint?” Mrs. Deline laughed.
Penny’s lips tightened, but by great effort of will she kept silent. A child indeed! She knew now that Mrs. Deline disliked her and that they had launched an undeclared war.