Drawing nearer she could see movement within the tent as someone brushed against the canvas walls.
“Oh, Dad!” she called.
There was no answer. But the next instant a man in rough garments and straw hat rushed out of the tent. Penny never before had set eyes upon him. She was so astonished that she gained only a fleeting impression of the bearded stranger. Seeing her, he thrust some object beneath his coat and fled into the woods.
CHAPTER
8
KEEPER OF THE LIGHT
Recovering from astonishment, Penny darted to the tent and jerked open the flap. The beds had been torn apart. Her purse, hidden beneath the pillow, was gone. Suitcases lay open on the canvas floor.
“That man was a thief!” she thought angrily.
Too late, she tried to determine which direction he had taken. She could hear no sound of crackling leaves or running feet.
“He’s lying low,” she told herself. “No use chasing him. I never could find him among the trees.”
Thoroughly incensed, she went back to the disordered tent. A preliminary check revealed that besides the pocketbook, a pair of her father’s shoes and a sweater had been taken.
“Lucky I didn’t have much money in my purse,” Penny congratulated herself. “It was a good leather pocketbook though, and I hate to lose it.”