“Oh, you’ll have to wait and see,” Mr. Parker smiled. “However, I promise you that what’s coming really will prove a pleasant surprise.”
Though Penny kept up a running fire of questions, her father would tell her no more. From a few hints he dropped, she gathered that he was expecting a visitor within a day or so. That rather disappointed her, for with the exception of Louise, she could think of no one she particularly wanted to see at Sunset Beach.
Later that day when a forest ranger stopped at camp for a few minutes, Mr. Parker reported the theft of food and clothing to him.
“So the thief was a young man with a beard?” the ranger pondered. “Don’t know of anyone in the area answering such a description. We’ll certainly be on the watch for him.”
Penny and her father expected to hear no more from the matter. Toward sundown, however, the same ranger returned to camp, bringing the missing pocketbook. It was stripped of money but still contained a compact and various toilet articles.
“Where did you find the purse?” Penny inquired eagerly.
“On the Beech Trail not far from here.”
“Then it was dropped on purpose?”
“Apparently it was. I followed the trail for a quarter of mile, then lost the fellow when he took to the brook.”
“Rather a smart fellow to think of that,” commented Mr. Parker thoughtfully. “Perhaps he wasn’t an ordinary snatch-thief after all.”