“It’s not me she wants to see,” Mr. Parker corrected. “I have an important engagement I can’t break.”
Penny glanced quickly up. She was tempted to ask her father if he intended to see Mrs. Deline. Recalling that she had made her father a promise, she wisely withheld comment. Instead she asked if she might use the car.
“By all means,” he consented. “Just go easy on the gasoline.”
Breakfast over, dishes were dispatched and the camp put in order. By eleven o’clock Penny and her father were in Sunset Beach.
“Drop me anywhere,” Mr. Parker instructed vaguely.
Leaving her father on a street corner, Penny drove slowly toward the airport a mile and a quarter away. There was little travel on the winding highway which curled along the beach. A government jeep whizzed past and two soldiers shouted and waved. Penny waved back.
There was no need to hurry for Louise’s plane was not yet due. Penny took her time and enjoyed the ocean scenery. The tide was coming in and gulls free-wheeled over the waves, dipping down at intervals in search of food.
Gazing along the deserted beach, Penny was startled to see a familiar feminine figure hastening toward the lighthouse on Crag Point. The woman wore a white scarf that half obscured her face, yet the girl easily recognized her.
“Mrs. Deline!” she thought, idling the car. “She’s certainly going to the lighthouse! I wonder if that gruff old keeper will drive her away as he did me?”
Curious to learn what would happen, the girl drew up at the side of the road. Mrs. Deline was too far away to observe the automobile. Intent only upon her own affairs, she walked swiftly along the beach until she reached the base of the lighthouse.