“Now to see the fun!” chuckled Penny.
The keeper had appeared on the platform and was gazing down upon the visitor. He called something to the woman that Penny could not hear. But to her amazement, Mrs. Deline started up the iron stairway.
Penny waited expectantly. She was certain that the keeper of the light would order Mrs. Deline away. Instead, he greeted her with a hearty handshake as if they were old friends. They entered the lighthouse tower room together, and the heavy door closed behind them.
CHAPTER
9
A SURPRISE FROM THE SKY
“Well, if that isn’t strange!” Penny muttered. “I wasn’t permitted to set foot inside the lighthouse, but in goes Mrs. Deline without a single question asked!”
Her curiosity aroused, the girl decided to wait and watch. Twenty minutes elapsed. During that time Mrs. Deline did not reappear. Penny grew tired of her vigil.
“Mrs. Deline evidently intends to stay there a long while,” she thought as she drove on. “For all I know, she and the lighthouse keeper may be old friends. They did greet each other as if they were acquainted.”
At the airport Penny parked on the crowded lot. She dropped into the lunch room for a sandwich and then wandered out on the cement runway. The noon passenger plane presently was announced through the loudspeaker system. A moment later Penny glimpsed the big silver twin-motor transport gliding down over the tree tops. As it taxied up to unload passengers, she held her breath. Knowing that there had been several last-minute cancellation of tickets, she was afraid that Louise might not be aboard.
But as the door of the big transport swung back, her chum was the second passenger to alight. Fresh and trim in a yellow wool suit, she flung herself into Penny’s arms.
“Have a nice trip, Lou?”