She hammered steadily with the knocker for a half minute, then she experimented with pattern knocks, in interesting combinations of dots and dashes.
Suddenly, the window above her head flew open, and the same dark-faced man peered angrily down at her.
“What you want?” he demanded in an unpleasant voice.
“Why, I should like to see Mrs. Rhett,” Penny replied politely. “She’s here, isn’t she?”
“Maybe she is, maybe she isn’t,” was the sharp retort. “Who are you?”
Resenting the man’s unfriendly attitude, Penny nevertheless answered that she was from the Riverview Star and desired to interview Mrs. Rhett about her missing husband.
“Madam not seeing anyone. Go ’way now!”
The window slammed shut.
Convinced that the man, evidently a servant, had acted upon instructions from Mrs. Rhett, Penny wondered what to do. She considered returning to the Star office to explain to Editor DeWitt.
But in Mr. DeWitt’s dictionary there was no such word as failure. He would cock an eyebrow at her, growl: “So you couldn’t get in, eh?” and promptly send a more aggressive reporter to the mansion.