The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels Read Online Free PDF Page A

have a chance to snap a picture of the blushing bride!”
    “Pictures! Pictures!” exclaimed Penny. “That’s all you photographers think about. How about poor little me and my story? After all, you can’t bring out a paper full of nothing but pictures and cigarette ads. You need a little news to go with it.”
    “You like to work too fast,” complained Salt. “Right now the thing to do is to keep out of sight. I’m telling you the minute Mrs. Kippy finishes with those men she’ll be gunning for us.”
    “Then I suppose we’ll have to go into hiding.”
    “First, let’s mosey out into the rose garden,” Salt proposed. “I’ll take a few shots and then we’ll duck under somewhere and wait until the ceremony starts.”
    “That’s all very well for you,” grumbled Penny,“but I can’t write much of a story without talking to some member of the family.”
    Salt started off across the velvety green lawn toward the rose arbor where the service was to be held. Penny followed reluctantly. She watched the photographer take several pictures before a servant approached him.
    “I beg your pardon,” the man said coldly, “but Mrs. Kippenberg gave orders no pictures were to be taken. If you are from one of the papers—”
    “Oh, I saw her in the house just a minute ago,”Salt replied carelessly.
    “Sorry, sir,” the servant apologized, retreating.
    Salt finished taking the pictures and slipped the miniature camera back into his pocket.
    “Now let’s amble down toward the river and wait,” he said to Penny. “We’ll blossom forth just as the ceremony starts. Mrs. Kippy won’t dare interrupt it to have us thrown off the grounds.”
    They walked down a sloping path, past a glass-enclosed hothouse and on toward a grove of giant oak and maple trees.
    “It’s pleasant here when you’re away from the crowd,” Penny remarked, gazing up at the leafy canopy. “I wonder where this path leads?”
    “Oh, down to the river probably. With water on three sides of us that’s a fairly safe guess.”
    “Which rivers flow past the estate, Salt?”
    “The Big Bear and the Kobalt.”
    “The same old muddy Kobalt which is near our town,” said Penny in surprise. “I’ll always think of it as a river of adventure.”
    “Because of Mud-Cat Joe and his Vanishing Houseboat?”
    Penny nodded and a dreamy look came into her eyes. “So much happened on the Kobalt, Salt. Remember that big party Dad threw at the Comstock Inn?”
    “Do I? Jerry Livingston decided to sleep in Room Seven where so many persons had disappeared.”
    “And then he was spirited away almost before our very eyes,” added Penny. “Days later Mud-Cat Joe helped me fish him out of this same old Kobalt. For awhile we didn’t think he’d ever pull through or be able to tell what had happened to him.”
    “But as the grand finale you and your friend, Louise Sidell, solved the mystery and secured a dandy story for the Star . Those were the days!”
    “You talk as if they were gone forever,” laughed Penny. “Other good stories will come along.”
    “Maybe,” said Salt, “but covering a wedding is pretty tame in comparison.”
    “Yet this one does have interesting angles,” Penny insisted. “Can’t you almost feel mystery lurking about the place?”
    “No, but I do feel a mosquito sinking his stinger into me.” Salt slapped vigorously at his ankle.
    They followed the path on toward the river, coming soon to a trail which branched off to the right. Across it had been stretched a wire barrier and a neatly lettered sign read:
    NO ADMITTANCE BEYOND THIS POINT.
    “Why do you suppose the path is blocked off?”Penny speculated.
    “Let’s find out,” Salt suggested with a sudden flare of interest. “Maybe we’ll run into something worth a picture.”
    Penny hesitated, not wishing to disregard the sign, yet eager to learn what lay beyond the barrier.
    “Listen,” said Salt, “just put your little conscience on ice. We’re here to get