ing toward the window.
Penny heard the automobile halt at the curbing. The next instant a
hard object crashed through the windowpane, dropping with a thud at
Betty's feet. Almost by a miracle she had escaped being struck by the
flying splinters of glass.
Penny sprang to her feet, rushing to the door. She caught only a
fleeting glimpse of the retreating car.
Betty was staring at a piece of paper which lay upon the carpet. It
had been wrapped around a small stone.
"You read it," she begged Penny. "I'm afraid."
Penny reached down and picked it up. The message had been printed on
cheap brown wrapping paper. It bore the warning:
"JEROME DAVIS, THIS IS THE LAST
WARNING YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM US.
WE GIVE YOU TWENTY-FOUR HOURS TO
CHANGE YOUR MIND."
"It's a threat from the Molberg gang!" Betty declared tensely as Penny
finished reading the message aloud. "Oh, I'll never feel easy again
until every member of that outfit has been placed behind bars! What do
you think they will do when Father defies them?"
"Probably nothing," Penny comforted. "Most anonymous notes are sent by
cowards and the threats seldom carried out. At least Dad doesn't
regard them very seriously. He's been threatened by the Molberg gang
too."
"And have they made no attempt to harm him?" Betty asked.
"Not to my knowledge. Dad seems more than able to look after himself,
and I'm certain your father knows how to protect himself too."
"He should," Betty admitted. "He's one of the best marksmen on the
police force."
"Then I think Rap Molberg is the one who should be on his guard," Penny
smiled.
By making light of the threatening note she tried to relieve Betty of
anxiety. Her efforts were not very successful. When she left the
house a half hour later the girl was still excited and overwrought.
Not until Penny was nearly home did it occur to her that she had
forgotten to look at the photograph of Jimmie Davis.
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter," she thought.
As she drove the roadster into the garage, Mrs. Gallup came down the
path to meet her.
"I'm sorry to be so late," Penny said quickly before the housekeeper
could take her to task. "A million and one things detained me. Dad's
home, I suppose?"
"No, he isn't. But someone has been trying to get you on the telephone
for the past hour."
"Probably it was Dad."
"It may have been, but it didn't sound like his voice. Listen, isn't
that the phone now?"
|