Voice from the Cave

"Mrs. Weems, what can be delaying Dad? He promised faithfully to be home by three o'clock and it's nearly five now. Unless we start soon we'll never get to Sunset Beach tonight."

Penny Parker, in blue slacks and a slightly mussed polo shirt, gazed disconsolately at the over-loaded automobile standing on the gravel driveway of the Parker home. Aided by Mrs. Weems, the family housekeeper, she had spent hours packing the sedan with luggage and camping equipment. Though the task long had been finished, Mr. Parker failed to arrive.

"Your father is a very busy man," Mrs. Weems responded to the girl's question. "No doubt he's been held up at the office."

"Then why doesn't he telephone? It's driving me crazy to wait and wonder."

Penny's freckled little face twisted into a grimace of worry. For weeks she and her father, editor-owner of the Riverview Star, had planned a vacation camping trip to the nearby seashore resort, Sunset Beach. Twice the excursion had been postponed. Penny, who knew well her father's habit of changing his mind, was fearful that even now something would cause another vexing delay.

"I'm going to call the Star office this minute!" she declared, starting for the house.

Mrs. Weems busied herself gathering up loose odds and ends that had blown about the yard. She was cramming waste paper into a box when Penny banged out the door, her eyes tragic.

"I couldn't reach Dad!" she announced. "He left the office more than an hour ago."

"Then he should have been home before this," Mrs. Weems agreed.

"Something's happened. Maybe he's been run down by a car--"

"Now Penny, stop such wild talk," the housekeeper interrupted sternly. "You know better."

"But Dad was struck by an automobile last winter. What else could delay him?"

"A dozen things," Mrs. Weems replied. "Probably a business engagement."

"In that case, wouldn't he have telephoned me?"

"Perhaps not. Now do stop fretting, Penny. Your father will be here before long."

"He'd better be," Penny said darkly.

Sitting down on the stone step by the door, she scuffed the toe of her tennis shoe back and forth in the gravel. Mrs. Weems who had cared for the girl ever since the death of Mrs. Parker, gazed at her sternly.

"Now do stop grieving!" she chided. "That's no way to act just because you're impatient and disappointed."

"But I've been disappointed three times now," Penny complained. "We planned on starting early and having a picnic lunch on the road. Dad promised faithfully--"

A car drove up to the curb at the front of the house. Penny sprang hopefully to her feet. However, it was not her father who had arrived. Instead, her chum, Louise Sidell, alighted and came running across the yard.

"Oh, I'm glad I'm not too late to say goodbye to you, Penny!" she cried. "How soon are you starting?"

"I'd like to know the answer to that one myself. Dad hasn't put in an appearance. He was due here at three o'clock."

"Why, I saw him about twenty minutes ago," Louise replied, turning to inspect the over-loaded sedan. "My, how did you accumulate so much luggage?"

Penny ignored the question to ask one of her own. "Where did you see Dad, Lou?"

"Why, riding in a car." Louise's dark eyes sparkled mischievously as she added: "With a beautiful brunette too."

"You're joking."

"I am not. Your father was riding with Mrs. Deline. She's a widow, you know, and has lived in Riverview less than a month."

Mrs. Weems, who had overheard the conversation, came over to the steps.

"Mrs. Deline, did you say?" she inquired, slightly disturbed. "I've heard of her."

"And so have I!" declared Penny with biting emphasis. "Why, that woman would make the Merry Widow look like a dead number! She'd better not try to sink her hooks into Dad!"

"Penelope!" the housekeeper reproved sternly.

"Well, you know what everyone says--"

"Please don't repeat idle gossip," Mrs. Weems requested. "I'm sure Mrs. Deline is a very fine woman."

"She's the slickest serpent that ever free-wheeled into Riverview!" Penny said heatedly. "I saw her in action last week-end at the Country Club. Why, she simply went out of her way to cultivate any man who had an income of more than twenty-five thousand a year."

"Penny, your father is a sensible man," the housekeeper reproved. "Unfortunately, it's a quality I'm afraid you didn't inherit."

Louise, unhappy to have stirred up such a hornet's nest, said hastily: "Maybe it wasn't Mrs. Deline I saw. The car went by so fast."

"Oh, I'm not worried. Dad can handle a bigger package of dynamite than Mrs. Deline. It just makes me irritated because he doesn't get here."

Tossing her head, Penny crossed to the loaded automobile where she switched on the radio. She tuned it carelessly. After a moment a blurred voice blared forth:

"Attention Comrades!"

Penny turned quickly to glance at the dial, for she realized that she did not have the local station WZAM.