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.And then, turning towardTommy, added, "Care for some?"The answer was a little slow in coming, and when Tommy did speak it wasquickly as if he wanted to talk before he could change his mind again."Allright.""Swell.Let's go."They perched themselves on stools at the soda fountain in the drugstore andSandy ordered for all of them."Go fishing today?" Ken tried to get the conversation going.Tommy shook his head."Not today." He paused again and then blurted out, "Didyou find out anything in Denver?"Ken almost choked on a mouthful of ice cream."How'd you know we went toDenver?""Oh." Tommy looked embarrassed."I I heard Mr.Raymond and Clint Maddentalking about it.""I wonder how they found out," Sandy muttered, "Only Ma knew where we went."BALKED 83"Party line," Ken said."Remember? How did you manage to hear them talk aboutit, Tommy?"Tommy looked down at his plate."I was getting some air in my bicycle tirePage 36ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlover at Alec's gas station.They drove up for gas and " He looked up."I don'tlike them, so I pushed my bike around the corner of the building.I waswaiting for them to drive off, and that's when I heard Mr.Raymond say hewondered what you were looking for in Denver." He faced Ken squarely, "Did youfind anything important?"Ken looked across the youngster at Sandy, motioned almost imperceptibly towardTommy, and raised his eyebrows.Sandy answered by nodding."We didn't find anything, Tommy, but we're pretty sure someone is trying tokeep us from learning too much.""It's not us." Tommy spoke quickly."I don't suppose you believe me on accountof the torn newspapers.""I'm pretty sure you didn't tear those pages." Ken looked straight intoTommy's suddenly raised eyes."That's what we were doing in Denvertoday checking up." Ken waited until the clerk moved to the other end of thesoda fountain."I don't care what your father says  there's something fishyaround here.""What?" Tommy's restless hands were still.Ken shook his head."We don't know what that's the trouble.Look, Tommy.Doesyour father have any papers dealing with the case things that might give us aclue?""He's got a whole envelope of stuff, but I couldn't let you see anythingunless my father said so.""Tell him about the fingerprints," Sandy said."Maybe that'll convince Mr.Wilson to help us.""Fingerprints? Whose fingerprints?"Ken told him.84THE RIDDLE OF THE STONE ELEPHANT"But who.?" Tommy's voice rose a little."Keep it down," Sandy said."We don't want the town to know what we've found.""This is what we want you to do, Tommy." Ken's voice had an urgency in it."Tell your father what we told you, and tell him we want to talk to himagain.""But don't tell anybody else," Sandy added."All right." Tommy slipped off the stool."Wait a minute." Ken checked him."Don't call us up we can't trust the phone.Come around through our back door or let Bowleg come.""About half past eight tonight," Tommy said.He moved off a few feet and thenstopped to turn around.He was smiling it was the first time the boys had everseen him smile."And thanks.""Now," Sandy said, after the screen door had slammed behind the youngster,"let's get back to Raymond and Madden.How did they know we went to Denver?""The party line.Someone was listening in."Sandy scraped the last of the ice cream from his plate before he answered."Wenever liked coincidences, and you can't tell me that Raymond's picking up hisphone just in time to hear you call Banner isn't one of the world's best-timedaccidents.""I know," Ken admitted."But what else could it have been? He certainlydoesn't keep someone at the phone all the time just in case we might make acall." He dropped his spoon into the plate."And anyway, the fingerprints seemto prove that neither he nor Madden are involved in that business of ourluggage or the newspaper office."They got off the stools and made their way toward the door."And you can'tdeny the important fact that Raymond is the most co-operative person in thiscase.He can't be hiding anything."1BALKED 85"O.K." Sandy admitted defeat."So it's just by accident that somebody inRaymond's house tried to make a call then and heard you on the line."They walked to the car in silence, the unanswered questions spinning around inPage 37ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmltheir heads.It wasn't until he shut off the motor in Ma's shed that either ofthem spoke."Do you suppose Ma told anyone we were going to Denver?"Ken put the car keys in his pocket and slid out of the front seat."We didn'ttell her to keep it a secret, so she might have said something to somebody.But I don't think she would deliberately tell Raymond or Madden.She doesn'tseem to like them any too well [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]