Part 16 (1/2)
”You'll find him back at my house,” said Jim Hall. ”He'll be waiting for us.”
The two men looked startled.
”He's not going anywhere,” Jim Hall stated. ”George is looking after him.”
Dobbs looked at him wide-eyed. ”George - the lion?”
Jim Hall nodded. Stevenson grinned. He clapped Jupe on the shoulder. ”Okay, Investigator - you already found half a million. Would you like to try for another?”
Jupe stepped forward to the cage. Pointing to the second bar he had selected, he said dramatically, ”You will note, gentlemen, that this bar is not as rusted as the first one that was extracted from the lion's cage. The gorilla was a recent arrival and therefore -”
Bob and Pete exchanged grins. They knew how their leader loved to make the most out of a situation.
Doc Dawson laughed harshly. His shoulders sagged. He looked like a man who had bet a lot of money and lost. ”Hurry it up,” he said. ”I'd like to see how much I lost before I tell you everything.”
Chapter 21.
Some Questions from Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k A WEEK LATER, The Three Investigators sat in Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k's office, being congratulated.
”Thank you, sir!” chorused the boys.
”There are a few small points I should like to have cleared up,” Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k told them. ”This barbarous device - the metal shredder - am I to a.s.sume that your nearly fatal engagement with it was accidental?”
”Yes, sir,” Bob said. ”Bo Jenkins and Doc Dawson tied us up and tossed us into an old junked car. They did it merely to get us out of the way. They never expected that the crane would drop the car on the conveyor belt.”
Alfred Hitchc.o.c.k nodded. ”I would hope they would be more careful next time, if indeed there should ever be one, about the process they select for discouraging interlopers.” He laced his fingers together. ”This Hank Morton person - where does he fit in? Did he let George out deliberately and then wound him? And why was he running away the night the gorilla escaped? Was he involved in that, too?”
”No, sir,” Bob said.” No to all of those questions. He came back to Jungle Land after being fired because he was suspicious of Doc Dawson. According to Hank Morton, Dawson made it look as if he had mistreated the animals, and Jim Hall took his word for everything. Dawson, of course, was trying to replace him with Bo Jenkins.
When Morton came back, Doc decided to fix him for good. He let George out himself, planning to blame it on Morton.
”George cut himself accidentally out in the jungle. I guess he didn't know how to take care of himself out there, since he grew up in captivity. When Morton led us out to him, he was only teasing us. He knew George and could handle him. But when he stepped away for a minute, Bo Jenkins found him and hit him over the head. So Morton was blamed for that, too.
”That night when the gorilla broke loose, Morton was trying to find Bo Jenkins.
Instead he ran into the gorilla and was frightened away, just as Bo Jenkins was.”
”What about the panther's escape?” asked Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k. ”Did Doc Dawson engineer that?”
”No, sir,” replied Pete. ”At least, he said he didn't. We think it was a real accident.