Part 36 (2/2)

Penny shook her head. ”Not without going miles around. The quickest way is to take the trail at the rear of this property. Wait, I'll show you!”

Darting into the house for a coat, she led her father and Jerry to the hillside. Then, deciding to accompany them, she went on ahead down the steep incline.

”There's a light burning in the shack,” Mr. Parker observed a few minutes later. ”Crocker must be up.”

Reaching the building, the editor thumped once on the door of the workshop and then pushed it open. Truman Crocker was busy at his bench.

Startled by the unexpected intrusion of the three visitors, he backed a few steps away from them.

”You can't do nothin' to me,” he mumbled. ”All I did was what I was told to do.”

”I don't know what you're talking about,” Mr. Parker cut him short.

”We're here to warn you! The dam at Cedarville has let go, and the river is rising fast.”

”The river--” the stonecutter faltered.

For a fleeting instant the man's gaze had roved toward a large object covered with a piece of canvas. As Crocker's words came back to Penny, she suddenly knew why he had been so startled to see her father.

Impulsively, she darted across the room and jerked the canvas from the object it covered. Revealed for all to see was a large rounded rock, bearing a carving which had not been completed.

”A record stone!” she cried. ”Truman Crocker, you are the one who planted those fakes! You've been hired by someone!”

”No, no,” the man denied, cringing away.

Mr. Parker strode across the room, and one glance at the rock Penny had uncovered convinced him that his daughter's accusation was a sound one.

Obviously, the stone had been treated with acid and chemicals to give it an appearance of great age. Several Indian figures remained uncompleted.

”Who hired you?” he demanded of Truman Crocker. ”Tell the truth!”

”I ain't tellin' nothing,” the stonecutter returned sullenly.

”Then you'll go to jail,” Mr. Parker retorted. ”You've been a party to a fraud. It was the publicity agent of the Indian Show who hired you. He probably gave you a hundred dollars for the job.”

”Not that much,” Crocker muttered. ”An' you can't send me to jail because all I did was fix the stones and put 'em where he told me.”

”You won't go to jail if you testify to the truth,” Mr. Parker a.s.sured him. ”All you'll have to do is tell what you know--”

”I ain't going to tell nothing,” Crocker said sullenly.

Moving so quickly that both Jerry and Mr. Parker were caught off guard, he wheeled and ran out the open door.

”Get him!” the editor barked. ”Unless he'll testify against Bill McJavins we may lose a big story!”

Penny waited anxiously at the shack while her father and Jerry pursued the fleeing man. Ten minutes later they stumbled back, completely winded, to report their failure. The laborer had hidden somewhere among the bushes dotting the hillside, and they could not hope to find him.

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