“Why, what can this mean?” said Ralph. “Earl certainly wrote this. A prisoner? two boys? the thieves? Get the old coat? He means the one he wore when he came here. What can that have to do with this business? Mother, where is the coat?”
“Why, Ralph,” replied Mrs. Fairbanks, “I sold it to a rag man last week.”
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE FREIGHT THIEVES
Two days later Zeph Dallas came to Stanley Junction to purchase some supplies for Mr. Gibson’s construction camp. In the evening he called at the Fairbanks home. The farmer boy had located the relatives of Earl Danvers, and his report verified the story of the latter, who had disappeared from home, and, according to his uncles, his whereabouts was unknown to them.
Ralph related the story of the burglary, and Zeph was at once interested. He believed that some mystery of importance was attached to the old coat. When he had gone away Ralph got to thinking this over.
“Mother,” he asked, “do you know the man to whom you sold that old coat?”