“Listen here, Mapes, for the last time I ask you to bring back my boy. I’ve been told that Terry and Syd Ames are both in this scheme to get money out of me. Don’t force me to have you arrested.” The old man rose to his feet walked up and down excitedly then came and stood over Dick’s chair.
“Where is Terry, I ask again?”
“I told you all I know. The girls started out for Harbor Grace. We are expecting word from them any time now.”
Suddenly the man turned to Dick. “If I give you the money will you bring Allan back safely? Can you be sure that your gang will not kill him?”
Dick’s eyes flashed with anger.
“Listen to me, Bennett Graham,” he finally said. “If I could get up from this chair you would never dare to talk to me like this. I say again, I do not know where your son is. Tell me exactly what you have heard about me. Who has been talking? I must know.”
But Bennett Graham was too agitated to be reasonable. His eyes flashed angrily. Rising he strode without another word to his car. His lips were set in firm determination. If Dick Mapes would not talk, then the law must take its course.
“He’s hard hit, poor man,” said Alice Mapes, coming on to the veranda in time to see Bennett Graham leave. “But you’d think by the way he glared at us that he thinks we kidnapped the boys.”
“That’s just what he thinks, Alice,” said Dick. “He accused me to my face of kidnapping Allan for ransom money. Fifty thousand dollars!”
Alice Mapes stood for a moment, as if in a trance. She could hardly believe Dick’s statement. Then she burst into an hysterical laugh.