“Tell me about this,” he said. There was a note of furious anger in his voice that escaped neither Merriwell nor Brady. Watson, who knew nothing of what had happened, and wondered why they had jumped on Parker in this fashion, stood there with round eyes, gazing at the picture.
“Tell him what you know, Watson,” ordered Dick. And Watson obeyed, telling of the crying child and the manner in which Jim had disappeared from sight.
“The infernal scoundrel!” cried Parker, as if overcome by what he heard.
“You’d better tell us all you know, Parker,” said Dick sternly. “It’s easy to see that you know something of this, though I don’t believe that you did understand what was actually being planned. I still have your confession, though, in trying to steal it from my rooms, you did get away with a private paper of no value to you or any one but myself.”
“You know that?” exclaimed Parker. His jaw dropped, and he stared at Dick in stunned amazement. He remembered he had not looked at that paper before tearing it up.
He waited a moment, reflecting.
“I can make a guess what’s happened,” he said finally. “I wouldn’t split on a friend, as a rule, but, good heavens! that’s a terrible thing, taking a chance of leaving a man in a locked freight car for days and days! Remember, this is only a guess that I can make. But I know a man, who was pretty sore at the way I was treated. And he’s often, just for our amusement, showed me what he could do as a ventriloquist. He could make his voice sound as if it came from different parts of the room, and even from down in the street, when the windows were opened.”
“The child’s cry!” exclaimed Dick. “I never thought of that solution. That would account for Jim’s being trapped in the car. It was a clever scheme—but a murderous one. Who is this man, Parker? Your only chance now is to tell the whole truth and help us to undo the mischief you have made.”
“It’s Foote,” said Parker. “If you want anything else, you’ll have to get it out of him. I won’t tell you anything more.”
He had turned sullen again.