“I’m afraid we’ll never see the old fellow again,” the Scout leader said with a shake of his head.
Jack asked Hap what he thought of the story the old prospector had told.
“I don’t rightly know,” he replied. “Stony seemed to be telling the truth. It’s fantastic—and yet it’s possible that Headless Hollow may actually exist.”
War, Willie, and Ken were impatiently waiting in the hospital lobby. Eagerly, the trio plied Jack and their leader with questions. With deep interest, they listened to Hap’s report of the talk with Old Stony.
“What’s our move, now?” Ken asked. “Do we pull out of Rocking Horse or drive back to the motel?”
“Back to the motel,” Hap decided. “Jack and I made a promise to Stony. We must at least make an attempt to get Craig Warner’s address and notify him.”
“What about the map?” War demanded.
“Oh, we might make a brief search for that too,” the Scout leader said with a grin at War’s eagerness.
“What did Stony say about gold nuggets being hidden in a bag of pinto beans?” War went on. “And what are pinto beans?”
“Pinto means mottled, doesn’t it?” Jack recollected. “Stony must have meant some kind of fancy, painted bean. And that reminds me! I did see a bag of something hanging on the wall!”