“Sure, Gramps!” Ronnie’s eyes lit up with excitement. “You bet we’ll find something to prove Great-great-grandfather Ezra didn’t harm Mr. Williams. And maybe we’ll find the glassware—and the money too!”
Grandfather was looking down into the valley again. “Went through every paper in the place,” he was saying, not waiting for Ronnie to finish talking. “Hundreds of them. But not a clue. Not a single clue. Just old bills and statements and records. Put them all back in the files, I did, just the way I found them. But somewhere in that building there’s an answer. I’m convinced of that.”
He drew himself up tall and breathed in deeply and squared his shoulders. “We aren’t licked yet. No, sir, not by a long shot! Now, boy, how about helping an old man back to the house?”
Chapter 9
“Now we’re officially in business!” Ronnie exclaimed. He stowed the spade he had been carrying in the corner of their office and dropped into a chair. His hair was wet with perspiration and beads of it were rolling down his face and stomach. “That’s the hardest ground I’ve ever had to dig a hole in,” he added, fanning himself with a newspaper.
The boys had just finished erecting the sign alongside the highway. Layers of coarse gravel and heavy blue clay had made the job of digging difficult. But, as Bill had said, they wanted the sign planted plenty deep so the first heavy wind wouldn’t carry it away. “Who knows,” he had added, “we may want it there a long, long time!”
On their way back from the highway, Ronnie had told Bill everything that Grandfather had said about old Ezra Rorth. Bill said nothing until they reached the office. “Ronnie,” he said then, “Ronnie, this afternoon you bring the key to the padlocked building with you, you hear? We’ve got business to attend to in there!”
“You bet we have,” Ronnie agreed. “Once we find out who this man is who’s sneaking around the village—and why too—maybe we’ll get to the bottom of all these shenanigans.”
Bill nodded. “We’ll search the building from top to bottom, and maybe we’ll have more luck than your grandfather did. Maybe we’ll clean up this mess around your family name.”
“I know my great-great-grandfather didn’t harm Jacob Williams or steal anything, either. I just know it.”