“You’re getting nutty!” Frank said, with a grin.
“When I left ’em,” Jimmie went on, “the boys an’ the foresters were wondering if the outlaws would come back an’ kill ’em one by one or just blow up the caves underneath the plateau an’ send ’em up in the air without any good means of gettin’ down.”
“Then we’ll look them up,” Ned said.
The great divide lay down below, and the plateau was in plain sight, with the early sunshine streaming over it. When the aeroplane circled about it a shout came up to Ned’s ears, then a shot, and the powder smoke drifted lazily upward in the clear air.
“Somethin’ doin’!” Jimmie cried. “Suppose we go down an’ see.”
CHAPTER XVIII.—TWO INANIMATE WITNESSES.
It was very still in the bachelor apartment, and, as on the occasion of his previous visit, Nestor saw, as he slipped through the doorway leading from the private hall, that the lights were burning low.
On this night there was no opium-drugged victim lying on the couch. There was a movement in the room beyond, and Ned could hear the soft tread of slippered feet and occasionally the rattle of dishes. It was evident that midnight luncheon was being prepared, and that the master of the habitation would soon be on hand.
Closing the door softly—the same having been opened with a skeleton key—Ned stepped across the room to the writing desk which he had examined on that other night. After searching the half-open drawer for an instant, he took out a number of papers and examined them. He also took a check-book out and put it into a pocket. The papers he returned to the desk. The check-book was an old one, there being few blank checks in the binding, but plenty of stubs.
Then Ned looked at the lock of the desk. It had been out of repair at his previous visit, but was in excellent shape now. He removed the new key and inserted the one with the broken stem which had so excited the interest of Albert Lemon and Jap on occasion of his previous visit.