“What made you think of searching the place again? Anything in the last instructions you got from Regina? You didn’t show them to me.”
“That’s so. It isn’t a part of my duty to consult you, and you’re a bit of a hustler. However, this is what I heard—a land agent in Navarino sent for the district sergeant; told him he’d run across a man from Sebastian at the hotel and the fellow got talking about Jernyngham. It was the first the land agent had heard of the matter; but he was struck by the date on which Jernyngham disappeared, because he’d had a deal with him three days later.”
“That’s mighty strange. If he’s right, Jernyngham couldn’t have been killed.”
“Don’t hustle!” said Curtis. “The fellow showed the sergeant the sale record, but he described Jernyngham as a big, rather stout man with light hair.”
“Wandle!” exclaimed Stanton. “Are you going to arrest him?”
“Not yet. We might get him sent up for fraud and forgery, but if he had anything to do with knocking Jernyngham out, he’ll be more likely to give us a clue of some kind while he’s at large.”
They rode on and reaching Wandle’s farm searched the house carefully, replacing everything exactly as they found it. They discovered nothing of importance, but as they went out Curtis glanced at the ash and refuse heap.
“We might have thought of that earlier,” he said. “I’ve heard of people trying to burn up things it might be dangerous to leave about.”
Setting to work with a fork and shovel, they presently unearthed a rusty iron object which Stanton picked up.
“Looks like a big meat can,” he remarked. “Kind of curious that Wandle should double it over this way and flatten it down.”