“Are all those oh dears for Danny? I feel sorry for the boy myself,” Peter admitted. “But perhaps his father allowed the stuff to be stored in his house without knowing it was stolen.”
“I doubt it. He can’t be much good,” declared Judy. “He did leave his boy at the orphanage.”
“Angel,” Peter replied in that calm voice he used when he was begging Judy to be reasonable, “you can’t blame him for that, can you? He may have known Meta Hanley was the matron and that she would be a second mother to Danny. He must be in these woods somewhere.”
They had been walking toward the beaver dam while they were talking. Judy glanced back along the road they had taken.
“Blackberry isn’t coming,” she observed. “I thought surely he’d follow us if we started walking.”
“He’s still exploring that house. We’ll stop and call him again on our way back to the car,” Peter promised. “Meanwhile we may surprise the beavers and get a few good pictures.”
Judy had her camera with her, but she had lost interest in the beavers. “We won’t find them gnawing down trees,” she said. “They find it easier to haul broken pieces of furniture through that hole they gnawed in the house. If Danny knows the furniture is there,” she went on thoughtfully, “then I’m sure he must know it’s stolen. Probably it’s being sold, little by little, by unscrupulous men like Mr. Sammis. It’s funny, though, Sammis did tell that truck driver to take the furniture back.”
“What furniture?” asked Peter, suddenly interested.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m not sure it was furniture, but just as we were leaving that second-hand shop a truck drove up. It had the name JOHN BEER lettered on it.”
“Did you see the license plates?”