“There ain’t no one that has anything to do with him. He’s so good he can’t live like the rest of the servants. Where do you think I seen him the other night?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea. Where?”
“He was at the Colonial Hotel, eatin’ in the main dining room!”
“The Colonial is quite an expensive hotel at Corbin, isn’t it?”
“Best there is. They soak you two bucks just to park your feet under one of their tables. Yep, if you ask me, Mrs. Kippenberg better ask that gardener of hers a few questions!”
Having delivered himself of this tirade, Thorny became calm again. He shifted his weight and said pointedly: “Well, I got to tend my garden. You girls better run along. Mrs. Kippenberg don’t want nobody hangin’ around the bridge.”
The girls obligingly took leave of him and walked away. But when they were some distance away, Penny glanced back over her shoulder. She saw Thorny down on his hands and knees in front of the gear house. He was slipping some object under the wide crack of the door.
“The key to the padlock!” she chuckled. “So that was why he wanted us to leave first. We’ll remember the hiding place, Lou, just in case we ever decide to use the drawbridge.”
CHAPTER
17
A SEARCH FOR JERRY
After leaving the Kippenberg estate, Penny and Louise motored to Corbin. More from curiosity than for any other reason they dined at the Colonial Hotel, finding the establishment as luxurious as the old watchman had intimated. A full hour and a half was required to eat the fine dinner which was served.