“That would be a treat,” Professor Crowell said.
“Now I think we should all go up to our rooms and get a good night’s sleep,” Dr. Steele suggested. “We’ve had a long, trying day.”
“That sounds good to me,” Lou Mayer seconded. “It will be a real pleasure to rest my weary bones on an honest-to-goodness bed with a soft mattress.”
“You chaps go ahead,” said Professor Crowell. “I’m going down the street to the police barracks and report that incident with the plane today.”
“Do you really think that’s wise?” Dr. Steele asked gravely.
“The chief constable is a reliable man,” the professor told him. “He can be depended upon to be discreet. He may have received a report from one of these local airstrips about a small plane making an emergency landing. I don’t think those fellows could have traveled too far with their engine smoking like that. If they did land near here, we can put our people on their track.”
Dr. Steele nodded. “Good idea. Do you want me to come with you?”
“That won’t be necessary,” the older man assured him. “I’ll take Charley along.”
Upstairs, when the boys had bathed and changed into their pajamas, they lay in the dark in the small hotel room they shared and discussed the events of the day.
“What do you think it’s all about, anyway?” Jerry wondered. “We know enemy agents are after the professor. But why? It’s not like he was an atomic scientist or something. What could they want with a plain old geology professor?”