“Now, wait a minute, you two!” Colonel Welsh shouted before Dave could speak. “I’m supposed to be the expert on riddles, but, by Heaven, you’ve got my brain tied up in knots. What in thunder are you talking about anyway?”
“Why, that lad’s visit here, sir,” Dave replied with an innocent grin. “Why he came here. This is just a wild guess, of course, but I think he came here hoping to find out more from your wire.”
“Ah!” Colonel Welsh breathed as his face brightened. “I get it now, of course. Just another bit of proof that I must be slipping in my old age. Maybe I should resign from the Service. Anyway, I see what you mean. The rat in Albuquerque found out about Tracey’s wire to me. He then contacted his rat co-worker here in Frisco and told him to keep a keener eye on this office, because I would undoubtedly be wiring instructions here. Which I did. But, thunderation! What else did he expect me to say in my wire to Rigby?”
“That’s anybody’s guess,” Dave said with a frown. “But somehow it spells WORRY to me, in big letters.”
“Quite!” Freddy Farmer echoed, and gave an emphatic nod of his head.
Colonel Welsh flushed and threw up his hands.
“Confound it, there you go again!” he bit off. “Worry? What the blue blazes has worry got to do with it?”
“Plenty!” Dave threw the word at him. “Worry that maybe you did make telephone or telegraph contact with Tracey before he left Albuquerque, and that he gave you a good idea of why he wanted to see you here. So maybe you wired certain instructions to Rigby. But you didn’t wire any such instructions to Rigby. So our rat friend learned nothing. So he’s still in the dark about your knowing anything of poor Tracey’s secret. So he must still be worrying.”
“I get it, I get it!” Colonel Welsh murmured softly.
“I spoke about maybe something hurting, awhile back,” Dave said, and pointed a finger. “I meant that maybe your phones here are tapped. Maybe this place is full of leaks. Well, there’s one way to find out, and maybe get some results.”