CHAPTER V
MARKED MONEY
There was little sleeping that night in Johnny Thompson’s tent at the back of his booth, at the “Greatest of all Carnivals.” True, Johnny remained in the tent to doze off at times. Drew Lane and his partner spent their time in scouting about searching for clues that might lead them to the whereabouts of Greasy Thumb and his gang.
Once, while Johnny was alone, he drew the roll of bills from his pocket.
“What am I to do with these?” he asked himself. “Give them to that truck farmer? Simple enough. But where is he? Where does he live?”
He examined the bills closely, then let out a low whistle. Two of them were marked with a faint red cross in the corner.
“Marked money!” he exclaimed in a low tone. “Bad business! Dangerous! Like to throw them away.”
Yet, because this roll represented a fairly large sum of money, he did not obey that impulse. Instead, he thrust them once more into his pocket.
Half an hour later, having returned from one more fruitless search, Drew and Tom were about to join Johnny in a steaming cup of coffee when, without ceremony, a curious individual crept into the tent.
At sight of him Johnny started back. A very small man, with a long sharp nose and piercing yellow eyes, he might have been said to crawl rather than walk.
“It’s all right,” Drew assured Johnny. “Meet the Ferret. He is one of us. Very much so.”