“Neither did the hardware man here in town after that Whiteside feller gave me five dollars to walk in the four miles and—back!”
Dick consulted his comrades with his eyes.
“That sounds to me like sending a new machine shop hand to the foreman for a left-handed monkey wrench,” he chuckled. “They’ve played a joke——”
“That doesn’t fit in,” argued Larry. “A bandaged foot, a limping pilot, an engine that wouldn’t start—and sending this gentleman on an errand that would take him away for a good while——”
“Where did Jeff say he set down?”
The caretaker turned and scowled at Sandy.
“He never set down nowhere. He leaned against the hangar!”
“I mean—where is his own airplane?”
“He never told me.”
All three comrades wished heartily that Jeff had revealed the information. Since he had not, each cudgeled his brains for some likely place within walking distance of the estate.