“That’s so. But somebody said she did, or thought she must know the real ones.”
“That doesn’t prove she did, Dick. The real ones were hardly ever removed from safe deposit,” Sandy argued.
“Then why did she throw over that life preserver?—” and as he began the inquiry Larry saw the answer.
“She—saw—the—captain hide—the real gems!” he finished.
“Jeff didn’t use the amphibian, though. And he brought us here and induced us to aid him, saying we were helping Mr. Everdail.”
“Yes,” Dick supplemented Larry’s new point. “Another thing, Sandy, that doesn’t explain why he’d take three boys and fly a ship he could never use on water—with an amphibian right here.”
“I am only saying what I believe. I don’t know very much. But what I do know points to Jeff.”
“But he didn’t get the life preserver.”
No, Sandy agreed, Jeff did not expect to do that. He argued that Jeff must have planned to superintend the affair, while the man in the seaplane with Tommy Larsen secured the gems, whereupon Jeff could chase him, probably turn on him and get the emeralds, and then pretend on his return that the man had gotten safely away.
“But we don’t need to guess,” Sandy said. “Before I began asking questions I met Jeff on the way here.” He explained what made him suspect the man who said he must repair his “stalled” engine with a bolt that he knew was not made—a slotted bolt. “I slipped down across that estate to the inlet and saw the amphibian. And Mr. Whiteside was in it, supervising the filling of its tank!”