“And we have suspected Langley was in bad company with Griff, and Lang got mad at us about Griff—but we haven’t found any reason to suspect Lang, since,” Al declared. “But now we’ve got more people to suspect—the stranger who came to the plant and this ex-pilot.”
“But all this hasn’t brought us any closer to knowing anything definite,” Bob objected. “I begin to wonder if Father was right, after all, when he told us to ‘drop those unimportant things and locate that brown airplane.’”
“But we can’t!” defended Al. “There’s no way to start hunting. I’m for keeping on disobeying until something happens to help us.”
“And I’m for getting in to supper,” Curt changed the subject as they dismounted at the cottage. “Let’s give what brains we have a good rest while we eat.”
“Well, one thing more and we will.” Bob paused, thoughtful and serious. “Al said we had no cause to suspect Lang. Well—today, I was wondering why Griff was so nervous and fidgety and furtive, and Lang came in and took me out, to give me a lesson in handling the controls, he hinted. He really did, but before he took me up while he tested the new sport speedster, he said, ‘I see you’re bothering Griff again,’ and he gave me ‘down the banks’ about it.”
“What’s suspicious about that?” Curt asked.
“Not that, so much. But—he told me to go on home, that it was closing time, and I put on my cap and punched the time-clock, and then I recalled that I had left the baseball we were playing ‘catch’ with at noon, in my bench drawer. I went back, and there was Griff, all excited, and Lang, with his head close to Griff’s, acting as upset and as uneasy as Griff when I came in and surprised them. Lang snapped at me—I—don’t—like it——”
“Well,” Curt was quiet, a little hesitant, but firm. “If Lang is mixed up in something wrong—we ought to—at least we ought to try to save him!”
“That’s good,” agreed Bob, quickly. “I thought you were going to say ‘we ought to catch him with the rest.’”
“No, indeed, I think more of Lang than that.”