Back in the office, thirty minutes later, Henry, Judge, Oscar, Slim and Frijole sat there a tin-cup in hand. They were a bedraggled crew. Stickler had confessed—and the troubles of the sheriff’s office were over for the time being.
“You see,” explained Henry, “about a year ago I helped Ben Todd make out a location notice. He could neither read nor write, and I felt very sure that he could not learn in a year. That was their first blunder. I suspected theft of that gold by Todd, because he did not record his claim. Todd was careful.”
“But why did you suspect the professor?” asked Judge.
“His lack of knowledge of the rocks, Judge; and he was supposed to be an archaeologist. I am not versed in it, but somewhere I had read of them, and I’m sure that either the Palaeozoic or the Mesozoic rock contains no fossils, while the other is filled with them. I believe the Palaeozoic is the blank rock. But, Judge, the professor said he would have to classify them.”
“And what other clues?” asked Judge.
“Well, when the professor escaped from Doctor Bogart’s place last night, I realized that he was going to warn Pete Gonyer; so I—well, Judge, I decided to beat them to the fossils.”
“Speaking of rocks,” said Judge soberly, “I wonder just what I hit Stickler with.”
“Well, here’s luck,” said Frijole. “Everythin’ turned out fine.”
“You forget somet’ing, Freeholey,” said Oscar soberly.
“What was that, Oscar?”