First the gum was in the amphibian, Sandy said, trying to be as modest as the discovery would let him, then it was gone. We thought we saw somebody in the hangar when first we went inbut he got away somehow. Then we saw the amphibian flying and it flashed over me that whoever we had seen before had been working on the amphibian and had chewed up all those pieces of gumbut I didnt see why he had left it there. Then, when we found out that the man calling himself Everdail didnt look for or miss the gum, I guessed that he hadnt been the gum chewerbut who had, then, I wondered. And why. It must have been for some reason, because if he had found the gum when he came to play ghost, keep everybody away from the estate by scaring them, and get the amphibian ready, hed have throw any gum he found into the waste can.
ONE:"Do you object to taking her into your house for a short time?"
ONE:He decided to go back and see if the hangar, with its door wide, was still deserted. Sandy had a misgiving that the woman might be a decoy and that the hangar ought to be watched.
THREE: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.
Dick tried to conceal the twinkle in his eye, but it got the better of him as he explained.[Pg 243]He was but an unlearned and simple savage, and the workings of a War Department were, of course, a mystery to him. He and his people should have believed Crook. The thoughtful government which that much-harassed general represented had done everything possible to instill sweet trustfulness into their minds. But the Apache, as all reports have set forth, is an uncertain quantity.
