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.""All right-all right.But I mean in detail.Start there at the signal bridge,and recite everything you see from there on."Sandy sighed."O.K." He lifted the glasses again."The bridge and the signals.Couple of hundred feet of low marshland.Remains of the old iron mine, just onthe other side of the tracks.Then-""What iron mine?""You can see it without glasses." Sandy pointed."There-see that mound about athousand feet beyond the tracks? Near that old shed?""All right.I see it.Go ahead.""Then more railroad track and more marshland.Then a corner of the Brentwoodreservoir-it just shows between some trees.And then more tracks and moremarsh.Also more trees." The patience in Sandy's voice was thin."And that'sall," he added disgustedly.68 THE SECRET OF HANGMAN^ INN"Seems hopeless all right," Ken said, after a moment's silence."Unlesssomebody's been getting ideas about the abandoned mine or the reservoir.""What kind of ideas? Sabotage?" Sandy sounded scornful."That mine wasabandoned before the Civil War-believe me, there's nothing there worth blowingup.And I can't see an enemy concentrating on the Brentwood water supply.""You could hide something in an old mine shaft." Ken had upended the bench andwas huddled on it "Such as stolen loot," he went on."Or a body."Sandy's eyes turned on him."Joe's?"Ken shook his head."We're trying to figure out what Joe might have seen.Nowwho's getting whacky ideas?"Sandy sighed."Well, don't suggest things like that."Ken went on soberly."If Joe saw somebody hide something there-and then hehimself was seen-"Sandy had dropped the binoculars into their case and snapped it shut."Let'sstop wondering and go look."Page 26ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThey left the enclosure, retraced their steps a way, and finally found a paththat crossed the marsh clear to the railroad.Sandy was climbing up the embankment when Ken let out a loud "Ouch!""What happened?" Sandy swung around.Ken was rubbing his shin with one hand, and pointing to a stake driven intothe ground with the other."Walked into it," he said between his teeth.THE BIRD WATCHER 69Sandy grinned unsympathetically.The sun was definitely up now, and Sandy'sspirits had risen with it."If you'd look where you're going-""Couldn't see it.It was hidden in the grass.You certainly have a sympatheticnature." Ken straightened up.His brows drew together."Isn't this about wherewe saw that second light blinking last night?""Just about." Sandy looked up and down the tracks."Probably that's why thestake is there-to mark the spot for the repair crew.What's wrong with that?"Ken bent over, picked something up, and joined Sandy at the top of therailroad embankment."Look."Sandy glanced at the cigarette butt on Ken's palm, and then peered closer."Gibraltar! Same-"Ken nodded."Same brand we found in Joe's bushes."Sandy whistled quietly."Maybe there was something funny going on here lastnight.""Come on.One thing at a time.First the mine."They crossed the four tracks and were soon following an old spur line that ledto the mine, walking awkwardly from one rotted tie to the next.The spur rosegently, and when they were at the barricaded entrance to the old shaft, theywere high enough to look back over the railroad, some thousand feet away, andover another thousand feet of marsh beyond it as far as the highway.But the mine entrance, they found, was strongly boarded up.The rusted nailsin the barricade proved it had stood untouched for years.Ken sighed, half in disappointment, half in relief.70 THE SECRET OF HANGMAN'S INNAnd after a moment he and Sandy walked together to the partially collapsedshed whose empty windows overlooked the whole area.There was nothing at all inside-no battered furniture on the dirt floor, nosigns of recent habitation."Good observing post, though," Sandy said, taking out the binoculars again."Maybe Joe's been here too.""Somebody's been here," Ken said suddenly, and pointed to half a dozencigarette butts flattened on the ground.They stooped low to look at them."Another Gibraltar," Ken said."And another." He got to his feet."Let me havethe glasses a minute."He stood with them at a window on the railroad side of the shack."Plain asday," he said a moment later."What is?""Joe's little hideaway in the bushes.If you were in there now I could see youeasily.Look."Sandy took the glasses, focused, and nodded his head."And if our Gibraltarsmoker was in here, he could have seen Joe." He lowered the glasses slowly."But what would he be doing here?"By unspoken agreement they gave the inside and outside of the shed a carefulgoing over."O.K.," Ken said finally."There's certainly been nothing hidden here." Hefrowned."But why else would anybody come to a place like this?""Another bird watcher might come," Sandy pointed out."The world isn't entirely populated with bird watch-THE BIRD WATCHER 71ers," Ken reminded him."Besides, another bird watcher wouldn't be a danger toJoe, and our theory is-"Page 27ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"I know," Sandy interrupted him impatiently."That Joe saw some signs of acrime-of a past, present, or future crime-that made him a threat to somebody.But our theory could be wrong.""Wait a minute!" Ken said excitedly."A future crime! That would explain it!Somebody was planning something here, and Joe learned about it!""But what kind of fools would come to a damp deserted spot like this to plan acrime?" Sandy asked, obviously unimpressed."Why wouldn't they sit in acomfortable room somewhere, with-?""Because the crime was going to be committed here -when the time came." Kenglanced through the window at the broad shining tracks of the railroad."Atrain robbery, maybe!""Are you serious?" Sandy scoffed."A train holdup in this day and age? You'vebeen seeing too many bad western movies, about the days when-""Have you got any better ideas?" Ken demanded."Not right now.But that still doesn't make yours good.""I admit it." Ken sighed."We just don't-" He stopped, and cocked his head ina listening attitude.Sandy's eyes widened.He had heard it too-the sound of a truck engine, growingrapidly louder.They swung to the window and looked out to see a , brilliantly red railroadrepair truck following a rutted i lane toward the tracks.It lurched andswayed over72 THE SECRET OF HANGMAN'S INNthe rough marshy terrain, its heavy tires throwing up sheets of muddy watereach time they struck a puddle."Same one we saw last night?" Sandy murmured.Ken adjusted the glasses and peered through them a moment."Could be.Samecoloring.Same lettering."The truck halted near the signal bridge and two men got out.They opened thedoor of a cabinet at the base of the skeleton steel structure, and pokedaround inside.One of them lifted his head to watch the semaphore over thewestbound passenger track lower to the red position, remain there an instant,and then lift to yellow.Then it returned to the vertical, the light flashinggreen once more, and the men stepped a few feet away and talked.Ken, reporting these details to Sandy, added, "Now one of them is looking athis watch." He paused."Now they're lighting cigarettes [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]