The Mystery of the Death Trap Mine - M. V. Carey [23]
“He was only here a few months, if he stayed at all,” Bob pointed out.
“Any luck?” called the librarian.
“No. No, it looks as if my uncle didn’t stay here,” confessed Jupe. He then managed to look very much embarrassed. “Uncle Geoffrey did have a way of . . . ah . . . attracting attention. Maybe the newspapers for that year … ?”
“Oh, he was that sort, was he?” The librarian shook her head, but she showed the way to the room where periodicals were on file, and left them to go through bound volumes of the Lordsburg newspaper. There was nothing — nothing that could be remotely connected with the deceased holdup man — until they came to the issue for May 10, five years before.
“Death Trap Mine to Be Sealed,” Bob read from a headline. “So it was announced in the paper here in Lordsburg. Could that have had anything to do with our guy’s death?”
Jupe shrugged. “Who knows? He could have seen the story in the paper and decided for some reason to go to Twin Lakes and explore the mine. What day was the car stolen from the market parking lot?”
Bob consulted his notes. “May eleventh,” he said. “That’s one day after the sealing of the mine was announced in the Lordsburg newspaper and three days before the mine actually was closed up. There could be a connection.”
“But what, for Pete’s sake?” cried Allie. “The crook sees the story about the mine being sealed and he’s in such a sweat to get there that he swipes a car and drives it to Twin Lakes, where he dashes into the mine, falls down a shaft, breaks his neck, and is not heard of again for five years! That doesn’t make sense. Now suppose he and Thurgood had a meeting set up …”
“Allie!” snapped Pete. “Can’t you forget about Thurgood for a minute?”
“We’re about where we started,” said Bob. “We know that Gilbert Morgan could have been in Lordsburg and he could have stolen a car and driven to Twin Lakes, but we can’t prove it. It was a long chance, but we had to check it out.”
“The morning isn’t completely wasted,” said Jupiter. “We are sure of one thing.” He took out his pebble. “We know that there was at least this much gold in Death Trap Mine on the day Morgan’s body was found. I’m not sure how much that means, but I’m sure it means something!”
Chapter 11
The Hungry Thief
IT WAS MID-AFTERNOON when they arrived back at the Christmas tree ranch. The boys helped Uncle Harry unload the station wagon, putting the flats of tiny trees out near the barn and watering them with a hose. When Uncle Harry went into the house, Jupe looked across at Mrs. Macomber’s place.
“I imagine your neighbour knows more about the Death Trap Mine than almost anyone in town,” said Jupe.
“Mrs. Macomber? She sure does,” said Allie.
“Let’s pay her a call,” Jupe suggested.
The others were more than willing. They went down the drive and across the road and knocked on Mrs. Macomber’s door. The widow called to them to come in. Allie opened the door and they walked directly into the neat little kitchen.
“Busy?” Allie asked Mrs. Macomber.
She smiled, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepened. “Don’t have all that much to be busy about these days,” she said. “But I sure would appreciate it if one of you boys would step out to my truck and bring in the carton that’s in the back. I’ve got to put away my groceries or the frozen stuff will melt.”
“I’ll do it,” said Pete. Mrs. Macomber’s small pickup truck stood in a dirt driveway beside the house. There was a large cardboard carton jammed with brown paper sacks in the back of the truck. Pete brought it into the kitchen and put it down on a counter.
“Much obliged,” said Mrs. Macomber. “I just can’t seem to do all the things I used to.”
She began to take out vegetables, bread, and packages of frozen foods and pile them on the counter.
Suddenly there was a dull booming sound. Mrs. Macomber went to a window. “Wesley Thurgood’s playing miner again,” she announced. “I’ve been kind of expecting that. I saw him drive in half an