The Mystery of Wandering Caveman - M. V. Carey [19]
The boys stood in gloomy silence.
The deputy moved towards the door. “Okay, you guys. I think you’d better leave now.”
The boys obediently filed past him and on to Newt McAfee’s meadow.
Over by the barn, Newt and the other deputy had been joined by Thalia, and also by Eleanor, who had evidently just picked up the mail. She was holding a small bundle of letters and a magazine.
Newt McAfee was holding an envelope and a letter. As the Three Investigators drew closer they could see that the writing on the letter had been done in bright green block letters.
Newt was ashy pale. He looked from the letter to the second deputy and then to his wife.
“You … you know what it says?” he demanded, his voice thick with fury. “Read this. Just read this!”
He held up the letter so everyone could see it. It said: I HAVE YOUR CAVE MAN AND I WILL KEEP HIM SAFE UNTILL
I GET $10,000. IF YOU DO NOT GIVE ME THE MONY I WILL
BERY HIM WHERE YOU WILL NEVER FIND HIM. YOU WILL
HERE MORE FROM ME.
“Now we know,” said Jupe. “We know why somebody stole a bunch of bones —
to hold them for ransom!”
Chapter 10
The Four-Toed Footprint
“TEN THOUSAND!” cried Eleanor Hess. “It’s too much!”
Newt McAfee snorted. “If I catch the guy who did this, I’ll fill him full of holes!”
The deputy took the ransom note from McAfee. He glanced at the postmark on the envelope, then read the note again.
“The thief doesn’t spell very well,” said the deputy. “He’s got four words wrong.
He does plan ahead, however. This was mailed yesterday in Centerdale.”
He put the letter in his pocket. “Mr. McAfee, who has keys to the museum?”
Newt McAfee took a bunch of keys from his pocket. “I do. This one is it right here,” he said. “The only other one’s on a board in the kitchen.”
Eleanor hurried away to the house, but she was back in a moment to announce that the museum key was missing from the board in the kitchen.
“There was a tag on it,” said Eleanor. “I guess that’s how the thief knew …”
“I guess so,” said the deputy. “You left your back door open, didn’t you? People in this town always leave their doors open. The thief just walked in and picked up the key. Even if you hadn’t left the door open, he could have got into the kitchen.
Anybody could open that old-fashioned door lock with a skeleton key — or even a penknife.”
Newt and Thalia McAfee withdrew to their house, completely crestfallen, and Eleanor went with them. The Three Investigators climbed to their loft and sat down near the window. Jupe scowled at his friends.
“I wonder,” he said, “who knew about the key in the kitchen?”
“Who knew?” Pete echoed. “Hey, would anyone have to know? Lots of people keep their spare keys in the kitchen, and if the door was so easy to —”
“You’re going to say that anyone could have taken the key,” said Jupe.
“Unfortunately that’s true. But there’s another thing that makes me wonder. There’s the footprint in the cave.”
Bob looked surprised. “What about it?” he wanted to know. “It’s the thief’s print, and he was wearing tennis shoes or running shoes. So what?”
“Remember how the cave looked last night?” said Jupe. “When McAfee first showed us around?”
Pete and Bob both looked puzzled.
“The earth around the bones was all trampled,” said Jupe. He shut his eyes as if he were picturing the fossils half-buried in the earth. “Then John the Gypsy had a nightmare in the middle of the night, and he claimed the cave man got up and walked away. Then McAfee opened the museum and we all saw the cave man again. That time, were there footprints?”
Pete and Bob frowned. Then Pete said, “No. No, you’re right. But that means …
that means that McAfee must have tidied up — brushed the earth smooth around the bones.”
“We’ll see,” said Jupe.
He climbed down from the loft and jogged across to the McAfee house and pounded on the door.
Thalia McAfee answered the knock and her husband appeared in the doorway. He and Jupe exchanged a few words. Jupe turned and hurried back to the barn . . .
“McAfee says he didn’t do any tidying up in the cave,” Jupe reported