good.”
The two cars stopped some distance from the motel. As Dave started off with the package, Nancy whispered to him, “Don’t try to capture Fleetfoot. I want him to get the fake tablet!”
CHAPTER VII
Petroglyphs
DAVE walked slowly among the trees in the garden of the Waterfall Motel. It was large and well kept, with meandering walkways among various flower beds. Light filtered from motel windows and doors.
“It’s just dark enough,” the Emerson student thought, “so it will be easy for me not to be detected as a substitute messenger.”
Clutching the package under one arm, he sauntered along, watching the various paths but keeping out of sight.
“I hope I’m not too late,” he told himself. “If Fleetfoot expected Jim Gorgo some time ago, he may have left.”
At this moment, Dave saw two men coming along a walk near where he was standing. One was about five feet ahead of the other. Dave wondered whether or not they were together.
“Probably the one behind is a bodyguard for the man in front,” he told himself.
Dave decided not to announce himself but to wait for some sign from the men. To his disappointment there was none.
They walked on for some distance. Then they stopped abruptly, turned, and, taking the same positions, retraced their steps toward the spot where Dave was hiding. Now he was sure they had come for the stone tablet. Was one of them Fleetfoot?
When the man in the lead reached Dave, the boy called out, “Pardon me, sir, but are you waiting for a package?”
“Yes, I am. Have you got it?”
Instead of replying, Dave asked, “What’s your name? I can’t deliver it to the wrong person. It’s too valuable.”
The stranger became surly. “Never mind what my name is, but if yours is Jim Gorgo and you have the package, hand it over.”
Before the men had arrived, Dave had laid the wrapped stone petroglyph on the ground with a special purpose in mind. As he leaned over to get it, he pulled a miniature camera from his pocket. It could take pictures in the dark, without a flashbulb.
The whole episode lasted about two seconds. A picture was snapped as the package was being handed over.
Apparently the two men were unaware of what had happened. One of them quickly grabbed the stone tablet, and the two hurried up the walk.
Dave did not follow. Instead, he set the little camera in motion to develop the picture. When it was ready, he tore the paper out and walked toward a light. He had photographed the faces of the two men, and they were clear enough to be identified. Excited, he returned to Nancy’s house.
“How did you make out?” she asked.
Dave wore a big grin. He pulled the photograph from his pocket. “Here are the men who came after the package,” he announced.
Nancy stared at the two faces, then said, “Neither of these men is Fleetfoot, but that was a great piece of detective work, Dave.”
“What will you do with the photograph?” he asked.
Nancy said she would take it to police headquarters at once and find out if these men were among wanted persons. “Let’s go!”
“It’s my turn again,” Dave spoke up. “They may want to see my camera.”
Ned grinned and made no protest. Nancy and Dave set off for police headquarters. Chief McGinnis was not on duty, but the sergeant at the desk knew Nancy and the story about Fleetfoot.
He looked at the photograph, then sent for a book containing pictures of wanted persons. After a long search he announced that they had no record of the two men.
“They must be Fleetfoot’s pals,” Nancy suggested.
The sergeant nodded. He offered to have duplicate pictures made for Dave and Nancy. He would keep the original.
While a rookie was developing the extra prints, the sergeant asked to see Dave’s camera.
“We don’t have one as fine as this in our department,” he said. “Where did you get it?”
Dave said it had been a gift from his uncle, who had partially invented the camera. It was not on the market
Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Jerome Ross