“What about Elsie Spratt and Mary Sedlack?” said Pete. “It doesn’t have to be a man, does it?”
“Ferrante didn’t mention any names,” said Bob. “I’ve already told you most of what he said, except that Mr Barron is beginning to buy it. I guess he meant that Mr Barron is beginning to believe in the spaceship. He said he didn’t want the other guys to louse things up, and he said Mr Barron was smart, but touchy as a rattlesnake.”
“He knew that Charles Barron is beginning to change his attitude towards the supposed aliens from another planet?” said Jupe. “Hmm! The spy is someone close to Barron. And Ferrante and his men are after–they’re after–after gold! That’s it! I should have known all along!”
“Gold?” Bob looked startled. “What gold?”
“The gold that Charles Barron has hidden here on the ranch,” said Jupe smugly.
“You found gold?” said Pete.
“No, I didn’t, but I’m sure there’s gold here someplace. I found papers showing that Barron has sold millions and millions of dollars’ worth of securities. He’s closed out his bank accounts in several cities. So far as I can tell, he now has only one account, and huge amounts have gone in and out of it.
“I think if we could call some of the companies that received cheques from Barron, we’d find that they deal in gold coins or gold bullion. One of the places is a stamp exchange, and places that sell stamps often sell coins as well. Barron has said that only land and gold are safe investments.”
“Why sure!” cried Bob. “It figures! He’s sold everything he owned and he’s bought gold!”
“Exactly!” said Jupiter. “He’s keeping the gold here on the ranch because he doesn’t trust banks. He doesn’t even keep a safe deposit box in the Santa Barbara bank any longer. Mrs Barron thought her jewellery was there, but it isn’t. It’s in a wall safe in Barron’s office.
“Now if we could figure out that Barron must have gold, so could other people here on the ranch. I’ll bet the conspirators are looking for the gold, and they’ve staged the landing of the flying saucer to somehow make Barron reveal the hiding place.”
“Crazy!” said Pete.
“Totally mad,” Jupe said, “but it’s the only explanation that fits the facts.”
“We’re going to tell Barron what we know?” Bob asked.
“We’ll certainly tell Mrs Barron,” said Jupe. “She is our client. And she’s used to dealing with Barron. He might not believe us.”
“What next?” asked Bob. “Do we search for the other field telephone? If we can find it, we can find out who’s using it.”
“Lots of luck,” said Pete. “This place is huge. We’d be searching for a needle in a haystack.”
Jupe pulled on his lower lip. “We wouldn’t have to search the whole ranch,” he said. “The spy has to be able to use the field telephone where he or she can’t be seen. That means it’s almost certainly in a building.”
“Yeah, but there are an awful lot of buildings here,” Pete objected. “And people are in and out of them all the time.”
A door banged, and the boys looked up to see Elsie Spratt coming down her kitchen steps. She was carrying a blue garment over her arm. She smiled when she saw the boys and gestured toward one of the small cottages up the road. “I’m off to see Mrs Miranda,” she said. “She’s going to help me shorten my skirt–and we can all hope that the world doesn’t end before I have a chance to wear it. There’s milk in the refrigerator and there are cookies in the big jar near the stove if you want a snack.”
The boys thanked her. After she disappeared into the Miranda house, Pete looked at his pals and grinned. “I’ll bet there’s no one in the ranch house right now,” he said. “Elsie’s getting her skirt fixed and the others are off doing their jobs. What say we take a look around?”
“Okay, but I don’t think the ranch house is a safe place to hide a field telephone,” said Bob.
“But the house holds clues to the people who live in it,” said Jupe, “and one of those people is our spy! Come on, let’s go!”
13
A Message from Outer Space
THE BOYS WORKED QUICKLY, keeping alert for the sound of someone returning to the ranch house. In minutes they had examined Hank Detweiler’s room. They saw that Hank possessed a number of trophies, which he had won in calf-roping contests, and also clear title to a Ford pickup truck. There was no evidence that he wrote letters or that he ever received any.
“A loner,” Jupe decided, “with little interest in material things and mementos. He’s hardly got any personal possessions.”
“So he wouldn’t even care about gold, right?” said Pete.
Jupe shrugged. “We can’t tell for sure. Maybe he hoards his money. Or maybe he just likes to live simply.”
The boys went on to John Aleman’s room and found a bookcase crammed with books on hydraulic power, on electricity, on engineering, even on aero-dynamics. And under the bed Pete discovered a pile of paperbacks on science and space. Some of the titles were intriguing.
“Here’s one called The Ancient Future,” said Pete, holding up a book. “It’s by Korsakov. Didn’t he write that other book that Mrs Barron talks about?
“Parallels,” said Jupiter. “Yes, he did.”
“Here’s more,” said Bob, who had opened Aleman’s closet and found a carton of paperbacks. He picked them up one by one and read the titles aloud. “The Crowded Cosmos. The Second Universe. And Black Holes and Vanishing Worlds. And lots more.”
“I didn’t know it was so busy in outer space,” said Pete.
“I didn’t know so many people had been there,” Bob remarked. “Is it important that Aleman reads this stuff? Do you suppose he’s studying, trying to figure out how the Barrons will react to things?
“But that’s what really doesn’t make sense,” Bob went on. “I mean, if the soldiers want to hoodwink Mr Barron, aren’t they going at it the wrong way? Mrs Barron is the outer-space nut. So why would crooks work so hard to make him believe in visitors from another planet?”
“They may know that Barron isn’t a man who doubts his own eyes,” said Jupe. “They did stage a very convincing takeoff of a flying saucer, and Barron saw it himself.”
“Jupe, maybe he’s right to believe,” said Pete. His voice was suddenly nervous. “Suppose we’re the ones who are wrong? Suppose there really is a spaceship?”
“No,” said Jupiter. “If there is really a spaceship, why are those imposters camped down on the road?”
“I don’t know,” said Pete miserably. “I just don’t understand. What will anyone get out of faking a spaceship? Mr Barron’s gold? How will a flying saucer help anyone get that?”
“If you were going to leave the Earth and travel to another planet,” said Jupe, “what would you take with you?”
“Oh,” said Pete. “Yeah. I see. I’d take the thing that was worth most to me. But so far nobody’s asked Mr Barron to pack up his gold and fly away.”
“Maybe they’re just softening him up,” said Bob. He piled the paperback books into the carton again, and decided that the book collection might mean nothing more than that Aleman liked science fiction adventures.
“Just the same,” he said, “I’m going to keep an eye on Aleman.”
The boys went down the hall to the room occupied by Elsie Spratt.
“Not very neat,” said Pete when he opened the door.
“It sure isn’t,” said Jupiter. He gazed at the wilderness of tubes and bottles and vials, half-read magazines, paperback romances, and slippers left lying on their sides. There was perfume and makeup and hand lotion on the dresser, all jumbled together with hairpins and a few pink plastic curlers. The dresser drawers were equally messy.
Pete got down on his knees and peered under the bed.
“Does she read science fiction, too?” asked Bob.
“No,” said Pete. “Nothing here but dust and a pair of shoes.”
Jupe turned to the small table next to the bed. He opened the drawer there and saw more hand lotion and more curlers and a few snapshots.
Carefully, disturbing the other things as little as possible, Jupe picked up the photographs.
There was a Polaroid picture of Elsie at the beach. There was another of Elsie sitting on the front steps of a frame house. She was smiling and holding a small ragmop of a dog on her lap. There was a larger photograph of Elsie in a satin blouse and a paper hat. She was seated at a table with a bull-necked, dark-haired man. Behind her were balloons and bunting, and a girl with long, sandy hair danced with a slender, bearded young man.
“Looks like a New Year’s Eve party,” said Bob.