seems to me that the accident gives you a legitimate excuse,” Ted offered. “Can’t you get a postponement?”
“There’ve been a couple of postponements already. Even if the court allows it, it will make a bad impression on the public. They might get the idea he’s afraid to testify. I’ve warned him against any more postponements.”
Ted was silent. It seemed to him that if you needed a postponement, then you needed it, whether it was good public relations or not. He waited, but the lawyer was silent—with the kind of silence which precedes the asking of a favor, Ted thought. He decided to inquire:
“Can’t the microfilm be replaced?”
“Not very easily, Ted. There was only the one copy. Of course we still have the union records, but getting them filmed over again will take days of work. You know, Ted, it’s possible that that film is still out there at the scene of the accident, lying on the ground. Do you think you could take a run out there and look for it?”
“Tonight? It wouldn’t be very easy to find it in the dark.”
“I know it’s a terrible imposition, Ted, but the matter is awfully important to us, and Mr. Prentice said he felt I could call on you for any tasks that might come up.”
“I guess I could,” Ted agreed slowly. “Are you coming, too?”
“I wish I could, Ted, but I don’t think I would be of much help in finding the film, and I’ve got several important things that have to be done before the hearing. You’re almost the only one I can ask, since you’re familiar with the accident scene. You can borrow my car if you want to.”
“Thanks, but I can ask the friend I was with this afternoon. If he can’t make it, I’ll stop by for your car. Are you at your office?”
“Yes, and I’ll be here till past midnight. Well, thanks a lot, Ted. Mr. Prentice and I both appreciate this very much. Call me when you get back, will you?”
“All right, I will. Good-by, Mr. Waring.”
“Good-by, Ted. Good luck.”
Nelson was agreeable to the trip, and provided them with some strong flashlights as well.
“But that place is beginning to haunt me,” he admitted as they started out. “I’ve got a feeling that I’m going to spend the rest of my life just going to and from Echo.”
At the scene of the accident, Nelson drew his car well off the road, and left the lights on. Though the wreck had been removed, they remembered the spot very distinctly, and explored the hillside as carefully as they could, following the course the car had taken, until they came to the place where it had stopped. The ground was frozen hard, but the trampling of the weeds showed where the garage men had been at work, and the course they had followed in towing out the car. But though the boys flashed their lights about in a wide circle, they were unable to find anything that resembled a roll of microfilm.
“The worst of it is,” Nelson decided, “that it might be lying right out in plain sight, and we could easily find it in the daytime. These flashlights are all right, but they aren’t the sun.”
“You looking for the wreck?” a voice hailed them. “A car with a hook on it came and towed it away.”
They turned their fights on the hill and saw a boy of about ten or eleven. He had a hockey stick flung over his shoulder, and ice skates dangled from it.
“How’s the ice?” asked Nelson, deciding to try a friendly approach.
“Cold,” said the boy. He came down the hill with no sign of timidity.
“We’re looking for a small package which may have been lost out of the car,” Ted explained.
“What did it look like?”
Ted made a vague motion with his hands. “I guess it was about this big—”
“Was it in a cardboard box?”
“Maybe it was, or maybe it fell out of the box.”
“Probably in a tin container,” Nelson spoke up. “Why, did you see a package?”
“No.”
“What’s your name?” Ted asked.
“Jerry Speck.”
“Do you live in Echo?”
“No, I live in that house over there.” They followed his nod, and could just see the roof of a house over the crest of the hill.
“Well, Jerry,” Ted went on, “we’re very anxious to find this package. Did you see anyone around who may have picked it up?”
“Nope. Just us guys who went skating, and the policeman, and the tow-truck men, and the scavenger.”
“The scavenger!” Ted and Nelson exclaimed together.
“Yes.”
“Who is he?” Ted questioned.
“He lives over that way, in a shack by the dump. Everybody says he’s awfully rich. He’s got a million dollars buried someplace.”
“Was this scavenger here when nobody else was around?”
“Yes. He was looking around the car, and then we came and he went away. Then the policeman and the tow-truck men came. We saw them pull the car up the hill. That was when we were on our way home from the pond before supper.”
“Well, Jerry, it’s possible that the package is lying somewhere around here but we can’t find it in the dark. How about you looking around in the morning to see if you can find it?”
“Is there a reward?” Jerry demanded.
“Reward? Oh, yes, I’m sure Mr. Waring would be glad to pay you a reward if you find it.”
“Five dollars,” said Nelson grandly, and added in an undertone to Ted, “It’s not my money.”
“Five dollars!” the boy exclaimed. “Sure, I’ll look for it. What do I do if I find it?”
Ted took out his pencil and notebook. “Here’s my telephone number. It’s long distance, and you can call collect. I need it before nine o’clock.”
Jerry took the paper excitedly and thrust it into his pocket as he ran off home.
“We’re going to look up the scavenger, aren’t we?” asked Nelson. Ted nodded and they started off in the direction Jerry had pointed out earlier.
“First time I ever heard one of those dump-pickers called a scavenger,” Nelson observed. “I suppose it’s the same thing as a beachcomber, except that he doesn’t have a beach.”
“Sure, and they’ve all got a million dollars buried somewhere,” Ted remarked as they walked along. “He might not have the film, though. Maybe one of the boys picked it up.”
“No,
