The Mystery of Rainbow Gulch by Norvin Pallas

Author:Norvin Pallas [Pallas, Norvin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: boy, reporter, mystery, high school, detective
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 1964-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10.

FATHER WARREN’S COUNSEL

“I’ve got several errands this afternoon, Nel. Mind if I take your car?”

“It’s all yours,” said Nelson, handing the keys to Ted. “Sure you don’t want me along?”

“You’re welcome to come if you want to.”

“Not necessarily, unless you need me. I think Bob and I have about got that old tractor licked.”

“Then stick to your grease. I’ll make out all right.”

“You know,” Nelson offered, “I don’t think it’s so unusual that Cox should take two rolls of pictures of Tony. I’ve occasionally done that myself, when I wanted to enter a picture in a contest, or something like that, and wanted to be sure that I got the best possible picture of my subject.”

“That’s right, but it does show something more than just a casual interest, doesn’t it?”

“Undoubtedly. What do you think, Ted? Could this Henry Cox be a newspaperman?”

“I’d thought of that. He’s certainly got one of the newspaperman’s outstanding traits: curiosity. But I don’t really think so. Usually a newspaperman lets everybody know what he is, and then goes around asking questions of anyone in sight. Cox acts as though he knows more than he’s telling, while a newspaperman usually asks more than he knows.”

Ted settled himself for a long drive. His destination was the city of Monroe, the county seat where the daily paper was published. If he was to help Mr. Fontaine, he felt it important to know just what kind of publicity Tony’s story had received at the time . . . and while he was about it, he intended to fish around for a few other things, too.

Though the road was not heavily traveled, he got stuck behind a slow-moving drilling rig, and was unable to pass it for many miles. Probably intended for local use, Ted thought, or it would be traveling the main highways rather than one of these back roads. But he passed it eventually, and made better time after that.

At the newspaper office, he introduced himself to the editor, who had heard of Mr. Dobson’s reputation.

“Is this a story for you, Ted?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’m here on behalf of friends,” and he went on to describe the incident of Tony’s appearance.

“I’ll turn you over to one of my assistants, and you can look up the back files. But I remember the story quite well. The situation is still the same, then? We run a story, and then if nothing new develops we drop it, and perhaps never hear about it again.”

“Do you remember what sort of response that story received?”

“Oh, we got a few dozen letters, I think, some expressing sympathy, some asking questions or offering tips. Anything that looked at all promising we turned over to the police, but nothing ever came of it.”

“Then I take it the story wasn’t very widely publicized.”

“No, I don’t believe so. It would depend on each individual editor and how crowded his space was for that particular day. And you know enough about newspapers to know it’s usually pretty crowded.

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