Daredevils by Anne Capeci

Author:Anne Capeci [Capeci, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781561457472
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2004-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

STRANGERS IN SCENIC

Mr. Elliston!” Billy cried.

He looked wildly around the sick ward. The only other people in the room besides the strange men were the two heavily bandaged patients.

Where have Dr. Riley and Nurse Jeffers gone? Billy wondered.

“What’s the meaning of this?” said Finn’s mother. If she was scared of the two men, she didn’t show it. She marched right over to them, her hands on her hips.

“You get your hands off my uncle!” Finn added. He ran to join his mother. Billy, Dannie, and Philip followed right behind them.

The two men stopped. Mr. Elliston was still sandwiched between them. He saw Finn’s mother, and his face went pale.

“Rose?” he said weakly. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. But Billy saw a glimmer of hope, too.

Finn’s mother nodded. Tears shone in her eyes. She wiped them away, then turned back to the men who held Mr. Ross.

“I don’t know who you think you are,” she said. “But my brother is in no condition to be moved!”

The shorter man shifted his beady eyes from Mrs. Mackenzie to the children. He nodded at the larger man, and they let go of Mr. Elliston. Finn’s uncle swayed on his good leg.

“Ross!” Finn’s mother hurried to help him back to his bed.

“Er … excuse me, ma’am,” said the man with the beady eyes. He took off his hat. “I’m Mr. Smith. Joseph Smith. My friend and I have some business with Mr. Elliston.”

Billy recognized the man’s rasping voice. It was the same one he and Finn had heard threatening Ross at the air show.

“We know the kind of business you’re mixed up in. Smuggling bootleg liquor!” Dannie burst out.

Mrs. Mackenzie looked at Dannie in surprise. “Hush up, now. This is no matter for children,” she told her. Then she turned to Ross.

“Bootleggers?” she said. Anger flashed in her eyes. “So that’s the kind of folks you’re associating with now?”

“It’s not like that, Rose,” Mr. Elliston began.

Finn’s mother didn’t give him a chance to explain. “Finn almost had me believing you were different now. But you haven’t changed a bit. Not since you stole that money from Avery’s store back in Cedar Plains!”

Billy gaped at Finn’s uncle. So that was the awful thing he had done!

“I was young,” Mr. Elliston said quickly. “Foolish. I’m not like that anymore, Rose. Truly, I’m not.”

There was a pained look on Mrs. Mackenzie’s face. It was as if she wanted to believe her brother—but wasn’t sure she could.

“Isn’t it bad enough you ran off to the war and left Mother and Father to pay back all the money?” she said. “Now you’re getting our young Finn and his friends mixed up in your no-good business, too!”

“Uncle Ross isn’t mixing with bootleggers!” Finn insisted. “They were trying to hurt him because he won’t have any part of their smuggling!”

Billy nodded. “Mr. Elliston helps to put scoundrels like them in jail,” he added. He turned to Finn’s uncle. “Like those robbers in Kansas. Right, Mr. Elliston?”

“That’s right,” the pilot said.

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