"But about this Frenchman?"
"Well, he must be a new one. And, now I come to think of it, I
did hear some of the men speaking about a foreigner--a stranger--
being around town last week. It was just a casual reference, and
I paid little attention to it. Now it looks as though there might
be something in it."
"Do you think he'll come to bargain with Eradicate about the
mule?" Ned asked.
"Hardly. That was only talk to make Eradicate unsuspicious. The
stranger, whoever he was, sized Rad up partly right. I surmised,
when Rad said he asked a lot of questions about the mule, that
was only to divert suspicion, and that he'd come back to the
subject of the fire every chance he got."
"And you were right."
"Yes, so it seems. But I don't believe the fellow will come
around here. It would be too risky. All the same, we'll be
prepared for him. I'll just rig up one of my photo-telephone
machines, so that, if he does come to have a talk with Rad, we
can both see and hear him."
"That's great, Tom! But do you think this fellow had anything
to do with the fire?"
"I don't know. He knew about it, of course. This isn't the
first fire we've had in the works, and, though we always fight
them ourselves, still news of it will leak out to the town.
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