Part 34 (2/2)
Having no weapon, Salt and the publisher walked on either side of the prisoner, while Penny brought up the rear.
”You don't need to hang onto me,” he complained bitterly. ”I ain't going to try to escape.”
”We're sure you won't,” returned Salt, ”because we'll be watching you every step of the way.”
At first, as the four tramped down the tracks toward the station, the prisoner showed no disposition to talk. But gradually his curiosity gained the better of him. He sought information about Professor Bettenridge's arrest, and then tried to build up a story that would convince his captors he had only been an employee hired on a weekly basis.
”I suppose you know nothing about the _Snark_ either,” Penny observed bitterly. ”After Ben Bartell and I pulled you out of the river, you repaid us by stealing his watch.”
To her astonishment, the man reached in his pocket and gave her the timepiece.
”Here,” he said gruffly, ”give it back to him. I won't need it where I'm going.”
”Why did you take the watch when it didn't belong to you?” Penny pursued the subject. ”Especially after Ben risked his life to pull you out of the river.”
”Oh, I don't know,” the man answered impatiently. ”I needed a watch, so I took it. Quit askin' so many questions.”
”Why were you pushed off the _Snark_?” Penny demanded, refusing to abandon the subject.
She did not expect Webb to answer the question as he had refused to explain at the time of his rescue. To her surprise, he replied grimly:
”They tried to get rid of me. We had a disagreement over a job they wanted me to pull.”
”What job was that?” Mr. Parker interposed.
”Dynamiting the Conway Steel Plant.”
The words produced a powerful effect upon the publisher, Salt, and Penny.
At their stunned silence, Webb added hastily:
”You understand, I didn't do it. They got sore because I refused to pull the job.”
”Why, that doesn't make sense,” Penny protested. ”Evidently, you are mixed up on your dates, because the Conway Plant explosion took place before the night we rescued you from the water.”
”Sure, I know,” the man muttered, trying to cover his slip of tongue.
”They were afraid I'd squawk to the police and that was why they pitched me overboard.”
”Who pulled the job?” Salt asked.
”I don't know. Someone was hired to set off the explosion.”
Webb's story was accepted but not believed. Penny knew from previous experience that the man was more inclined to tell a lie than the truth.
Convinced that he might have been implicated in the explosion, she suddenly recalled his visit to the office of Jason Cordell. Could his call there have any hidden significance?
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