"I wouldn't think they'd still be around. The robbery was pulled Thursday night, and this is Saturday," Horace replied. "I haven't the remotest idea what men you're talking about, though. Everything I know about the robbery is right there in the paper."
"I see it is. It has your by-line on it. Where did you get your information, Horace?"
"From the police and other sources," he replied a little vaguely. "I'd like to interview the caretaker of the estate, even though the police have already. That robbery was carefully planned. He may have had a hand in it. What do you think, Judy?"
"Heavens!" she exclaimed. "I don't know what to think!"
"Honey, see what you make of it," said Judy, and handed her the paper. "You say in the _Herald_, Horace, that the caretaker swears no one passed his cottage on Dark Hill Road for two days. Is it a private road?"
"Yes," he replied. "But the police think the robbers could have sneaked in from the national forest which borders the estate. But the forest rangers keep pretty close watch of anyone who enters it. They have to now, with the weather so dry and windy. A forest fire would get out of control fast."
"Some of them are already out of control, aren't they?" asked Honey. "I saw something about it on the back of the paper while Judy was reading the front."
"Aha!" laughed Horace. "Now I know where to put the news I want peeping females to see. Perhaps the Woman's Page should be the back page so that hubby can enjoy the headlines while wifey ponders the recipes."
"Speaking from wifey's point of view," Judy retorted, "she is just as interested in the headlines as he is. She might even want to know the story behind them. You've only told half of it, Horace."
"The paper had to go to press. Papers do, you know," Horace reminded her. "The other half of the story is probably happening right now. This forest fire on the back page was spreading. It may get around to the front page. It may even get as far as the Paul Riker estate, where the robbery took place. I've never seen the main house, but I've been told it's an immense wooden structure with a cupola on top."
"Like some of the mansions in Farringdon?" asked Honey.
"No doubt. They were all built around 1880 and if you ask me they weren't beautiful, even then. Most of them ought to be torn down. They're regular firetraps besides being so hideous that nobody wants to live in them. Modern houses like the new ones going up in Roulsville are more to my taste."
