“What does it look like?” Joe inquired lazily.
“I’ve never seen it. It’s in a stone room, and they keep the door locked all the time. Uncle Dock boxed my ears once when he saw me near the door.”
“Have you ever seen any of the breakfast food?”
The boy shook his head.
“I’ve never seen any yet.”
“Do they ship it all out?”
Lester hesitated.
“Once in a while Mr. Markel goes into the city with some packages. But they’re never very large.”
“Is Mr. Markel related to you?”
“No. I never saw the other two men before Uncle Dock brought me here.”
“Is he your real uncle?”
“Oh, yes. He has looked after me for about a year now, ever since my father died.”
“Is he good to you?” asked Frank.
“Sometimes. But he won’t let me go to school or have any friends, and if I don’t do just as he says, he beats me.”
“What did he do when he lived in Washington?” inquired Joe. “Did he make breakfast food there, too?”
The boy laughed.
“He didn’t do very much of anything. He used to go out at night a lot and leave me all alone. Sometimes he wouldn’t come back until nearly morning. He told me he was working in a factory. But sometimes funny looking men would call on him and they’d talk for a long while.”
“And he’s never told you anything about the breakfast food?”
“Nothing.”
“How long do you think you’ll be here?”
“I don’t know. Uncle Dock says we may be here for a month yet. But he always has a valise packed so we can go any time.”
The Hardy boys looked at one another significantly.
Was the patent breakfast food enterprise legitimate or illegitimate?
From what the boy had said, there appeared to be grounds for suspicion. It did not seem that Uncle Dock was a scientist after all.
“I wish we were rich now,” said Lester. “I’d like to go away from here and go to school. I wish Uncle Dock would move into Bayport so I could go to school with you fellows. But I guess there isn’t much chance of that.”
“Your uncle is pretty sure he’s going to be rich?” said Frank.
“Oh, yes. He has told me often that we’d be rich some day and that I could have all the friends I wanted then.”
“He must expect the breakfast food to be a success.”
“I suppose so.”
“Has he ever bought any grain from the farmers around here?” inquired Joe.
The boy shook his head.
“No. Some people tried to sell grain to him, but he wouldn’t buy it.”
“Then what is he making the breakfast food out of?”
The boy shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
“I don’t know,” he answered vaguely. “I don’t know much about it. He never tells me anything and he never lets me into the workroom.”
That was the sum and substance of Lester’s knowledge of the activities of his Uncle Dock and his two associates. The boy did not seem to object to being questioned; it was plain that he was so lonesome that he welcomed the opportunity of talking to someone. And the more the Hardy boys interrogated him the more convinced they were that their suspicions of Uncle Dock and the other two men were not unfounded.
“Doesn’t he make you do any work?” asked Frank.
“I have to chop wood once in a while, and bring water up from the spring. But there’s not much to do. It’s pretty dull here. I wish there was more work for me to do. But mostly I just fish and swim and hang around.”
“Doesn’t he let you help him in the mill?”
“No. I’ve offered to help, but none of them will let me come into the workroom.”
“Workroom? Don’t they use the whole mill?”
“Only the stone room where the new machinery is.”
“And the old machinery isn’t being used at all?”
“No.”
At that moment there was an interruption. A shout from the mill attracted their attention and, looking up, they saw Uncle Dock standing in the doorway.
“Lester!” he bellowed angrily.
“Yes?”
“Come up here this minute,” ordered the old man. He left the door and came down the slope toward the river.
“Now I’m in for it,” said the boy. “I suppose he’ll be angry now because I was talking to you.”
Uncle Dock was indeed angry. As he came up to the group he was muttering beneath his breath.
“Get back up to the mill, you young rascal!” he ordered, giving Lester a cuff on the side of the head. “How often have I told you not to be talking to strangers. You talk too much altogether. Get back up to the mill and stay there.”
“We were just chatting—” began the boy, but Uncle Dock silenced him with a blow.
With an appealing glance at the Hardy boys, Lester began to make his way back up the slope toward the mill. Uncle Dock turned toward Joe and Frank, surveying them resentfully.
“What are you doing, loafing around here?” he demanded.
“We’re not loafing. We have been fishing in the river,” said Frank. “Not that it’s any of your business, so far as I can see.”
“I’ll make it my business,” thundered Uncle Dock. “You two fellows had better stay away from here after this. We don’t want you hanging around here.”
“The river is free,” Joe reminded him.
“Keep away from around this mill or I’ll make it hot for you. What was that rascal of a boy telling you?”
“We were just talking,” replied Frank evasively.
“Well, don’t talk to him again. I don’t want him mixing up with all the riffraff of the country and talking to every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes around. I’ll thank you to stay away from here after this.”
Whereupon Uncle Dock, still grumbling indignantly, went stamping up the slope again toward the mill. The Hardy boys, not a bit alarmed by the outburst, but feeling that they had gained valuable information that day, began to move slowly down the river bank away from the vicinity of the old mill.
XVIII
Suspicions
“What do you think, Joe?” asked Frank,
