He went away, walking rather unsteadily down the road.
The lanky farmer who had befriended the boys came over to them.
“A man like that oughtn’t to be allowed in charge of a plane,” he said gravely. “I’ll bet if the air service people knew about him being drunk he wouldn’t hold his job two seconds.”
“Do you think he can make trouble for us?” asked Frank. “It wasn’t our fault that he crashed. We did our best to get out of his road, and it was just by luck that he didn’t smash right on top of us. I nearly wrecked our roadster getting out of the way.”
“I saw it,” said the man. “I saw it all from the top of the hill. And it’s just like I told Ducroy. I’ll be a witness for you if there’s any trouble. My name is Jim Perrin and people around here know my word is as good as my bond. You lads were no more to blame for that smash-up than I was, and I’ll tell ’em so.”
“It’s mighty good of you, Mr. Perrin,” said Frank gratefully. “If we have any trouble about this matter we’ll certainly call on you.”
“Be sure you do. I’ll help you all I can.”
The farmer went back toward the wreckage. Frank and Joe decided that their trip to the airport might as well be called off for the time being, as they had no desire for a further encounter with Giles Ducroy. So they went back to the roadster and extricated it from its position among the rocks, backed it out into the highway and headed toward Bayport again.
In spite of Jim Perrin’s reassuring words, the lads were disturbed.
They had no idea how far Giles Ducroy might go and they realized that the man would certainly stretch the truth in order to clear himself with the airport officials. Like most boys, they believed that a man in uniform was vested with powers beyond that of the average citizen and they reflected that the officials might be more inclined to believe Giles Ducroy’s word than theirs.
“I think we’d better tell dad about this,” said Frank. “We know we aren’t to blame, but this thing might be serious if Ducroy makes any charge against us.”
“Good idea,” replied Joe.
When they reached home they ran the roadster into the garage, then went into the house. Fenton Hardy was working in his study, but he put aside his papers when the boys came in and looked up at them with an inquiring smile.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “You both look as if you have something on your minds.”
“We have,” said Frank.
“Been in an accident with the car?”
“There was an accident, but we weren’t in it. We saw an airplane crash and we’re blamed for it.”
Mr. Hardy looked serious.
“How on earth could you be blamed for an airplane smash when you were in your roadster?”
Frank then explained the circumstances and told how they had been obliged to take refuge in a lane in order to avoid the descending plane.
“It certainly wasn’t our fault,” he concluded. “We might have been killed if we hadn’t reached the lane in time.”
“You say Ducroy was drunk?”
“He had been drinking. We could smell liquor on his breath.”
“I don’t think he’ll get very far if he tries to lay any charges against you,” said the great detective. “The post office authorities won’t be very easy on him if they discover he had been drinking. And, then, you have this witness, Mr. Perrin. I’m inclined to think they’ll accept his word about how it happened.”
“I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see what Ducroy does,” said Joe.
“Perhaps I can fix things up,” said Mr. Hardy. “I happen to have a good many friends in the postal department. I cleared up a big mail robbery here a few years ago and they appreciated it. I’ll go down right away and have a talk with some of the officials and I’ll try to explain things to them. Don’t worry too much about it.”
“That’s mighty good of you, Dad,” said Frank.
“I’ll say it is!” chimed in Joe.
“Well, I certainly can’t see my sons accused of wrecking an airplane when they didn’t have anything to do with it,” said Mr. Hardy warmly. He got up and reached for his hat. “I’ll go and see what can be done about it right away.”
IV
An Attack
The airplane crash was a front-page feature in the newspapers of Bayport for several days thereafter, and the Hardy boys learned that the post office department was conducting an investigation into the cause of the affair.
Several reporters called on Frank and Joe Hardy to learn their version of the accident, and although the boys told exactly how the crash occurred, they were disturbed to find that considerable space was given to Giles Ducroy’s account. Ducroy was not backward in laying the blame upon the Hardy boys.
“My plane cracked up simply because I was trying to avoid hitting the car,” he said, in an interview. “The boys deliberately drove their roadster ahead so that I was unable to find a landing place until it was too late. They confused me so much that the accident was the result.”
All this looked very bad in cold print, and one of the newspapers hinted that the post office department might take action against the boys if Ducroy’s story was upheld.
“Don’t worry about it,” Fenton Hardy advised. “Don’t let it be on your minds while you are writing examination papers.”
This counsel was sound. The lads were busy writing their final examinations and upon the result would depend their graduation from the high school that year. If they failed, it would mean another term, and a year’s work wasted.
Both Frank and Joe had studied hard and were well up in their work. Under ordinary circumstances they would have had little doubt of the outcome, but with the Ducroy affair on their minds they could not
