changed the subject and asked about the day of the picnic when Joe thought he had seen Ken
at the window.
'I remember,' the younger boy said. 'I did see you all outside. I never knew you were looking for me.'
'When we told Mr. Docker,' Frank went on, 'he said Joe must have been mistaken.'
Ken remarked slowly, 'He probably was worrying about the plant's security policy. He and Mr.
Markel were always reminding me not to talk to anybody.'
'During the time you were working at the Elekton gatehouse, did you see any strange or
suspicious person near either the plant or the mill grounds?' Frank asked.
'No,' said Ken in surprise. Curiosity overcoming him, he burst out, 'You mean there's some crook loose around here?'
Frank and Joe nodded vigorously. 'We're afraid so,' Frank told him. 'But who, or what he's up to, is what we're trying to find out. When we do, we'll explain everything.'
Joe then asked Ken if he had seen anyone in the area of the mill with a bow and arrow.
'A bow and arrow?' Ken repeated. 'No, I never did. I sure would've remembered that!'
Frank nodded and switched to another line of questioning. 'When you delivered envelopes,
Ken, did you always take them to Mr. Victor Peters?'
'Yes,' Ken answered.
The Hardys learned further that Ken's delivery trips always had been to Bayport-sometimes to
the Parker Building, and sometimes to other office buildings in the business section.
'Did Mr. Peters meet you in the lobby every time?' Frank queried.
'That's right.'
'What was in the envelopes?' was Joe's next question.
'Mr. Markel said they were bulletins and forms to be printed for Elekton.'
'Were the envelopes always marked confidential?' Joe asked.
'Yes.'
'Probably everything is that Elekton sends out,' Frank said.
'Sounds like a complicated delivery arrangement to me,' Joe declared.
Ken admitted that he had not thought much about it at the time, except that he had assumed
Mr. Peters relayed the material to the printing company.
Frank and Joe glanced at each other. Both remembered Frank's surmise that the bulky Manila
envelopes had not contained bona fide Elekton. papers at all!
'What does Mr. Peters look like?' asked Joe, a note of intense excitement in his voice.
'Average height and stocky, with a sharp nose. Sometimes he'd be wearing sunglasses.'
'Stocky and a sharp nose,' Frank repeated. 'Sunglasses.' Meaningfully he asked Joe, 'Whom does that description fit?'
Joe jumped to his feet. 'The man who gave Chet the counterfeit twenty at the railroad station!'
The Hardys had no doubt now that the mysterious Victor Peters must be a passer for the
counterfeit ring!
CHAPTER XVI
A Might Assignment
GREATLY excited at this valuable clue to the counterfeiters, Frank asked, 'Ken, who gave Mr.
Markel the envelopes for Victor Peters?'
'I'm sorry, fellows, I don't know.'
The Hardys speculated on where Peters was living. Was it somewhere near Bayport?
Joe's eyes narrowed. 'Ken,' he said, 'this morning we found out that sometimes you'd ride up that dirt road to the deserted farmhouse. Was it for any particular reason?'
'Yes,' Ken replied. 'Mr. Markel told me a poor old man was staying in the house, and a couple of times a week I was sent there to leave a box of food on the front porch.'
'Did you ever see the 'poor old man'?' Frank asked. 'Or the green panel truck?'
The Hardys were not surprised when the answer to both questions was No. They suspected the
'poor old man' was Peters hiding out there and that he had made sure the truck was out of sight whenever Ken was expected.
The brothers were silent, each puzzling over the significance of what they had just learned. If the truck was used by the counterfeiters, how did this tie in with its being used for the sabotage at Elekton?
'Was The Arrow in league with the saboteurs? Did he also have something to do with the
envelopes sent to Victor Peters?' Joe asked himself.
Frank wondered, 'Is The Arrow-or a confederate of his working at Elekton-the person
responsible for the warnings, the attack on us, and the tampering with the Sleuth?'
'Ken,' Frank said aloud, 'I think you'd better come and stay with us for a while, until we break this case.
Maybe you can help us.'
He did not want to mention it to Ken, but the possibility had occurred to him that the boy might be in danger if the counterfeiters suspected that he had given the Hardys any information
about Victor Peters.
Ken was delighted with the idea, and Mrs. Smith, who knew of Fenton Hardy and his sons, gave
permission for her young charge to go.
As a precaution, Frank requested the kindly woman to tell any stranger asking for Ken Blake
that he was 'visiting friends.'
'I'll do that,' she agreed.
Ken rode the back seat of Joe's motorcycle on the trip to High Street. He was warmly welcomed
by Mrs. Hardy and Aunt Gertrude.
'I hope you enjoy your stay here,' said Mrs. Hardy, who knew that Frank and Joe had a good reason for inviting Ken. But neither woman asked questions in his presence.
'Your father probably will be out all day,' Mrs. Hardy told her sons. 'He'll phone later.'
While lunch was being prepared, Frank called police headquarters to give Chief Collig a report on what had happened at the deserted farmhouse.
'I'll notify the FBI,' the chief said. 'I'm sure they'll want to send men out there to examine that truck and take fingerprints. Elekton,' the chief added, 'had no record of any employee answering The Arrow's description.'
'We're working on a couple of theories,' Frank confided. 'But nothing definite so far.'
After lunch the Hardys decided their next move was to try to find out more about the contents
of the envelopes Ken had delivered to Peters.
'We could ask Elekton officials straight out,' Joe suggested.
His brother did not agree. 'Without tangible evidence to back us up, we'd have to give too many reasons for wanting to know.'
Finally Frank hit on an idea. He telephoned Elekton, asked for the accounting department, and
inquired
where the company had its printing done. The accounting clerk apparently thought he was a
salesman, and gave him the information.
Frank hung up. 'What did they say?' Joe asked impatiently.
'All Elekton's printing is done on the premises!'
'That proves it!' Joe burst out. 'The setup with Ken delivering envelopes to Peters isn't a legitimate one, and has nothing to do with Elekton business.'
Meanwhile Ken, greatly mystified, had been listening intently. Now he spoke up. 'Jeepers, Frank and Joe, have I been doing something wrong?'
In their excitement the Hardys had almost forgotten their guest. Frank turned to him
apologetically. 'Not you, Ken, We're trying to figure out who has.'
Just then the Hardys heard the familiar chug of the Queen pulling up outside. The brothers
went out to the porch with Ken. Chet leaped from his jalopy and bounded up to them. His
