DANNY Orlis stared at his cousin, his heart pounding frantically. Clarence must be the one who was waiting upstairs! Who else would be wanting to talk to Larry?
"I didn't lie to you," the young woodsman protested. "I had decided that I'd have to keep my promise, but I haven't called Clarence."
Larry wasn't listening. His face had gone white, and the sweat was standing out on his forehead.
"Tell him that I've gone!" Larry stammered. "Please, Danny!"
Danny shook his head.
"But they'll put me in reform school if they get me!"
At that moment the basement door opened, and Clarence Gray was standing at the head of the stairs, his big frame almost filling the doorway.
"Hello, Danny," he said in surprise. "I didn't expect to see you."
"I...I live here," the young woodsman managed.
"That's something," Clarence replied. "Here you are helping me, and the guys we're after live right in the same house with you." He turned to Larry. "Are you the one who owns the sending set?"
Larry shook his head, his lips quivering.
Clarence Gray walked over to one of the chairs in the corner and sat down.
"Now listen, son." he said gently, "it isn't going to do any good for you to act like that. We've got all the evidence we need."
Larry's cheeks flushed angrily. "Yes, and I know where you got it too!" he snapped. "Danny squealed on me!"
"No," Clarence replied evenly. "Danny didn't squeal on you."
"I was going to keep my promise, Clarence," Danny said earnestly. "Less than ten minutes ago I told Larry that I was going to get in touch with you."
"I'm glad to know that." Clarence had taken his little notebook and pencil from his pocket and turned to Larry.
"Ordinarily," he said, "we have a little difficulty in locating illegal broadcasters, Larry. But this time our Adcocks—that's the apparatus we use to locate broadcasting stations—hit the spot right on the button."
Larry was staring at the floor.
"Nobody gets away with this sort of thing very long," the government agent went on. "You hadn't been on the air thirty minutes last night until we knew within a mile of the spot where you were doing your broadcasting."
"But the guys didn't mean any harm, Clarence," Danny put in.
"The people in the plane that crashed in the mountains last night because Larry and his friends interfered with the radio beam didn't mean any harm either," Clarence said coldly.
A look of horror flashed across Larry's face.
"We can thank God that nobody was seriously injured," Clarence went on, "but $150,000 worth of airplane was destroyed."
He asked the questions rapidly, jotting down the answers in his notebook. He got Larry's license number, the names and addresses of all the guys who had taken part in the broadcast, and a list of those who had stations of their own.
"W-what are you going to do now?" Larry managed at last.
"We'll see about that later," Clarence told him.
He got to his feet and picked up his hat. "I'll be wanting to talk to you, Danny."
When he had finally gone, Larry turned anxiously to the young woodsman. "What can I do?" he asked tensely.
Danny walked slowly over to the door and closed it. His throat was hot and dry, and his heart was a lump of ice.
"I don't know," he answered.
"I should have listened to you," Larry went on.
Danny said nothing.
"If we had quit broadcasting when you asked us to, that plane might not have crashed, and we wouldn't be in so much trouble."
"It's too late to think about that now," Danny told him. "I don't know what you can do to get things straightened out, but I do know how you can get the courage to face whatever happens." Larry looked at him in disbelief.
"You know, you're in real trouble now," Danny said, "but God knows all about it. He's anxious to help."
"What do you mean?" Larry asked quickly.
"I don't mean that God will straighten out all this mess," the young woodsman replied. "He doesn't usually work that way. If we do something wrong, we have to pay the penalty for it here on earth, even though it is wiped off the record in Heaven. But He will stand by you and help and guide and strengthen you if you give your heart to Him."
"I...I'd always thought a Christian was pretty much of a sissy," his cousin answered, more to himself than to Danny.
"You'll find out differently after you give your heart to Him," Danny said.
Just then Aunt Lydia called them up to breakfast.
Larry got to his feet hurriedly. "I...I'll talk to you again tonight, Danny."
The young woodsman had intended to walk to school with Larry, but while he was down in his room getting his books, his cousin hiked off alone.
Danny tried to study that morning, but for some reason he couldn't. All he could think of was Larry and Clarence. He tried to see Larry a couple of times between classes, but couldn't find him. And at noon he waited for him on the school steps.
"Have you seen Larry?" he asked Glen as his Christian friend came up.
"He wasn't in school this morning."
"Are you sure?"
"Come to think of it," Glen said after a moment, "I saw Larry and Joe Peterson walking up the Iron Mountain road as I came to school."
For an instant Danny could not speak. Joe and Larry had been walking toward the mountains on an obscure little trail that went up Iron Mountain. That meant only one thing! They were running away!
“People were in that plane that crashed last night because of you!”