Free Freddy and the Flying Saucer Plans by Walter R. Brooks Page B

them, who had never been in the jail before, they would tell him stories about how Joe never washed anything. They said he had a wash boiler hung upside down over the kitchen table, and when he had cooked a meal he put all the pans and dishes on the table and let the boiler down over them on a pulley. They said he said this kept them from getting dusty. Then when it was time to start another meal, Joe would pull up the boiler and use all the pots and dishes over again. Usually a new prisoner didn’t have much appetite for the first few days. But later, when he had seen how clean Joe kept the kitchen, he got it back.
    Well, after Joe had gone, one by one nearly all the prisoners came up and tapped on the door and assured Freddy of their friendship and that they didn’t believe for a minute that he was a traitor. They all said they had told nobody else, and that they had all pretended to be ready to start the lynching party at a minute’s notice. Freddy felt pretty good when he finally got to bed. Maybe he and Jinx could get their trip after all. He slept like a top all night.

CHAPTER
    9
    Nothing much happened for a few days. The spies had learned through the radio that Freddy had been arrested and was in jail, and the Centerboro hotel and boarding houses were again full, and a dozen or more tents were up on the fairgrounds. Freddy spent most of his time in his room, watching the spies peering through the fence or peeping out from behind trees at the jail. He kept back from the window, as there was no use letting them know which room he had. He didn’t go out into the grounds much either, because he hadn’t yet decided which of several plans he was going to use to get the cylinder into the hands of one of the spies.
    After the first day he did go down to the dining room for his meals, and though at first the other prisoners kept up the pretense of wanting to lynch him, most of them, even the newcomers who didn’t know him, didn’t believe that he intended to sell the plans to foreign agents. Probably because none of them would have so contemptibly betrayed their country, they could not imagine that anyone else would. Only the Yegletts, the four racketeers from the city, still scowled and sneered at him.
    On the third day he was taken down to the courthouse to appear before Judge Willey. Every spy in the neighborhood attended the trial; the courtroom was jammed to the doors and many prominent local residents and friends of the accused were unable even to get inside. The Bean animals, however, were provided with seats, since they were admitted as character witnesses.
    But the trial was a short one, as Freddy at once pleaded guilty to the smothering and theft charges. Since there was no proof that he had sold or even attempted to sell the plans to the representatives of any other nation, he was not even accused of treason, although there was a good deal of scowling and muttering when he was brought in, and when he stood up to be sentenced the room resounded with angry boos. Judge Willey sentenced him to five years at hard labor, but in consideration of his hitherto blameless reputation, the hard labor part was remitted. He was then returned to his cell at the jail.
    Through Horace and other operatives of the A.B.I., Freddy was in constant touch with Uncle Ben and his friends at the farm. Uncle Ben had got the real plans from the First Animal Bank and was working hard at the saucer engine. The spies hadn’t bothered him. One or two had been sneaking around, but as Uncle Ben had given out that the plans Freddy had stolen were the only ones in existence, and that he was now working on a new type of phonograph that would play both sides of the record at the same time, they were all now concentrating on Freddy.
    This of course was what Freddy had wanted, since Uncle Ben was free to work on his engine. Life in the jail was pleasant enough; there were games to play and TV to watch and lots of good things