The Strange Message in the Parchment Read Online Free PDF Page B

very cordial. He said, “If you want to see me, I’m glad you called up for an appointment. I don’t like people who climb over my fence uninvited!”
    Nancy apologized for having done this but added in a pleading voice, “Junie Flockhart and I were eager to see you. When we thought the bell didn’t work, we took a chance. Please forgive us.”
    “What do you want?” Rocco asked abruptly without acknowledging the apology.
    “I have come across some very interesting information that I would like to discuss with you—but not over the phone.”
    After a moment of silence on the other end of the line, Mr. Rocco said, “You know I am a very busy man.”
    “Oh, yes,” Nancy replied, “but we won’t take up very much of your time. Please. We’d like to talk to you as soon as possible.”
    “How about next week some time?” the man asked.
    Nancy’s heart sank. Next week! She could not wait that long. “We were hoping that perhaps we could see you tomorrow,” she said.
    There was another long pause, then Mr. Rocco said, “What’s the hurry?”
    “I’ll be able to tell you that when we get together,” Nancy answered. “Couldn’t you spare a few minutes tomorrow morning, say at nine o’clock?”
    “Nine o’clock! I make my workers get up at six!” the man said.
    “Any time you say will be all right with us,” Nancy told him.
    Mr. Rocco reluctantly agreed to eight o’clock and added, “Don’t be late. I can’t stand tardiness.”
    Nancy thanked him and cradled the phone. She went to tell Junie of their early appointment.
    “Oh, Mr. Rocco is impossible, just as my father said!” Junie exclaimed. “But we’ll be there. In fact, I suggest we arrive at his home by quarter to eight so he won’t get mad. By the way, congratulations for persuading him.”
    Nancy smiled. “It was a bit of a problem, but it worked.”
    The two agreed to go to bed early in order to awaken in time for their conference.
    The following morning they arrived promptly at quarter to eight. In response to the bell the gate swung free. A man opened the door to the house and said he would see if Mr. Rocco had finished his breakfast. Nancy and Junie looked at each other but said nothing. What about Mr. Rocco’s bragging that he made his workers get up at six o’clock?
    Nancy thought, “He’s a bit of a slave driver.”
    In a few minutes the farm owner appeared. He neither smiled nor shook hands. Instead he growled at them, “I told you not to be late but I didn’t want you to come so far ahead of our appointment, either!”
    Junie said that the girls would wait until he was ready. Both she and Nancy felt that this unpleasant man tried to intimidate anyone with whom he came in contact. When Rocco realized that his method did not work on the girls, he scowled and paused for several seconds before replying to his callers.
    “You don’t have to wait. But be quick about what you want. I haven’t much time, you know.”
    Without hesitation Nancy said, “We are very interested in the parchment you sold to Mr. Flockhart. Did you bring it from Italy?”
    “Yes,” Rocco replied. “I bought it at an auction there.”
    “Can you tell us anything about it?” Nancy went on.
    “I don’t know anything about it. At first I liked the figures painted on the parchment, but a while ago I got tired of looking at them, so I decided to sell the picture. It’s very fine work and brought a nice price. I guess Mr. Flockhart recognized a good thing when he saw it.”
    “The parchment’s lovely,” Nancy agreed. Then she asked Mr. Rocco if he had ever taken the parchment out of its frame to look for anything of interest that might have been written on the back.
    The man stared at his visitors intently. “No,” he said. “It never occurred to me. Did you find something?”
    The two girls glanced at each other. They thought it best not to tell him what they had discovered.
    “Oh, we studied it, but there wasn’t much on the back,” Nancy