George A. Warren

“ Addressing Chief Bates, Mr. Grey asked, “What have the boys been telling you?”
This time Paul was on his feet. He felt that Jack was correct in his demand that the man identify himself further. And the fact that the man was trying to evade it, aroused his own suspicions. “Why don’t you identify yourself?” he demanded. “How do we know who you are? For all we know, you may be a member of the gang, as we have thought right along, and only pretending that you are a government man.” ”

“ Paul continued, “We have to tell the police right away before it is too late.”
“But wait a minute,” remarked Jack. “Do you think they will believe us. They are liable to think that we are inventing it all.”
[177]
“We have to convince them, that’s all there is to it.”
“We most surely do,” added Ken. “There is nothing we can do ourselves.”
“Oh, yes, there are lots of things we could do ourselves if we only thought of it,” commented Jack. “I don’t know how wise it is to tell the police. They may just take us for a bunch of crazy kids.”
“As I said,” repeated Paul, “we have to convince them.” ”

“ Mr. Grey walked over to the desk. Pausing for a moment to eye the secretary, she blushed and left the room. When the door was closed, he took a badge out of his pocket and showed it to the chief.
“Oh!” exclaimed the chief. “I’m glad to meet you.”
“Who is he, Chief Bates?” demanded Jack.
“A government man,” was the snappy retort.
“Then why did we find him among the gang?” demanded Jack. “Anyone can get himself a badge. Let him really identify himself.”
They all eyed Mr. Grey. Paul and Ken felt horrified by Jack’s demand but they felt that he was right, reasonable. ”

“ That evening, Jack came to Paul and said, “Listen, I’m going to tell my mother that I am having supper at your house tonight. But instead, I am going down to Jones Street and nose around a bit.”
“That’s a good idea. But suppose I go with you.”
“No, I would rather go down alone. It is too difficult for two people to be hiding together, darting in and out, and all that.”
“You are right, Jack. Be careful, though. Don’t get into any trouble. I feel guilty letting you go alone.”
“Oh, don’t talk like an old woman.” The boys laughed at that. “I can take care of myself. ”

“ The boys huddled together, examining it. “Why, it is just a plain, blank, white card!” exclaimed Ken.
“That’s right. But what is the meaning of it?” asked Jack.
There was no answer. The three boys were mystified. The whole story sounded very odd and the card made it all the more perplexing. “From all the evidence at hand,” remarked Paul, “I am convinced that there must be something wrong with the man who walked off with the child.”
“But that’s just it,” exploded Ken. “If there is something wrong with the man, he must be found out and put away into an asylum. ”

“ Mr. Wilson shook his head. “That is out of the question,” he answered.
“To come back to the point,” said Jack, “what do you think we ought to do, Paul?”
“About what?”
“The mystery of the white card, of course.”
“I suppose we will just have to wait and see. Perhaps we will find some clue one of these days which will solve it.”
“If we wait until the mystery is solved by itself, we will never know the solution,” was Ken’s statement.
“Too bad I can’t help you,” said Mr. Wilson as he rose to go. ”

“ Thus argued Jack.
“Maybe yes and maybe no,” was Paul’s pert statement.
“Paul,” demanded Ken, “you don’t mean to tell me that you really believe this man, this so-called maniac, committed the robbery, do you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Tell me, how do you figure it out?”
“It’s very simple,” was Paul’s answer. “Only one book was stolen. Of course, the book was an old edition and valuable, but valuable only to a man like Professor Link. In actual money, the book is worth perhaps ten or fifteen dollars; but if the thief was going to sell it, he wouldn’t get more than four or five dollars for it.” ”

“ Ken was saying, “It is rather strange that somebody should have been in that house when it is supposed to be empty and deserted.”
“But why?” demanded Paul. “Being empty and unoccupied, anybody might walk in and look around.”
“Very true,” commented Jack, “but why should he sock me, that’s something I can’t understand.” He put his hand behind his head and winced with pain. “Suppose,” he continued, “some person does stray into the house and while he is there I enter. Does that mean that he has to bang me on the head and run away? It is not logical. There must be something to it.” ”

“ They sat so closely together, listened so attentively to the narrative, that an outsider seeing them would have taken them for conspirators. In a sense they were that: they were conspiring on how to capture and rid the neighborhood of a maniac. When Jack had at last concluded, Ken let out a long whistle. Paul whispered, “That proves all my suspicions.”
“Wait a minute,” said Ken. “Let’s re-consider the whole situation. Both of you seem to have the impression that the man is a maniac, crazy. But how do you know that he didn’t contrive the whole thing just to put on a show for Jack’s sake? ”

“ Venturing out from their hiding place, they listened carefully to the opening of the trap door, one man descending, then the second man descending and then, plop, the trap door closing again. The boys looked at each other. Paul smiled while Jack wiped the perspiration off his forehead with a muffled sigh of relief. Paul opened the door noiselessly and they stepped out into the open. At a sign from Paul, Ken was in an instant over the fence and away. A moment later Jack and Paul were out of the yard and running down the street. ”

“ Then I also remember that Paul approached me one day and asked me where Jones Street was and I told him.”
“My God!” cried Jack, “I have followed the wrong man all the time.”
“Wait a minute,” Paul said tensely. “You haven’t followed the wrong man. On the contrary. You know what?” They all looked at him curiously. “There is a man in this town who looks very much like you, Mr. Wilson, and I am convinced that he is the guilty party.” ”

“ Grey? Is it not possible that Mr. Grey knew he was being followed and purposely led Jack to that very house, then sneaked up behind him to frighten him so that he would never return? Isn’t that very plausible?”
“Say,” cried Jack, “if what you say is true, that fellow certainly made a mistake.”
“And how!” echoed Ken.
“Now if we know all that,” continued Paul, “that makes Mr. Grey a member of the gang of counterfeiters.”
“But what about the fires? And leading Betty away. And those white cards, what about them? And the robbery at Professor Link’s?” ”

“ At the Stormways home, Jack rushed up the steps of the porch. “You wait here,” he called over his shoulder to his companions.
Two minutes later he came rushing out of the doorway. “Here it is,” he cried, waving the white card.
The two cards were compared; they were identical in every respect. “This is getting to be serious,” whispered Ken.
“Terribly serious,” added Ken. “We must do something about it. The man must be absolutely crazy.”
[31]
“Crazy is not the word,” said Paul. “Dangerous is more fitting. ”

“ Jack slowed up as he turned the corner. Mr. Grey of course did not realize why, but as soon as the corner was turned, he saw for himself. The gangster didn’t know it was a dead end street. It was too late when he realized it. Slamming on the brakes, the car seemed to shiver and bounce into the air. Evidently Moonshine Charlie had lost control of his machine, for it ran onto the sidewalk, almost crashed into the brick wall of a house, and then leaped through the wooden fence and into the lake.
Jack pulled the car up to the curb and stopped. Mr. Grey and he rushed up to the lake. ”

“ Paul laughed and joked, “Whether we convince him or not, wouldn’t it be a fine predicament if to crown all our effort and glory, Chief Bates throws us into jail.”
“What for?” demanded Ken.
“For any number of reasons,” answered Paul. “He might put us away to cool us off. Or he might jail us for doing detective work without a license.”
“You don’t need a license to be an amateur detective,” argued Ken.
[180]
“Amateur is a perfect word for it,” ironically commented Jack. “He will think we are a bunch of amateurs running wild.” ”

“ They went around to the back of the porch. The doctor looked at Paul’s wound and said, “Let’s go into the office and I’ll fix you up.” The boys followed. At the door the doctor turned to them and said, “You go home, fellows; it’s late.”
Jack compressed his lips and gritted his teeth. He wanted to ask if the wound was serious or if there was anything he could do to help. But the doctor seemed not to want them around. He waited until Paul and his father entered the house and closed the door. Ken whispered, “All right, Jack, let’s go. There is nothing more we can do here.” ”

“ Instead of hiding anywhere, he nonchalantly took up a position across the street and pretended that he was waiting for someone. He didn’t have to wait long. Pretty soon he saw Mr. Grey emerge from around the corner and walk up Main Street. He wondered where the man was going and what he might be up to. For several seconds he debated with himself whether to follow him or to wait, as he had previously decided, for the grocery man. He chose to wait. About fifteen minutes later he saw his man come out from the rear of the house. “Very clever,” he thought to himself. ”

“ He raced upstairs and threw open the first door that he came upon. No one there. He dashed for the next room. An old man and woman, in their late seventies, if not older, were rushing back and forth, picking up things and dropping them. They were so bewildered, they did not know what to do. As Paul dashed in, they rushed at him and clung to his arms. They were absolutely speechless; they did nothing but tremble. Paul shook them off and rushed to the window, threw it open and cried to the boys below, “Get a ladder! Get a ladder!”
He looked for the firemen but they had not yet arrived. ”

“ Paul was at a loss what to do or say. On the spur of the moment, he remarked, “There is a man who wants to see you. I will take you to him.”
“That is very nice of you. Where is he?”
“Straight ahead, down Main Street.”
“That’s fine. Let’s hurry, because I don’t want to keep him waiting. I don’t like to keep people waiting.”
Just then Ken came running up and took the man by the other arm. Together they led the man to police headquarters and into the detectives’ room. Walters was there and as soon as he saw the boys and the man, he jumped to his feet. “Where did you get him?” he cried. ”

“ Grey. He is not a carpenter. You couldn’t mean him.”
“No, I guess not. Thank you.”
“It’s quite all right.”
Ken left the store much excited. He walked briskly till he came upon the boys. They fell in alongside of him. “Well?” asked Paul.
“His name is Mr. Grey,” gasped Ken.
“What else?”
“That’s all. The woman did not tell me any more.”
“But the name alone is not enough,” cried Jack. “What does he do? Where does he live?”
“I couldn’t ask her such questions,” Ken defended himself. “She would become suspicious and tell me nothing.”
“Let’s not argue,” cautioned Paul. ”

“ In a flash, he noticed how the door worked; the handle of the door was pushed through on the other side, and thus a means was left for an exit; but on leaving, if the handle was pulled in, whoever was in the cellar was either imprisoned or had to use the trap door in the empty house.
As the door was thrown open, the two gangsters whom Paul had noticed with the fat fellow and the grocery man, stepped forth. Seeing Jack, one of them whipped a revolver out of his hip pocket. The second one, however, grabbed his mate by the arm and exclaimed, “Don’t shoot. He is only a kid.” ”

“ And from now on we have to take it more seriously and do something.”
“What can we do?” asked Bobolink.
“You know what?” remarked Paul. “If I didn’t think we would be laughed at, I would tell the police.”
“Aw, go on,” said Ken. “If all the evidence you have is the white card and the fact that Jack followed [72] a suspicious looking person, they would think that you were either crazy or trying to put something over.”
“That’s the trouble,” asserted Paul. “In that case it is up to us to solve the mystery and put an end to it.” ”

“ Mr. Grey ran forward and whatever he could find, he piled up against the door, shutting off their return into the cellar. The gangsters were now trapped in the second house. The government man ran up the stairs, and cautiously emerged from the house, to make sure his own men did not fire on him. Coming out into the open, [208] he directed his men to close up on the house.
In the meanwhile, the gangsters, realizing that their escape was cut off at both ends, set up sub-machine guns at both ends of the house and began to rake every inch of ground within sight. ”

“ Paul felt himself become tense. He wondered if they would attack him. He answered, “I wasn’t spying, Mister. I was just walking.”
“Then why did you look goggle eyed at every house as you passed down the street?”
“Just looking as I was walking.”
The man squared his jaw and gritted his teeth. [146] “Some day,” he hissed, “you’ll go blind for seeing things you ain’t supposed to. Who are you?”
Paul began to edge away so that he would not have the second gangster directly behind his back. But he was cornered and he had no way to move. He answered, “My name is Morris Paulson.” ”

“ Dr. Morrison was beaming. He had always been proud of his son. He said, addressing his wife, “He is all right; he is one boy who can take care of himself.”
“I’m sure of that,” answered Mrs. Morrison, “but for my peace of mind I wish he would keep out of trouble. I hope college will do that—keep him out of mischief.”
Just then the maid entered and announced that Paul was wanted on the telephone. He went into the foyer and picked up the receiver. It was Jack. “Hello.”
“Hello, Paul. Are you in trouble with your family about the affair?” ”