James A. Braden

“ Wish Phil had been there,” said Billy earnestly, telling Paul all about the interview later.
“Gee whizz! We’re getting warm, though, I’ll bet!” cried Jones with enthusiasm.
“If it wasn’t just guesswork that Pickem or Smith—whatever his real name is—knows something about this man in the lockup, who in turn knows something about our car! Pickem certainly does know something about the Torpedo, but he’s gone. Even if he might help us, it’s too late.” ”

“ By a similar process the planks bridged the way up the steep embankment of the road, running directly over the low rail fence. The ascent was steep but with a quick start Billy made the upward run nicely. The machine’s long body swung prettily around at the top, once more on the open highway.
Finding his services were of no value in the moving of the car, Mr. Peek had been making further search inside and outside the icehouse. Now Billy and Paul joined him. But all their eager scrutiny was without reward. ”

“ Do you reckon he could tell and mark what those robbers did with their boodle?”
“Sure, if he says so. I can see most as well with my hand over one eye as with my two eyes.” Paul in pantomime covered one eye and winked at Phil, who was obliged to laugh. “Well, what does this tramp do? Why, he waits round in hiding until them galoots go off after burying their loot. Then he, like a fool, goes off to sleep. When he woke up his good eye pained him so that he only marked the spot as best he could and struck for the nearest house, which happened to be this old tavern.” ”

“ Instantly Billy remembered that Alfred Earnest and Alex Hipp were familiar with all this neighborhood. He started to speak but a quick second thought bade him refrain.
“Gosh! We’ve got the car and we’re mighty glad of the planks to help her up to the road again!” cried Paul. He did not grasp the significance of Mr. Peek’s words as Billy did. “We’re going to take her right to Griffin, ain’t we? We’ll telegraph Phil and Dave in a hurry if we can only find where they’re at.” ”

“ Fobes himself had termed a “bluff” and, in the vernacular, nothing else. Whether the prisoner thought so or otherwise, for a few seconds he made no reply. Then as if feeling his way carefully, he said: “Somebody lookin’ for me, eh? Tell ’im where I am. Or mebbe he knows it.”
“It ain’t no go, I tell you,” said Fobes sharply. “There’s a little matter of a patent dinner basket on you straight. Swipin’ grub from boys, too! Ain’t you ashamed of yourself? You don’t happen to remember what you left in the raincoat, do ye?”
35Billy and Paul were far from approving this kind of questioning. ”

“ But I do know and you know now, that the machine you found was probably the one stolen from Harkville. Who stole it? We do not know, but it is pretty plain that no one other than the original thieves had the car on that South Fork road, wherever they may have been with it since first it disappeared. Now that lands in the very vicinity of your car, at the time of your loss, the fellows who stole one automobile. And, having stolen one, no doubt they would just as lief take another and better one. The man who was seen with your basket may have been only a tramp. ”

“ We had quite a time passing him, for it was where the road runs along a side hill, with the bluff on one side and a steep embankment on the other. We stopped our car for his team was scared and after some delay they passed. They seemed to appreciate what we did, instead of rushing by and probably scaring the whole outfit into the ditch. The girl was rather pretty.”
“Ah, you boys!” The widow smiled shrewdly. “Always an eye out for the girls! But don’t you allow yourselves to think that what a girl looks, so she always is underneath the surface.” ”

“ If Earnest or Hipp had had any knowledge of the stealing of the Auto Boys’ car, however, they concealed the fact amazingly well. They appeared most hearty in their congratulations upon the machine’s recovery, as Billy and Paul told the story to them and to Rev. and Mrs. Earnest at the latter’s home. Later the cordial young minister and his wife were taken for a ten-mile spin. Then Mrs. Earnest insisted that all the boys come in for a little lunch. Worth and Jones had abundant time at their disposal as they must remain up to meet Phil and Dave, and cordially accepted the invitation. ”

“ Impatient for word from Phil or Dave, restless in their inactivity, the two boys sat for a long time at the large open window of the hotel. A stranger entered.
As the young man—he seemed to be twenty-one or two, perhaps—sat down near the boys, he remarked that he was waiting while his car was undergoing some repairs at the garage. A conversation concerning automobiles was the most natural result imaginable. Put two or more motor enthusiasts together and invariably they will soon be talking. ”

“ We’re doing famously, but—” Without a sign of question, or any movement save a quick, short nod to say that he heard, MacLester obeyed Bob Rack’s order. Like a flying specter, the Big Six shot down the little grade where the lonely Right Fork branched off, and on and on.
Not a word was spoken. Scurrying masses of cloud swept the sky above and only at intervals did rifts appear where the moon shone through, relieving for the moment the heavy darkness. Over to the south and back to the west the inky clouds were rolling up like wind-tossed mountains. ”

“ Billy’s show of wrath in his closing sentence made Chief Fobes laugh boisterously. “Liar?” said he when he could catch his breath. “Did you expect he’d be anything else? I tell ye both,” and his eye took in both Billy and Paul, “you might just as well forget this man. We’ll have most ten days yet to make a charge of larceny against him for stealin’ the basket. If there’s anything to be had out of him we’ll get it. All’s you can do is have them East Side fellers (Hipp and Earnest) come around here sometime and see if they can identify this Coster as the man they seen on the South Fork.” ”

“ Mr. Peek explained briefly the operation of the long-silent water wheel. There was a choke in his voice, and in one way the lads felt relief when they all were in the outer air again.
“It wa’n’t a right convenient place to have a mill, but we had to take our work to where our power was. Couldn’t hitch power up an’ make it carry us anywhere, in my time, as you do with your automobile,” observed Mr. Peek.
Paul said he would like to take a walk around the old pond. Billy said, “Yes, let’s do it, if Mr. Peek doesn’t care.” ”

“ I’ve come to the conclusion that those fellows lied about seeing a man in a raincoat. Who else saw him? Don’t we know that young Earnest can lie like a beggar? Is Hipp any better?”
“But there’s the raincoat! Saw it ourselves!” Billy argued.
“Oh, that might belong to anybody! Plenty of old raincoats lying around,” persisted David.
“I’m afraid you’re on the wrong track, 16Mack,” Phil Way urged quietly. Then immediately he added: “We must look up trains at once. Billy’s plan may not be very promising but, goodness, we can’t sit around and wait for the car to come to us!” ”

“ Just then, round the further end of the curve came a farm wagon loaded with hay, one man driving as he sat cramped against the dashboard, while on the load behind was a boy and a girl, both somewhere along their teens in age. When the farm team saw the purring car they balked, tried to shy dangerously towards the slope, but the man behind reined them up so sharply that they were halted midway of the road and about twenty feet from the car. Dave at once shut off the power and the purring ceased. ”

“ He was a sullen looking chap, like and yet unlike the stranger whom, with his partner, Billy had briefly seen that day at Feeney’s. His eyes, roving about, avoided Billy, while he apparently looked for some further loop-hole that might offer another chance to resist or afford a possible escape.
“No good, old man,” remarked Worth, standing over him with the tube in hand, ready for any move the bound man might make. “You’ve got to go with us.” ”

“ Here Billy made a comical face as he began: “N-a-n, Nan. That, translated into plain lingo, means pretty girl—ouch! Quit, Phil!” For Phil, seated in the tonneau with Worth, had administered a decided pinch.
On sped the Big Six, easily showing what she 159could do along an increasingly rough road that might once have been a much traveled highway but now showed ample signs of the neglect of later years. The wooded tracts increased, growing larger in area; the half cultivated fields evinced even more of the neglect and shagginess that wait on lands wholly or in part abandoned by man. ”

“ It was Phil who saw significance in this story as, at dinner, Billy and Paul told all that had taken place with them.
“It’s a mighty mysterious business,” declared 11Way. “Don’t you see it? Here’s an automobile,—quite likely a stolen automobile, at that—abandoned and left to run itself on a lonely road. No one can discover what became of the driver of that car. He was certainly driving when the machine left Ferndale. Three miles further on, and near the old Peek place, he is missing. Now isn’t it likely that the same man is still sneaking around in that neighborhood?” ”

“ Ewing insisted that they should remain until the morrow.
“Won’t cost you much. We’ll cut the regular bill in half, for you’re home folks, aren’t you?”
And it may be said that she had her way. The Big Six was put in the hotel garage and the boys were made comfortable in two adjoining rooms; and in the morning even Phil was astonished at the exceedingly small bill which they had to pay. He could only thank the comely widow, who laughed it off with:
“If you boys are simply on a vacation trip, you’re bound to spend more than you think you will. ”

“ In fact, so gloomy were their surroundings that after eating Phil Way proposed that they should divide themselves, two in each party, and explore to the north and south of the highway for a mile or so, making a detour into the forest as they went. ”

“ Dave and Phil had just time to catch the 1:24 train—one of the few fast trains that stopped at Griffin—and they promised to telegraph from Albany the same night, if they found anything worth reporting.
“I am glad we are making a start toward something, anyway,” Worth remarked, when he and Paul had waved good-bye to the two on the train, and turned toward the hotel again.
“Tell you what, though, Bill! Let’s just keep right on the job every minute, ourselves, and maybe we can surprise the fellows—get hold of something awfully important.” Paul was pretty serious. ”

“ You’re driving. You watch the road. Me and Phil and Billy will keep up a lookout that will not miss that old tavern, ghost or no ghost.”
“S’pose the old rookery has been burned or made way with?” Dave propounded this while curving his course round a steep embankment that made the roadway barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. Before Paul had time to retort a rumble ahead broke in on their ears. Dave instantly turned towards the bluff on his right, for the shelving embankment sloped steeply to the left. ”

“ Dave at once saw what Phil was up to. He wanted to save the car from the bull’s attack, for the animal was in a mood to attack anything bright enough, gay enough. Before Phil had finished, Dave sprang into the driver’s seat, while Paul and Billy, both assisting the girl, jumped into the tonneau. Dave released the clutch and off they went, the bull missing the rear end by hardly a yard. ”

“ Billy Worth asked Chief Fobes. The boys and the officer were again in the latter’s office.
“I suppose I can if you leave it to me, but I can’t if you don’t,” Mr. Fobes answered. “Look ’e here now. That fellow’s in here for ten days. Plenty of time yet to make him loosen up, but it ain’t goin’ to do no good. What could he have had to do with swipin’ your car? Nothin’, that’s all. Might as well think he picked it up and shoved it in his pocket! There’s nothin’ to it. He’s a bum, that’s all, an’ is havin’ some fun tryin’ to make us believe he does know something about your automobile.” ”

“ After the wounded man was placed on a cot in a small shed room attached to Feeney’s not very commodious house, Pat took Phil and Worth aside, while Dave and Paul remained with the stranger. It was felt intuitively that the man should be closely watched. Why none of them knew exactly, except that their methods with Billy and the taking of the car indicated that something was wrong, somewhere. ”

“ Would switch ’em all around, in an old barn behind their shop, change wheel sizes, change engines, fix ’em up so no man could tell his own car if he saw it. Then they slipped ’em off to the big cities and sold ’em. Now, right there, you’ve got a real tip, you take it from me!”
It is the meanest kind of wickedness to direct suspicion against any person without good cause. Also it is criminal. Paul Jones and Billy Worth realized this. Yet was it not true, as the stranger said, that Willie Creek and Chief Fobes were great friends? ”

“ Then his eyes closed and he was off in another apparent swoon.
“Come on, Billy,” said Phil. “Let us be off! Are the things out of the car?”
216“Most of them,” replied Dave. “I put ’em in the porch. Don’t be gone longer than you can help.”
In they jumped, Phil at the wheel, and the car purred softly down the old woods road towards the Ghost Tavern. Whether either of them knew their departure was observed by the Feeneys was not important, and gave them no concern. Both now felt that no time should be lost in finding out if the partner of Horr was yet in that vicinity. ”

“ Peek enjoyed the trip. He was quite silent but his deep, pain-marked eyes lighted up noticeably.
“It’s a grand thing to be young,” said he, at last.
Neither blacksmith nor storekeeper at Ferndale had heard the slightest inquiry for the runaway automobile, which was not a runaway at all at the time it passed through that village the previous Friday. Nor had they heard anything which might cast light upon the theft of the Big Six.
“You’ll find that whoever had this Torpedo car is the same party that hooked your machine,” said the blacksmith. “Stands to reason. ”

“ Feeney,” put in Billy, “don’t you worry! We boys are not going to cost you a dollar more than we’ll pay back. We like you folks.” Here Billy winked boldly at Nan who laughed as she slightly blushed. “Anything will do us.”
“You sure are good boys,” nodded Mrs. Feeney. “You were nice to my folks on the way from the hay market. Pat and me are glad to have ye. But these others—real strangers, that might be different.”
“Oh, Billy,” called Paul from the shed doorway, “please come here!” ”

“ The best driver take the wheel. I’ll sit beside him. The rest of you ride behind and if I may ask so much, 96no one will leave the car except as I may request it.”
Immediately Phil nodded to Dave to take the driver’s place. In an instant Bob Rack was in the seat beside him, the others in the tonneau.
“Just as fast as is consistent with a reasonable degree of safety now,” Mr. Rack said, placidly. “First, to Creek’s garage.”
The Big Six moved swiftly away, throwing always a flood of light ahead, its gleaming oil lamps seeming to be but a streak of white to those who watched it pass. ”

“ Billy asked.
“They all act that way, pretty much. It’s only once in a while that they give up anything by makin’ ’em believe as there’s a party lookin’ for ’em; and of course every tramp knows other tramps.”
“Maybe so,” replied Worth, thoughtfully, “but I do believe your Mr. Coster is not what exactly you call a ‘bum.’ Even if he doesn’t know anything about our car, there’s some 61other matter on his mind and he is a lot more worried about it than he wants us to guess. ”