THE LOOT AND THE LOOTERS
“Is there plenty of gas?” he asked as he leaped on the deck of the
_Rocket_, addressing himself to Paul and Ralph.
“Plenty. We got it at the gas station up the street, and had just got
it when we saw you coming. How is your father?” It was Paul speaking.
“Getting along all right, the doctor says,” Frank answered with a
smile of gratitude to the thoughtful boy who, even in his moment
of excitement, knowing that they were now proceeding on an errand
fraught with much adventure, had not forgotten the trials through
which his friend had gone. “And mother and Helen have arrived and are
with him,” he added.
“Good!” shouted Lanky.
In another moment, with the police chief and his men aboard, the four
boys got the _Rocket_ out into the stream, turned its nose against
the current, and started away.
“Now, Allen,” the chief edged over close to the cockpit where Frank
was maneuvering the boat, “can you tell me what this story is?
Wallace tried to tell me about it, but I haven’t got it all in my
head.”
Frank replied by telling the chief that he would be glad to tell him
the story in detail just as soon as he got the _Rocket_ around and
going at a better speed.
“They’re ahead of us only so much as the time since we landed—how
long has that been, fellows?” he asked the boys.
“A little more than half an hour. Time has been going slow, all
right, but things have been going fast.”
Lanky had peered at his wrist watch before replying.
“That’s long enough to put them up at Jed Marmette’s place,” Frank
muttered, while the bow of the _Rocket_ stood up from the river’s
surface and the muffled exhaust told them they had full speed ahead.
“Keep the spotlight ahead of us, Lanky, and watch close, so I can
talk to the chief. They’re just about landing there now if they
haven’t had any trouble.”
Frank detailed the story of the day’s exploits. He began with the
search across the Parsons’ lawn; the discovery of the place where the
rowboat had been landed and which they had seen on the night of the
robbery; continued with the story of their lunch under the willows
where the same rowboat had in all probability hidden from them on
that same night; went on through the part of having to do with the
discovery of the Marmette farm, with the old rowboat tied at the
bank, of the trip of Jed Marmette to the barn, of his burying a small
box under the grape arbor, and of their looking into the trunk.
He told of the things which they had seen in the trunk; then of their
return to town for the purpose of informing the chief of police;
then of the sudden summons for a trip to Coville; ending with the
race back up the river after they had learned at the island of the
proposed trip of another motor boat that night to the farm of Jed
Marmette for the sole purpose of getting away with the loot from the
Parsons place.
“Have you any idea who the men are?” asked the chief, when Frank had
finished the story.
“I haven’t the slightest, Mr. Berry. The only thing that I am
guessing at is that the _Speedaway_ is the boat that left the island
to-night and went up ahead of us.”
“What about Fred Cunningham? Did you see him? Is he on the
_Speedaway_? Surely, he is not mixed up in this thing!” and the chief
of police showed his surprise.
“No, I did not see Cunningham. I don’t know who is running the boat,
and I am not sure it is the _Speedaway_. I said I was guessing.
I couldn’t see well in the dark what boat it was, but it had her
lines.” Frank wished to get his position very plain and definite with
the chief.
Silence prevailed for several minutes, while Frank looked far ahead
along the river, trying to make short cuts so that every foot of
the distance which could be would be saved. The only sound was the
exhaust of the _Rocket_ as it slipped its best along the Harrapin
River.
“I am trying to picture this whole thing over again. Will you tell me
why you went back to the Parsons place?”
“Sure,” Frank replied like a shot. “Lanky Wallace and I both had
the same idea—that the rowboat we met on the river that night as we
came home was the same rowboat that we saw in front of the Parsons
place at the river bank. And both of us were puzzled about the fact
that those men left in a car after Mrs. Parsons had come home in a
car, yet her chauffeur had not seen the robber’s car—and everything
pointing to their being in the house all the time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me these things at the hearing?” asked the chief.
“Because I wanted to tell what I knew and not what I was guessing at.
Also, chief, don’t you remember that you practically accused Lanky
and me of having a hand in the robbery?”
The chief did not make answer to this.
“And why did you try to have me come to your office when you saw I
was in trouble? Something was the matter. Some one had put some kind
of a notion into your head. Is that so?”
The chief was standing at the cockpit, saying nothing while Frank
continued to pour out his thoughts.
“Those men down at the island said to-night they had the police
fooled, so they’ve caused some kind of a story to get to your ears.
Now, chief, there’s more to this than we think. They planned things
out pretty well, and it is only an accident that we have any trail of
them.”
Frank continued to talk at and to the chief while he kept an eye on
the river, covered as it was with the spotlight handled by the lean
lad. He went on:
“I’ll make the guess that they got the loot into that rowboat a short
distance up the river, then one of them took the auto into town while
the others saw to the safe conduct of the stuff to Jed Marmette’s
place. And they’ve trusted the stuff with Jed because they felt that
he would not get away. But he was double-crossing them, just as
thieves will do.”
“I guess that part is right.” The chief spoke for the first time in
several minutes.
“If they get that stuff packed into suitcases at Marmette’s place,
they will load it aboard the boat they’ve got, and then, to play
safe, they can run up the river for a short distance and get away by
train,” continued Frank. “Only, they’ll get away without the jewels
in that box unless some one takes an inventory.”
The chief started noticeably.
“By jove,” he exclaimed, “that’s a fact! They are taking suitcases to
pack that stuff in, and that means that Jed will have to make good
with the jewels. Wonder what that might do to things?”
Frank was developing the same idea in his own mind. The whole thing
was exciting to the last degree. There might be a showdown between
Jed Marmette and these two men who seemed to have engineered and
carried out the plans for the robbery—in which case there might yet
be a chance to catch them.
“There’s the place!” Lanky called out in a hoarse whisper. “Shall I
keep the spotlight open or shut it off?”
Frank peered far over the wheel and they saw they had reached the
island where the willows grew so far over the river.
“Turn it off, Lanky. I’ll slip in as easily as I can, though we’ve
got to keep the motor going. Every one keep still.”
When the light snapped out they were in total darkness for several
seconds, but finally their eyes accustomed themselves to the peculiar
light that stretches over bodies of water at night.
Frank reduced the speed of the _Rocket_, and it seemed that the
exhaust did not make as much noise as they might have expected.
However, any one with an ear for such noises could easily have
recognized the exhaust of a motor-engine from a long distance.
“Look! See that light?” The chief pointed to a yellow spot which
dodged here and there for a moment through the bushes and small trees
along the river bank on Marmette’s side.
“I’m going in right here and we’ll crawl up there,” Frank suggested,
looking at the chief, who nodded his approval of the scheme.
In a few minutes they touched at the bank, running slowly with the
motor cut off, the three boys poling with the oar and pulling along
by grabbing at bushes and trees until the _Rocket_ touched at a firm
spot.
All crawled off the craft and made their way up to the bank through
the bushes. They were about a hundred yards below the flicker of
light which they could see moving toward the bank.
“I’ll take the lead,” said the chief. “You boys be ready with your
guns and we’ll catch these fellows.” He was issuing instructions to
his policemen.
Slowly, stealthily, in Indian file, they made their way along
the river’s bank, now and then catching a glimpse of the yellow
lantern-light.
Not a word was spoken by any of them, though the boys behind the
police were breathless in their excitement. Frank wanted to see more
of what was going on, but he had to sacrifice his desire to the
general scheme of keeping quiet and unseen as well. The darkness of
the night was an ally of the robbers.
Now they were close enough to hear angry words passing between men,
but not plainly enough to give them an understanding.
A few paces more and they were fairly upon the group of four
men—three of them together, while a fourth one held a lantern and led
the way. They were on the path which the boys had followed before,
the one leading from the river bank to the barn.
Stealthily, like cats, lifting their feet slowly, without causing the
slightest noise of a bush or twig, the entire party moved along with
their chief still leading, never having stopped his advance upon
these men.
Now they were within a few yards of the spot where they would cross
at right angles the path leading to Marmette’s barn. And the little
group from Jed Marmette’s was at the crossing!
With the little light shed by the lantern over the scene, they saw
that two men were holding a third one, each carried a suitcase, and
the man with the lantern also carried a traveling case. The loot was
ready to be gotten away with!
“Look here, Marmette,” one of the men spoke in low but harsh tones,
deadly anger buried in his words. “We’re going to play fair. You’re
to get a hundred dollars. That’s what you get, and we’ll pay you. But
you’ve got to tell us where that box is.”
“I told you I don’t know anything about no box,” sullenly replied the
man in the center.
One of the men put down his suitcase as they came to a halt on the
river bank. The man with the lantern also set down his bag.
The fellow who had set down his suitcase first now reached back
of the center man and brought a rope more tightly around him. The
watching party saw that Jed Marmette was bound tightly with a heavy
rope, his only freedom being his legs.
“You know that the chest was not in that place when we put it there.
Some one uncovered it. You were the only one who knew where it was,
and you uncovered it. You’ve been into it. You got that little box
out of there, and we want to know where it is.” The second man spoke
tensely, hoarsely, a severe threat in every tone of his low-voiced
words.
Again the prisoner said he knew nothing of the box.
“All right then, bo, we’ll see what we can do about it,” and he, too,
set his suitcase on the ground.
With this he helped the first man tighten the rope around Jed
Marmette, pinioning his arms securely to his sides, fixing him so
that he could offer no resistance.
The party of trailers stood in the shadow of the bushes, looking on
at this drama between thieves, catching every word that was said,
seeing every move that was made.
The chief made no attempt to regain the silver which was in all
probability in the three suitcases.
Paul and Ralph wondered why he waited. Why did he not step forward,
armed as all of the police were, and get these fellows while the
chance was good? There were only three, really, as the fourth was
trussed so that he could do nothing.
But the chief was waiting for further disclosures. It was evident
they were getting more and more information as this drama unfolded
itself, and all of this conversation could be used against the
thieves when the trial came.
“Now, Jed, we’ll give you one more chance. When we leave here you’ve
got no more than a Chinaman’s chance.”
“I don’t know a thing about where that box is,” gruffly, morosely
came the answer from the prisoner.
“If you don’t tell us where that box is, do you know what will
happen?” The leader was speaking slowly, intently, trying to make Jed
know how serious the matter was.
But Jed was quiet this time.
“When we start out in that boat—” his thumb indicating the motor
boat—“you go with us. And when we get to the middle of the river you
go overboard. We’ve got enough rope to tie your feet, and you haven’t
got a chance. See? Now, tell what you know, or down you go.”
Every one waited for the man to reply, which he did:
“All right, I’ll tell. That young feller that has that motor boat
came up here with some of his friends and got the box!”
He was accusing Frank Allen of getting the jewels!