The connection was poor and Tim was forced to call the operator and ask
for a better wire. Finally they were able to hear Collins distinctly.
"I've checked up on the fingerprints," said the expert, "and they tally
with those of Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard, two members of the old Sky
Hawk gang!"
Tim's hand trembled as he heard the words. Shanghai Sam and Pierre
Petard were considered the two most dangerous members of the gang next
to the Sky Hawk himself. The Hawk was gone but Sam and Pierre were
carrying on for him.
Collins talked steadily for several minutes.
"Remember how you chased the Sky Hawk when he had the death ray?" he
asked.
Tim replied in the affirmative.
"From all the dope I can get," said Collins, "Sam and Pierre were with
the Hawk that night, one of them in the plane itself and the other
waiting to help with the getaway on the ground. Of course they'll have
no scruples if you cross their path. In fact, they would probably go out
of their way to meet you. Pleasant prospect, isn't it?"
"Not so pleasant," replied Tim, "for those chaps will stop at nothing."
The reputation of Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard was known to every
police official in the central west. Petard had served in the Allied
aviation forces during the war but he had later been revealed as a
German spy and had thrown his lot with that of the Sky Hawk, former
German war ace. Shanghai Sam came from the opposite end of the world, a
white man who had been king of the crooks in the far east. When the
middle west had offered a richer field he had not hesitated to transfer
his activities and had joined the Sky Hawk and his band.
"Have you found any trace of either of them, except the fingerprints,
near the scene of the attempted robbery?" asked Tim.
"I looked over the reports a few minutes ago," replied Collins, "and
they must have vanished into thin air."
"I'm not so sure but what that's exactly what they did," said Tim as he
thought of the queer marks he had found near the railroad right-of-way.
Collins warned them to be extremely careful of their movements for the
next few days and then hung up.
"Well, what do you think of that?" asked Ralph.
"Just about what I expected," said Tim, "I was convinced that men
trained under the Sky Hawk were behind the attempt. They are the only
ones with the brains and the daring to have thought of such a way to
stop the mail. The only thing that averted a million dollar robbery last
night was the quick hand of engineer Henshaw and his decision to run
through the fire."
"The railroad ought to retire him on a double pension," said Ralph.
"Don't think he'd want to retire," said Tim. "He's the kind who will
stay at the throttle until he is too old to stand the strain of the high
speed demanded today."
Their conversation turned to what might happen in the future and how
best to protect themselves against Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard.
"Our best protection will be to keep on the alert," said Tim. "We'll
keep our eyes open and our wits about us. In the morning we'll get some
pictures of Sam and Pierre from the state police and become more
familiar with their looks. They'll try another job in a few days and
we'll want to be ready to cope with them in any emergency."
They left the office together and long after Tim had gone to bed he
thought of the strange marks. They were connected in some important way,
he felt, with Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard.
The next day Tim went to the public library where he spent the morning
reading all that was available about Pierre Petard, the former war hero.
There was nothing in the library about Pierre Petard the criminal. Tim
also read voluminously about the development of airplanes and of the
many freak planes that had been invented and of a few that had been made
to fly. There was a growing conviction in his mind, but he was not yet
prepared to divulge it even to Ralph. It was so simple that they might
all laugh at him.
When Tim returned to the office, Captain Ned Raymond was talking to
Ralph. The captain had pictures of Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard for
the flying reporters to study.
"They'll try something else soon," asserted the state police official,
"and we'll rely on you boys to help us in running them down. The
railroad has offered a five thousand dollar reward and it will be yours
if you bring about their capture."
"We'll do the best we can," promised Tim, "for the five thousand dollars
would come in handy."
"Just two thousand five hundred dollars apiece," smiled Ralph. "What a
lot of ice cream that would buy," he added.
Captain Raymond cautioned the flying reporters against taking any undue
chances and warned them that the state police were without a single clue
as to where Sam and Pierre were hiding.
"You'll never find them in Atkinson," said Tim.
"Why not?" asked the police official. "It's the largest city in this
part of the state."
"They'll never hide in any city," said Tim. "When you find them it will
be in some isolated section of the state, perhaps in the valley of the
Cedar."
"Have you any clues?" demanded Captain Raymond.
"Nary a clue," replied Tim, "but I've a hunch and I believe in playing
hunches."
Captain Raymond was about to leave when one of the telephones on the
copy desk rang. They heard the copy-reader who answered shout, "Bank
Robbery!"
The words sent a chill of apprehension through Tim and Ralph. Tim had
been convinced that the gangsters of the sky would strike again but he
had not expected it would be within forty-eight hours after their
failure to rob the million dollar train.
"What bank?" he cried.
"Citizens National," replied the copyreader, who was busy writing a
bulletin in longhand as the police reporter dictated the story.
"How much?" demanded Captain Raymond.
"One hundred and ten thousand in cold cash," said the copyreader.
"Let's go," said Tim, and they dashed for Captain Raymond's car, which
was parked in front of the building.
In five minutes they were at the Citizens National Bank building,
elbowing their way through the crowd which had gathered.
Their state police badges got them past the cordon of guards and they
rushed into the lobby.
The robbery had been well planned and executed. The two bandits had
entered the bank just before closing time and secreted themselves in a
washroom. Just as the cashier was about to place the currency in the
vault, they emerged and covered the employees with a sub-machine gun.
One of them took the money, stuffing it in a brown leather portfolio.
Then they slipped out a side entrance and into a waiting car. Twenty
more seconds and they were lost in the heavy traffic.
A clerk had gathered his wits enough to obtain the license and a brief
description of the car. It had been a black coupe, low and powerful,
with license No. 52-621.
State police were scouring the highways but so far there had been no
report of the car. Then came the news that the coupe had been stolen
only a few hours before in a village fifty miles away and toward the
Cedar river.
When that news reached the bank, Tim determined to take up the chase in
the _Good News_ and fifteen minutes after leaving the bank the plane was
soaring into the sky.