THIEVES IN THE NIGHT
The maroon car turned slowly and ran back along the road. At the
wrought-iron, ornate gate before the Sudds’ front steps it halted
suddenly. Billy shot another glance around the car.
A man had stepped out of the shadow of the gate post. The two in the car
evidently recognized their comrade.
“Come on!” the new-comer said, commandingly. “You run on around the
corner, George, and wait for us. Keep your power on. We may be ten
minutes—we may be half an hour; but you wait.”
“All right,” assented the man at the wheel, and the car moved on slowly
while Billy saw the speaker, and the man who had ridden in the back of
the car, walk in at the gate and mount the steps.
The Sudds mansion was high above the street, and the door was gained by
mounting several terraces. The couple of strangers were up three sets of
granite steps when the maroon car slipped around the bend and Billy lost
sight again of the house.
Now, Billy Speedwell had not the first idea what he should do. He
believed these three men were criminals. He was sure this was the maroon
car Dan had chased on his motorcycle on Saturday—the car that had thrown
Maxey Solomons and his auto over the embankment. And the men in it had
robbed the Farmers’ Bank of Riverdale of fifteen thousand dollars!
They had dared come back into the neighborhood. Not only had they come
back, but Billy believed they were here for quite as bad a purpose as
that which had made them notorious in the neighborhood two days before.
An honest car does not usually run without lights. The river road
chanced to be deserted at this late hour (it was now approaching
midnight) and standing where the chauffeur stopped it, this maroon auto
could scarce be seen until one was right upon it.
But Billy dared not climb down behind. The throb of the slowly running
engine shook the car and made noise enough to drown any slight sound he
might create. But the chauffeur, George, was standing up and looking all
about him. He would spy a rat running across the road, let alone a boy.
But, if the other two came down to the automobile, would not they see
Billy clinging behind the car? The thought gave young Speedwell courage
to make a change of base, and make it quickly.
He lifted himself up carefully, sliding his legs into the bag of the
collapsed tonneau top. There he lay stretched out, perfectly invisible
in the half darkness, but able to see all that went on behind the car,
at least.
What he intended to do, Billy had not thought. His jumping on the
machine was one of those impulsive, thoughtless acts for which he was
noted. He very well knew now that Dan would not have done this without
having seen his way clear to escape!
He heard the chauffeur moving about for a few moments. He undoubtedly
looked over his machine; but this scrutiny did not bring him near the
hiding Billy. Then George got into the car and sat ready to speed up the
moment his comrades joined him.
It seemed to the lad in the back of the car that much more than half an
hour had passed. He grew very weary with waiting.
Then suddenly, shattering the silence of the night, came a sound that
startled Billy like a pistol shot. A heavy window went up with a bang.
Billy heard the chauffeur utter a sudden exclamation. Then a voice in
the distance began to shout; but it was so far away that Billy could not
distinguish the words uttered.
It was an alarm, however. He heard a policeman’s rattle, as the
householder who had opened the window swung the loud-sounding
contrivance with a vigorous arm. A woman shrieked, too; then followed
the quick bark of a pistol—a sound that dwarfed the other noises.
Footsteps pounded on the road behind the car, and the two men for whom
it was waiting appeared. One carried a bundle; the other held onto his
arm and seemed to be in pain as he stumbled on.
“He winged me! he winged me!” cried the wounded man.
“Get in and stop your howling!” commanded the other, who seemed to be
the leader.
He pushed his comrade into the tonneau, leaped in himself with the
bundle, and said to the chauffeur:
“Go to it, George! This is getting to be too hot a neighborhood for us
to linger in!”
As he spoke the car leaped ahead. Billy gasped, and then lay still.
Wherever the criminals were aiming to go, it seemed that the boy was
forced to accompany them!
The maroon car sped along the straight stretch of two miles to the next
bend in the road. Billy, looking out behind, saw no pursuit. Around the
curve the car whipped, and they were safe! Or, so it seemed, for there
was no pursuit. Probably there was no suspicion that the thieves had
gotten away in an automobile, for the purring of the car was scarcely
audible, she ran so easily.
The boy could hear nothing that was said by the trio. Sometimes the
sound of voices drifted back to him; but he could distinguish no words.
The machine kept up a swift pace and ran boldly down to Upton Falls.
Billy knew the locality well; but until the car stopped he could do
nothing toward either his own escape, or raising an alarm.
Remembering how Dan had chased this car before on Saturday, and the fact
that the men had cut across country toward the coast villages, Billy was
surprised that they did not follow the same route again; but he soon
discovered that the thieves were afraid of the machine running out of
gas.
As they spun quietly down into the square, Billy peered ahead again, and
saw the flaring electric sign in front of Rebo’s garage. Although they
had not passed another car on the road, Upton Falls was one of the roads
to Barnegat, and there was a good deal of night travel. Mr. Rebo
advertised to cater to the trade twenty-four hours in the day, and Billy
knew there would be at least one man on duty here.
The trio of robbers knew this, too, it was evident. One of them hopped
out of the car the moment it stopped and rapped on the office window. A
sleepy voice replied, and the door was quickly opened.
By this time the two men in the back of the automobile, as well as the
chauffeur, were coated and masked. The dust masks and great goggles
completely hid their features.
Billy had hoped that there would be more than one man at the garage, or
that somebody would stroll along whose attention he might call. He
feared to leap out of concealment and reveal himself to the trio of
thieves.
He knew that one of the Upton Falls constables was supposed to patrol
the streets of the town at night; but he did not show up at this
juncture. The man on duty at the garage went about his work sleepily
enough. It was plain by the muttered conversation Billy overheard from
the gang, that they were impatient, but dared not show how hurried they
were.
“We’d never ought to have had to run down here,” growled the leader, who
was a big, aggressive man, and seemed to have the other two under his
thumb.
“I tell you we burned a lot of gas running up and down, waiting for
you,” was the chauffeur’s reply.
“Well! It’s the back track for ours, anyway. If they look for a car at
all, it won’t be running _toward_ Sudds’ house.”
“You’ll not take the river road!” exclaimed the third man, earnestly.
“The pike,” growled the other.
The man came out with the gasoline can, and there was no more
discussion. But Billy had heard something of importance. He dared not
show himself, for the glare of the garage lights would betray to the
robbers just where he had been hiding.
Nevertheless, he made up his mind to make some good use of the
information he had gleaned. He swiftly drew a letter from his pocket,
tore a blank page from it, and with a bit of lead-pencil scribbled a
line on the paper. The chauffeur was already cranking up the maroon car.
The machine quickly began to throb.
Billy waited until the car had started. He saw that the chauffeur was
making a turn in the square, preparatory to taking the back track as he
had been instructed.
The garage man stood gaping on the walk, and staring after the maroon
car. Billy thrust out his hand and waved the paper in the air. The man’s
jaws came together with a snap. The boy was almost certain that he had
observed the waving paper.
Therefore Billy let it float back into the road. He even had the
satisfaction of seeing the man step into the roadway to pick it up
before the motor car struck a very swift pace. The next moment the
shadow of the trees and houses shut out Billy Speedwell’s view of the
spot.