Oh, boy! Laugh! I guess, to use Pee-wee’s favorite words, those men
thought we were some _deep mystery_. I guess they didn’t know what to
think at all. Anyway, two of them took the dummy in the Ford and the big
man rode with us—pity the dummy! That was the hardest part of all his
adventures.
It was awful funny to hear Harry talking on the front seat. He said,
“I’ve often wondered why you fellows don’t get after the
garage-keepers—they’re the real robbers. I’d be willing to take my
chance with a highwayman, but with a garage-keeper, nix.”
In Lurin, we all stopped in front of a nice white house that had a sign
on the door that said:
GEORGE WINTERS
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
I guess poor little Skinny thought our mad career of evil was up at
last. Pee-wee looked kind of scared, too.
We all went in and stood in front of a desk and George Winters, Justice
of the Peace, sat on the other side of it. He wasn’t cross and ugly at
all. He said good morning, and he thought it would be a nice day.
“Not if we go to jail it won’t,” Pee-wee said.
“Will we have to stay as much as ten years?” little Alf, wanted to know.
Justice Winters said, “Well, what’s all the trouble?”
The big man told him that they gave us the chase out of Utica. Can you
beat that? A flivver chasing a Cadillac! Excuse me, while I laugh. He
told the Justice how we had reached Utica very early in the morning and
had stopped at a hotel, and how a porter who was cleaning up in the
sheds had seen the things under the back seat of the car. Then he said
how we left very suddenly and, several hours later, were seen passing
through Utica again with a different number on our machine. He didn’t
say anything about Mr. Ragtime Sandbanks. Gee whiz, I didn’t blame him
for that.
But Harry wasn’t going to let him off so easy. He said, “You forgot to
tell the Justice about the murder we committed. We wish to plead guilty
to that.”
Oh, gee, that poor man; he had to tell about the whole business, how
they hunted around in the water and found the rag dummy. That Justice
scowled, kind of, and I guess he didn’t know what it all meant, but
anyway, he had to smile. “That shows we’re innocent,” Pee-wee spoke up,
“because if a thing isn’t alive, you can’t murder it, can you?”
Justice Winters sort of smiled and he said, no, you couldn’t.
After he had listened to what all those men had if say, he said, “Well,
you wish to make a charge against these people?”
“I want ’em held for complicity,” that’s what the big man said.
“That’s one thing we didn’t do, anyway,” Pee-wee said; “complicity. How
did we complicit?” Justice Winters smiled kind of, and began rooting
around among a lot of papers. He said, “Well, I’m glad you caught these
fellows, because they’re wanted.”
The big man said, “I knew there was something wrong when I heard of
their coming back through Utica with a different license plate and
getting off the state road and cutting up through the hills. They was
looking to get off the main line of travel.”
Justice Winters said, “We have already received a phone message to have
them stopped when they passed through the town. Judge West of Crystal
Falls, lost no time in having them traced. It is fortunate that you
caught them, though our own authorities were on the watch.” He began
rooting among his papers some more, and pretty soon he picked up a long
envelope.
You ought to have seen Pee-wee and Skinny. They looked as if all hope
was lost. Even Harry looked kind of puzzled. But those men—oh, didn’t
they look chesty!
“I knew there was something wrong about ’em,” the big man said.
Justice Winters said, “Yes, you’ve made a good capture. I was talking on
the ’phone with Judge West last night, and promised to have this party
stopped if they passed through. Very early this morning I received a
special delivery letter from him. I will read it to you.”
“I’m glad we were able to do a favor for the Judge,” that big man said,
awful important like.
“We haven’t found his valuables yet, but we will. This oldest fellow
knows where they are.”
“Right the first time,” Harry said; “I do.”
Then the Justice read the letter and _g-o-o-d night_, this is just what
it said:
“Dear Justice:—
“Pursuant to our ’phone talk just now, I am enclosing check for
five hundred dollars, payable to bearer, by registered special
delivery. I hope it will reach you before this young man and his
friends pass through your town. I was sorry not to see them when
they restored our property. Please hand him this check, which is
for the amount of the reward I offered, and insist upon these
boys accepting it. I do not know where they belong and could
probably never get in touch with them, so do not let them get
away. Convince them that this money is theirs, and that they
earned it.
“Hurriedly,
“Josiah E. West.”
“That’s all there is to it,” Justice Winters said; “there’s no use
trying to get the better of a man like Judge West. Which would you
prefer to do; accept the money, or have me hold you on a technical
charge of appropriating a rag dummy, until I can notify the Judge?”
“You’d—you’d better take the check, Harry,” Pee-wee piped up; “it
wouldn’t be safe to try to foil a man like Judge West—safety first,
Harry—we’d better take the check.”
I wish I had a snapshot of those three men to show you—especially the
big one. They looked as if they were suffering from shell shock.