Show by francis lynde illustration by 0 irwin myer by william brud SYNOPSIS owen landals young inventor has developed an extraordinary silencer which Is stolen from a safe la his laboratory landals tells wally markham his chum tha only person beside himself knowing the combination of the safe is betty lawson whom the inventor ie in love markham takes ft plaster cast ot a woman s footprint found beneath the window of the laboratory and takes an opportunity port unity to dt it to one of betty s shoes they ar identical betty tells markham herbert canby a stranger posing as a promoter had driven her home the previous and that she had dozed in the car markham does not tell landals of his discovery vaguely suspicious of canby a honesty he searches his hotel room in his fab sence finding two loaded automatic revolvers and a complete set of burglars tool canby bring the revolvers and burglars kit to the hotel clerk claiming to have just found them in his room that night the safe in the bank at Perth daIe Is blown open and looted abo noise of the explosion be ing unheard satisfied that his black box Is in the hands of crooks landeg with markham goes to Pert hdale three strangers claiming to bo business men of louisville are the only possible e inspects CHAPTER V continued all right well croc that off next comes this shifty bit of business in yesterday selling one car and buying another and the split and pick up at the town where the last bank was touched off and back of that theres the fact that we trailed them out of two other towns where smashes occurred rather too many coincidences dont you think we may have been chasing the wrong bunch admit it looks that way now but the fact remains that weve been right on the heels of some bunch that has been raising caan caln with these country town banks and doings it with the help of something that blots out noise and the last of these caan caln ra isings Is only a few miles and hours behind us right now well where does that leave us pretty well up tn the air ill have to admit weve been concentrating so pointedly upon these three louis valle chaps that we haven t been able to see the wood for the trees A few minutes later when they were settling their bill the clerk said you were inquiring about these three louisville gentlemen who left this morning are they friends of yours not crackly friends markhard Mar kharn evaded but we are slightly ac in louisville 1 I gee said the clerk you may overtake em yet somewhere east of this their car gave out and two of cm decided to quit and take to the rail road but the other was game sold the disabled machine bought another and wired the train takers to stop off and let him pick cm up which they did that said landals as they turned away one little flaw in that story markham criticized it was the two train takers who sold the disabled auto not the one who bought the new one 1 I noticed that but I 1 guess it merely means that the clerk get the etory quite straight they found chairs in a quiet corner ot the lobby after a thoughtful in torval bandla said im on the fence again wally what you said that weve been right on the heels of some bunch that la pulling off these mysterious burglaries Is the one fact that can t be ignored but I 1 dont want to drag you into it any further suppose you turn roe loose and go on back home ita like this these bank blaster whoever they are have my nick box im confident of it the chances are keep on going west I 1 cant quit while there Is a chance of catching up with them my responsibility if you go home III take the railroad and goon null disgustedly think I 1 d let you do eliat not much I 1 well stick it out together and that being the case we iray as well go get the car the gange was at the rear of the hotel and as they were turning the corner markham saw a handsome limousine pull up at the hotel entrance markham caught a fleeting glimpse of the driver you go on owen be said and let ire go back and get some cigars I 1 forgot landals walked on slowly and in a few minutes markham reappeared saving you cant guess what I 1 went back tor did you see the car that came up as we came out 1 I dlan t notice it particularly was it the no it was canby B nordyke blought I 1 recognized him as he got out and I 1 went back to see it I 1 was right I 1 was canby what Is be doing here in st joseph teats I 1 wanted to know he was talking to the clerk when I 1 slipped in and neither of them saw me canby has two people from home very much people from homo hetty and her father it you 11 believe it handlo stopped short and faced about lie would have gone back to the hotd it markham caught and held him no use youre too late gone after canby drove away I 1 crossed the lobby and asked the clerk for a match he said by george I 1 I 1 thought you and your friend had gone there was a gentleman just now ask ing for ou and I 1 told him left not five minutes before lie said he was sorry and then he asked about those three louisville men you were inquiring about when they came and how long they d been gone I 1 could see he had his curiosity aroused but I 1 say anything what does canby know about the louisville men wally landals asked just what id like to know owen and added to that how he knew been here in st joseph and how he knew we d been here landals eyes the dreamy eyes of the inventor and research student grew thoughtful 1 I think we are justified in going on he said and as the blue car turned into the main street 1 I wish betty and the professor had turned that fellow down when he asked them to drive with him I 1 dont trust him wally crossing the river to elwood on the kansas elde of the missouri they soon learned that a had gone west earlier in the day also that a nordyke limousine had followed within the last half hour so it came about that later in the afternoon three cars might have been seen speeding over the pikes peak highway well in the lead was a with two men in the rear 1 I see said the clerk you may overtake Over taka em yet seat and a third at the wheel far in the rear were a nordyke limousine and a blue roadster and though the two men in the blue car thought they were following the Nord kye athla order was reversed it was the lemou sine that was following the roadster CHAPTER VI without warning evening found the blue roadster at kan where a stop was made tor dinner inquiry along the way had proved that the was still on ahead but of the lemou sine they had heard nothing confident however that theirs was the rearmost of the three cars they covered another hundred miles before stopping for the night in a small town since there was no public garage they put the roadster under a shed in the tavern yard where the innkeeper assured them it would be safe and went to bed the next morning at breakfast the innkeeper burst in upon them to ask if they had locked the car before leaving it 1 I eald markham promptly why cause its gone slick and clean 1 chadda you know about that my land I 1 like ever hap here beare you go on and finish eaten an ril get to work an the phone which means landals queried after the landlord had gone it may mead nothing more than an ordinary car theft landals shook his head im afraid not I 1 m it meing that somebody eints to leive us stranded the three men in the eardly aoud say apart from the fact that been identified as respectable unless everybody has been lying to us they are hours ahead of us and have been ever since v e left st joseph fenby Is the man v e havn t been able to lo 10 cate oh no not canby you are for getting that he has betty and her fa ther with him 1 I know but in spite of that he la keeping tab on us or trying to otherwise he have ashod about us in the st joseph hotel that looks as if he might have been fol lowing us docent it hy should he follow us innels shrugged im no mind render there are times when I 1 wish I 1 were and this Is one of them since the perturbed tavern keeper was to do everything possible to trace the car stolen from his prem aises they took their time over bleik fast then earlham told him he would pay a liberal regard tor anfor matlon after which they went to sit on the tavern porch and smoke and wait tor results not thai there are likely to be any results matcham offered a hunch that weve lost th roadster tor good and all then we are ditche doat of th fight biot by a d d sight I 1 was the snappy denial we are going to sec this thing through now if it takes nl summer I 1 it we dont hear from the josf car soon we 11 take a train and ride it until we reach some place where I 1 can buy another but see here wally I 1 cant let you do anything like that I 1 aa it stands im owing you the price of a car right now nothing of alie sort you may be calling this jaunt your funeral but it it Is I 1 m driving the hearse and we don t stop short of the cemetery gate at least here comes a boy maybe he has turned the trick for us the boy came running up to the porch fairly bursting with his news ive ft found your earl he atut tereca iab in a gully on our farm C constable telephoned and dad eald right away at he thought he beard go in the night its in a deep place where it tumbled oft the road good boy said markham the reward Is yours how far Is it it aint far acme on and m show you A short half mile from town by the side of a little used country road they found the blue roadster they did not go down into the gully into which it had fallen from where they stood they could see that it was a wreck A clean job markham grunted morosely what do you think 7 landals asked when they had walked a full halt mile in silence deliberate of course the tire tracks in the road showed plainly enough that the car had been stopped backed and turned quarter ay around to head it for the ditch but who did it id be willing to pay another reward to find that out there s something doing either ahead of us or be and us something were not to be allowed to mesa in it a wrecked car will stop us which it won t markham arranged to have the car salvaged and held subject to his order and when the westbound train came along they boarded it markham consulted a timecard time card folder and passed the towns ahead in review colby at two fifty this afternoon he said it B a junction point and if we cant find what we want we can get a train from there to denver colbas our drop oft accordingly they de barked at colby where markham found be was able to replace the wrecked roadster with a later model of the same make starting without loss of time they reached limon the point at which the two main auto roads coincident west of colby split one leading southwest to colorado springs and the other northwest to denver at the few stops they bad made west of colby they got no news of the or of candya car but at allmon the lost trail reappeared the bad parsed through come six hours earlier on the way to denver and candys limousine had taken the same route three or four hours later earlham looked at his watch both parties are probably stopping over night in denver if we push along we can be there by midnight what do you say im with you I 1 can spell you at the cheel when you are tired it was well past midnight when the lights of denver came in sight reaching the city markham turned in at the first all night garage he came to and they forth fared stiff tired and dusty to put up at the nearest hotel and turned in at once the attempt to trace three newcomers or at roost six in a ty the size of denver Is much like looking for a needle in a haystack and though they went short on sleep and were up early the nest morning eight found them still driving from one hotel to another drawing blanks and losing time there Is simply no end to this wally landals protested we might keep on all day in a city with as many hotels as there are here our best chance to the open road we know where canby la headed for if we trail him maybe well find the in the game gallery you beat me to it by more than half a minute markham returned spreading the well used road imp on his knees heres the nearest cut to the he pointed out well get the grips and try our luck in the open as iou say for a short run over the highway the trail refused to reveal itself but later they cime to a filling station whose keeper told them he ind helped change an inner tube on a light between six and seven that morning lie ald eald E there were three men la the car and he also recalled that the one he had helped with the tire had eald they were from louisville questioned he said he had no recollection of seeing a nordyke limousine bat that it might easily have gone by without his noticing it marsharn MarL harn glanced at the clock on the dash as he flung the new roadster at the mountain grades three hours ahead of us were gaining on them in spite of the denver delay where do you suppose this chisa Is going to wind up owen ain not so much concerned about the where as the how I 1 may as well confess alint im on the fence aguin there haven t been any bank this side of the missouri river TI bvm |