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Show The BSacSc Box of SiSeoce "No use: you're too lute. They've gone. After Canby drove away, I crossed the lobby and nsked the clerk for a match, lie Bald, 'By George! I thought you nnd your friend had gone. There was a gentleman Just now asking ask-ing for you, nnd I told him you'd left not Ave minutes before. He said he was sorry, and then he asked about those three Louisville men you were Inquiring about; when they came, nnd how long they'd been gone.' I could see he had his curiosity aroused, but I didn't say anything." "What does Canity know about the Louisville men, Wally?" Lnndis nskod. "Tlint's Just what I'd like to know, Owen. And, ndded to that, how he knew they'd been here In St. Joseph, and how he knew we'd been here." Lnndis' eyes, the dreamy eyes of the Inventor and research student, grew thoughtful. "I think we are Justified In going on," he said; and, as the blue car turned Into the main street, "I wish Hetty and the professor pro-fessor had turned that fellow down when he asked them to drive with him. I don't trust him, Wally." Crossing the river to Elwood, on the Kansas side of the Missouri, they soon learned that a Fleetwing 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 Pike's Peak highway. Well In the lead was a Fleetwing, with two men In the rear a hunch Unit we've lout th roadntoi for good nnd nil." "Then we are ditched out of tin-fight?" tin-fight?" "Not by n d d Bight!" wns the snappy denial. "We are going to see this thing through now If It takes all summer 1 If we don't hear from the lost car soon, we'll take a train nnd ride it until we reach some place where I can buy another." "Hut see here, Wally I can't let you do anything like that! As it stands, I'm owing you the price of a car right now." "Nothing of the sort. You may be calling this Jaunt your funeral, but if It Is, I'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. "I've f-f-found your car!" he stuttered. stut-tered. "It's In a gully on our farm! C-constable telephoned, and dad said, right away, 'at he thought he heard somethin' go 'squoosh' in the night. It's in a deep place where It tumbled off the road." "Good boy," said Markham. "The reward Is yours. How far Is it?" "It ain't far. C'me on and I'll 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?" Landis asked, when they had walked a full half 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 way around to head it for the ditch." "But who did It?" "I'd be willing to pay another reward re-ward to find that out. There's something some-thing doing, either ahead of us or be-mnd be-mnd us ; something we're not to be allowed al-lowed to mess in, if a wrecked car will stop us which it won't." Markham arranged to have the car salvaged and held subject to his order, and wh.en the westbound train came along they boarded it. Markham consulted con-sulted a time-card folder and passed the towns ahead In review. "Colby, at two-fifty this afternoon," he said. "It's a junction point, and if we can't find what we want, we can get a train from there to Denver. Colby's our drop-off." Accordingly they debarked at Colby, where Markham found he was able to replace the wrecked roadster with a later model of the same make. Starting Start-ing 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 north-west to Denver. At the few. stops they had made west of Colby they got no news of the Fleetwing or of Canby's car. But at Limon the lost trail reappeared. The Fleetwing had passed- through some six hours earlier on the way to Denver; Den-ver; and Canby's limousine had taken the same route three or four hours later. Markham 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?" "I'm with you. I can spell you at the wheel when you are tired." It was well past midnight when the lights of Denver came In sight. Reaching Reach-ing the city, Markham turned in at the first all-night garage he came to, and they forthfared, stiff, tired and dusty, to put up at the nearest hotel, and turned in at once. The attempt to trace three newcomers newcom-ers or at most six in a tty 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 next morning, eight o'clock found them still driving from one hotel to another, drawing blanks and losing time. "There is simply no end to this, Wally," Landis protested. "We might keep on all day in a city with as many hotels as there are here. Our best chance is the open road. We know where Canby is headed for. If we trail him, maybe we'll find the Fleetwing Fleet-wing in the same gallery." "You didn't beat me to it by more than half a minute," Markham returned, re-turned, spreading the well-used road map on his knees. "Here's the nearest near-est cut to the Timanyoni," he pointed out. "We'll get the grips and try our luck in the open, as you say." For a short run over the highway the trail refused to reveal Itself. But later they came to a filling station whose keeper told them he had helped change an inner tube on a Fleetwing Eight between six and seven o'clock that morning. He said there were three men in the car, and he also re-alled re-alled that the one he had helped with the tire had said they were from Louisville. Questioned, he said he had no recollection recol-lection of seeing a Nordyke limousine, but that it might easily have gone by without his noticing it Markham glanced at the clock on the dash as he flung the new roadster at the mountain grades. "Three hours ahead of us; we're gaining on them, In spite of the Denver Den-ver delay. Where do you suppose this chase is going to wind up, Owen?" "I'm not so much concerned about the 'where' as the 'how.' I may as well confess that I'm on the fence again. There haven't been any bank blastings this side of the Missouri river." iTa wa fvivmTl-'TTDr By Francis Lynde Illustration! by O. Irwin Myers (WNU Borvlco) (Copyright by William CJerard Ohapmon.y SYNOPSIS Owen Iandla, younff Inventor, has developed an extraordinary "ailencer," which is stolen from u safe in his laboratory. Lund la tolls Wally Markham, his chum, the only person, beside himself," knowing: know-ing: the combination of the safe, is Betty Lawson, with whom the Inventor In-ventor Is In love. Markham takes a plaster cast of a woman's footprint, foot-print, found beneath the window of the laboratory, and takes an opportunity op-portunity to tit it to one of Hetty's shoes. They are identical. Betty tells Markham Herbert Canby, a stranger, posing as a "promoter," had driven her home the previous nigcht, and that she had dozed in the car. Markham does not tell Landis of his discovery. Vaguely suspicious of Canby's honesty, he searches his hotel room, in his absence, ab-sence, finding two loaded automatic revolvers and a complete set of burglar's tool. Canby brings the revolvers and burglar's kit to the hotel clerk, claiming to have Just found them in his room. That night the safe in the bank at Perthdale fs blown open and looted, loot-ed, the noise of the explosion being be-ing unheard. Satisfied that his "blank box" is in the hands of crooks, Landis, with Markham, goes to Perthdale. Three strangers, stran-gers, claiming to be business men of Louisville, are the only possible suspects. CHAPTER V Continued 6 "All right; we'll cross that oft. Next comes this shifty bit of business In Chlllicothe 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 there's the fact that we trailed them out of two other towns where smashes occurred. Rather too many coincidences, don't you think? We may " have been chasing the wrong bunch ; I'll admit it looks that way now. But the fact remains that we've been right on the heels of some bunch that has been raising cain with these country-town banks, and doing it with the help of something that blots out noise. And the last of these caln-raislngs caln-raislngs is only a few miles and hours behind us right now." "Well, where does that leave us?" "Pretty well up in the air, I'll have to admit. We've been concentrating so pointedly upon these three Louisville Louis-ville 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 exactly friends," Markham evaded. "But we are slightly acquainted ac-quainted In Louisville." "I see," said the clerk. "You may overtake 'em yet. Somewhere east of this their car gave .out, and two of 'em decided to quit and take to the railroad. 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 'em up which they did." "That's that," said Landis, 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." "I noticed that; but I guess It merely means that the clerk didn't get the story quite straight." They found chairs in a quiet corner of the lobby. After a thoughtful interval, in-terval, Landis said, "I'm on the fence again, Wally. What you said that we've been right on the heels of some bunch that Is pulling off these mysterious myste-rious burglaries is the one fact that can't be ignored. But I don't want to drag you into It any further. Suppose you turn me loose and go oa back home. It's like this ; these bank-blasters, bank-blasters, whoever they are, have my black box. I'm confident of it. The chances are they'll keep on going west. I can't quit while there Is a chance of catching up with them ; that's my responsibility. If you go home, I'll take the railroad and go on." "Huh" disgustedly. "Think I'd let you do that? Not much! We'll stick it out together, and, that being the case, we may as well go get the car." .The garage 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. en-trance. Markham caught a fleeting glimpse of the driver. "Yon go on, Owen," he said, "and let me go back and get some cigars. I forgot." Landis walked on slowly, and in a few minutes Markham reappeared, saying, "You can't guess what I went back for? Did you see the car that came up as we came out?" "I didn't notice it particularly. Was It the Fleetwing?" "No ; it was Canby's Nordyke. Thought I recognized him as he got out and I went back to see if I was right. I was." "Canby? What is he doing here In St. Joseph V "That's what I wanted to know. He was talking to the clerk when I slipped In, and neither of them saw me. Canby has two passengers." "People from home?" "Very much people from home; Betty and her father, if you'll believe be-lieve it." Landis stopped short and faced about. He would have gone back to the hotel if Markham hadn't caught and held him. "I see," Said the Clerk. "You May Overtake '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 Nordkye, this order or-der was reversed ; it was the limousine limou-sine that was following the roadster. CHAPTER VI Without Warning Evening found the blue roadster at Marysville, Kan., where a stop was made for dinner. Inquiry along the way ' had proved that the Fleetwing was still on ahead; but of the limousine limou-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. "I didn't," said Markham promptly. "Why?" " 'Cause it's gone, slick and clean ! Whndda you know about that? My land ! Nothin' like that's ever happened hap-pened here before. You go on and finish eatin' an' I'll get to work on the phone." "Which means?" Landis queried, after the landlord had gone. "It may mean nothing more than an ordinary ear theft." Landis shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I'm thinking it means that somebody some-body wants to leave us stranded." "The three men In the Fleetwing?" "Hardly, you'd say. Apart from the fact that they've been Identified as respectable citizens, unless everybody has been lying to us, they are hours ahead of us and have been ever since we left St. Joseph. Canby Is the man we havtn't been able to locate." lo-cate." "Oh, no, not Canby. You are forgetting for-getting that he has Betty and her father fa-ther with him." "I know. But, in spite of that, he is keeping tab on us, or trying to. Otherwise he wouldn't have asked about us in the St. Joseph hotel. That looks as If he might have been following. fol-lowing. us, doesn't It?" "Why should he follow us?" Landis shrugged. "I'm no mind-reader. mind-reader. There are times when I wish I were and this is one of them." Since the perturbed tavern keeper was likely to do everything possible to trace the car stolen from his premises, prem-ises, they took their time over breakfast. break-fast. Then Markham told him he would pay a liberal reward for information infor-mation ; after which they went to sit on the tavern porch and smoke and wait for results. "Not that there are likely to be any results." Markham offered. Tve |