by Roy Rockwood
CHAPTER IX
THIEVES IN THE NIGHT
The maroon car turned slowly and ran back along the road. At thewrought-iron, ornate gate before the Sudds’ front steps it haltedsuddenly. Billy shot another glance around the car.
A man had stepped out of the shadow of the gate post. The two in the carevidently recognized their comrade.
“Come on!” the new-comer said, commandingly. “You run on around thecorner, George, and wait for us. Keep your power on. We may be tenminutes—we may be half an hour; but you wait.”
“All right,” assented the man at the wheel, and the car moved on slowlywhile Billy saw the speaker, and the man who had ridden in the back ofthe car, walk in at the gate and mount the steps.
The Sudds mansion was high above the street, and the door was gained bymounting several terraces. The couple of strangers were up three sets ofgranite steps when the maroon car slipped around the bend and Billy lostsight again of the house.
Now, Billy Speedwell had not the first idea what he should do. Hebelieved these three men were criminals. He was sure this was the marooncar Dan had chased on his motorcycle on Saturday—the car that had thrownMaxey Solomons and his auto over the embankment. And the men in it hadrobbed the Farmers’ Bank of Riverdale of fifteen thousand dollars!
They had dared come back into the neighborhood. Not only had they comeback, but Billy believed they were here for quite as bad a purpose asthat which had made them notorious in the neighborhood two days before.
An honest car does not usually run without lights. The river roadchanced to be deserted at this late hour (it was now approachingmidnight) and standing where the chauffeur stopped it, this maroon autocould scarce be seen until one was right upon it.
But Billy dared not climb down behind. The throb of the slowly runningengine shook the car and made noise enough to drown any slight sound hemight create. But the chauffeur, George, was standing up and looking allabout 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 seeBilly clinging behind the car? The thought gave young Speedwell courageto make a change of base, and make it quickly.
He lifted himself up carefully, sliding his legs into the bag of thecollapsed tonneau top. There he lay stretched out, perfectly invisiblein 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 themachine was one of those impulsive, thoughtless acts for which he wasnoted. He very well knew now that Dan would not have done this withouthaving seen his way clear to escape!
He heard the chauffeur moving about for a few moments. He undoubtedlylooked over his machine; but this scrutiny did not bring him near thehiding Billy. Then George got into the car and sat ready to speed up themoment his comrades joined him.
It seemed to the lad in the back of the car that much more than half anhour had passed. He grew very weary with waiting.
Then suddenly, shattering the silence of the night, came a sound thatstartled Billy like a pistol shot. A heavy window went up with a bang.
Billy heard the chauffeur utter a sudden exclamation. Then a voice inthe distance began to shout; but it was so far away that Billy could notdistinguish the words uttered.
It was an alarm, however. He heard a policeman’s rattle, as thehouseholder who had opened the window swung the loud-soundingcontrivance with a vigorous arm. A woman shrieked, too; then followedthe 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 whomit was waiting appeared. One carried a bundle; the other held onto hisarm 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 bethe leader.
He pushed his comrade into the tonneau, leaped in himself with thebundle, and said to the chauffeur:
“Go to it, George! This is getting to be too hot a neighborhood for usto 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 wasforced to accompany them!
The maroon car sped along the straight stretch of two miles to the nextbend in the road. Billy, looking out behind, saw no pursuit. Around thecurve the car whipped, and they were safe! Or, so it seemed, for therewas no pursuit. Probably there was no suspicion that the thieves hadgotten away in an automobile, for the purring of the car was scarcelyaudible, she ran so easily.
The boy could hear nothing that was said by the trio. Sometimes thesound 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 donothing toward either his own escape, or raising an alarm.
Remembering how Dan had chased this car before on Saturday, and the factthat the men had cut across country toward the coast villages, Billy wassurprised that they did not follow the same route again; but he soondiscovered that the thieves were afraid of the machine running out ofgas.
As they spun quietly down into the square, Billy peered ahead again, andsaw the flaring electric sign in front of Rebo’s garage. Although theyhad not passed another car on the road, Upton Falls was one of the roadsto Barnegat, and there was a good deal of night travel. Mr. Reboadvertised to cater to the trade twenty-four hours in the day, and Billyknew there would be at least one man on duty here.
The trio of robbers knew this, too, it was evident. One of them hoppedout of the car the moment it stopped and rapped on the office window. Asleepy voice replied, and the door was quickly opened.
By this time the two men in the back of the automobile, as well as thechauffeur, were coated and masked. The dust masks and great gogglescompletely hid their features.
Billy had hoped that there would be more than one man at the garage, orthat somebody would stroll along whose attention he might call. Hefeared to leap out of concealment and reveal himself to the trio ofthieves.
He knew that one of the Upton Falls constables was supposed to patrolthe streets of the town at night; but he did not show up at thisjuncture. The man on duty at the garage went about his work sleepilyenough. It was plain by the muttered conversation Billy overheard fromthe gang, that they were impatient, but dared not show how hurried theywere.
“We’d never ought to have had to run down here,” growled the leader, whowas a big, aggressive man, and seemed to have the other two under histhumb.
“I tell you we burned a lot of gas running up and down, waiting foryou,” was the chauffeur’s reply.
“Well! It’s the back track for ours, anyway. If they look for a car atall, 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 morediscussion. But Billy had heard something of importance. He dared notshow himself, for the glare of the garage lights would betray to therobbers just where he had been hiding.
Nevertheless, he made up his mind to make some good use of theinformation 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 aline 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 wasmaking a turn in the square, preparatory to taking the back track as hehad been instructed.
The garage man stood gaping on the walk, and staring after the marooncar. Billy thrust out his hand and waved the paper in the air. The man’sjaws came together with a snap. The boy was almost certain that he hadobserved the waving paper.
Therefore Billy let it float back into the road
. He even had thesatisfaction of seeing the man step into the roadway to pick it upbefore the motor car struck a very swift pace. The next moment theshadow of the trees and houses shut out Billy Speedwell’s view of thespot.