by John Blaine
Lefty reached the door of the cottage and froze with his hand on the knob as a trooper barked, “Get
‘em high. Quick!”
The gangster’s hands flew into the air. Heturned, a look of astonishment on his face.
Troopers and policemen seemed to spring from the ground. In a moment Lefty was handcuffed, and a trooper was handing his gun to Captain Douglas.
Rick was on the heels of the troopers who barged into the cottage.
A man, who had been asleep on a couch, reached for a gun. One of the troopers jumped forward and thrust a police positive into his face. “Reach,” he invited. The man did. He was the third man who had been with Soapy and Lefty at the Whiteside pier.
In an inner room they found Mike Curtis. He was awake. He was lying on his side, hands and feet roped together behind him, a gag in his mouth.
A trooper knelt and removed the gag. Mike coughed,then rubbed his tongue over his lips. He looked up at Rick and grinned.
“What kept you?” Mike asked.
CHAPTER XXI
Soapy Strade’s Secret
Rick leaned back in the comfortable chair Barby had once occupied as an invalid and let his sister bring him a cup of coffee and a freshly made doughnut.
“Think you’ll live?” she asked brightly.
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Now that the excitement was over, the reaction had set in. Rick felt as though he had been hauled by force through a very small coffee grinder. Every bone ached a little, and his shoulder ached unmercifully.
His leg throbbed. His eyes had a hard time remaining open. He wanted above all else to go to bed, but he couldn’t. He had company.
In a semicircle on the porch sat Mike Curtis, Captain Douglas, Jerry Webster, Mrs. Brant, Briotti, Shannon, and Scotty. The others were at work, at the project. Barby served them all with coffee and doughnuts, then took a footstool and sat next to Rick.
“I’m going to turn in my badge,” Mike was saying. “And hand my license to the nearest desk sergeant.
I’m a fine detective, all right. I’m like the lion hunter who got into trouble because he succeeded in finding a lion and wasn’t ready for the next step.”
“I can see why you’re a little red in the face,” Captain Douglas said genially. “But don’t blame yourself too much.”
Mike smiled. “I don’t. Not too much. How was I to know that Jimmy the Dip would be there?”
Jimmy the Dip, a noted pickpocket, was the man they had surprised asleep. He had known Mike.
“I took my case of brush samples and walked right into the cottage,” Mike said. “I carried a brush in my hand. I waved it. I said, ‘Gentlemen, here’s just the thing for washing your car, scrubbing out your fishing boat, or washing windows. And no matter how hard you scrub, you won’t hurt this brush.No, sir. It’s made of Nylon, the new synthetic fabric.’ I held it out to Strade, and I said, ‘Feel those bristles?’ He grinned and said, ‘Feel that heater in your back?’ And I did. Jimmy was behind me with a rod shoved against my spine. He had seen me coming, and tipped off the others. The rest is history.”
“You’re lucky,” Scotty commented.
Mike laughed. “He’s telling me! But why did Lefty come back to the cottage after he got away from the amusement park in the boat?”
Rick thought he had the answer. “I think Lefty didn’t know we hadhim nicely taped. He probably figured he could get under cover and lay low, and then he and Jimmy could slip out when the heat was off.”
“I think Rick’s right,” Captain Douglas agreed. “Lefty felt safe once he reached the boat and got out to sea.
After all, no one had found the cottage except Mike, and he had been taken care of. What’s more, if anyone had been working with Mike, he would have shown up. Or something would have happened.
Lefty wouldn’t figure on trouble once a night had passed.”
“He might have just gone to the cottage to warn Jimmy,” Scotty speculated.
Captain Douglas shook his head. “I doubt it. Lefty wouldn’t care about Jimmy’s skin. He’d worry only about his own.”
Barby sighed.“Such names! Soapy, Lefty the Gonif, and Jimmy the Dip. What’s a dip?”
“Pickpocket,” Mike told her.
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“I see, He dips into pockets!”
“Exactly.”Captain Douglas added, “But the other man’s name will disappoint you. I mean the guard that Back and Scotty captured. His name turns out to be Willis Montgomery Jones.”
Rick remembered the tough face and broke into laughter. “Call him Willis and get shot, I’ll bet!”
Mrs. Brant spoke up. “There’s one thing I don’t understand. Why were these men at the amusement park?”
“That was Soapy’s original hide-out,” Captain Douglas explained. “I’m sure of it. He and Lefty probably reached it before we had time to set up the road blocks. Rick and Scotty spoiled it as a hiding place. But we had a complete road-block system thrown around the area by then, so Soapy couldn’t just move on.
Instead-I’m speculating, of course-he phoned one of his gang.Maybe this Willis Jones. He gave instructions. Willis and Jimmy simply drove to Whiteside and rented a cottage. There was no reason to suspect them. They had a legally registered car and we had no way of knowing they were connected with Soapy.
“We can assume they picked up Soapy and Lefty at the amusement park and took them to the rented cottage. After all, this is pretty late in the season and cottages are plentiful. Furthermore, four men in a cottage in good fishing countryattracts no attention.”
“The cottage had a phone,” Mike added. “Probably one left in by the owner and charged for with the rent. We also found the car parked across the street. A registration in Willis’ name was in the glove compartment.”
“But why did Soapy and Lefty go back to the amusement park?” Barby persisted. “I agree with Mother.
There’s one thing you haven’t answered.”
“And why did they go by boat?” Jerry added.
Rick remembered something.“Listen, gang! I went up the stairs in the fun house, because I thought Soapy had come back to look for something. I didn’t think he would come upstairs, but he did!
Whatever is hidden must be upstairs in the fun house.”
“Wait!” Scotty jumped to his feet. “How do you know he was just going to the second floor?
Remember the light on top of the roller coaster? He might have been climbing to the top, anyway, and you just happened to get in the way!”
“Whatever the answer is, I know the reason they went by boat,” Mike Curtis said. “Jimmy the Dip is a thief, but no killer. He belonged to Strade’s gang, but no one ever called him a gunman. After the other three had left, he told me. He said they were going to be picked up by a boat which was waiting offshore. That was Soapy Strade’s real getaway. I think he went to the amusement park originally expecting to be picked up in a few hours, and maybe taken toCuba or something. Maybe the boat was delayed. I don’t know.
“Anyway,” Mike went on, “Jimmy made a bargain with me. He pointed out that I knew him, and if he turned me loose, he’d end up in the clink. That was true enough. So, he said, he would have to get rid of me. I didn’t think much of that idea, and I told him so. Well, he made me some compliments about being a square guy who kept his promise, and said if I’d swear not to turn him in, he’d release me as soon as Strade got a good start. I did the only thing I could do, not wanting to depart from this world at my Page 101
tender age. I made a bargain with him to keep quiet. As it happened, it wasn’t necessary.”
“That sort of knocks my theory in the head,” Scotty complained. “Soapy must have been signaling for the boat he was to catch.”
Rick didn’t think so. “A boat could have picked him up off the colony. No, he went to the amusement park for something. I vote we call the project and ask the people there to search the fun house.”
“Good idea,” Captain Douglas agreed. “If I may use your p
hone, I’ll fix that right now.”
As the captain went into the library, Rick looked at his watch. They must be testing the Tractosaur by this time. He wished he could see the test. But, he consoled himself, he knew the machine worked. It had certainly obeyed his instructions!
Captain Douglas came back and sat down. “I got your dad. He’ll drop everything for a few minutes and ransack the fun house. I told him he could wreck the roller coaster if he needed to.”
“By the way,” Scotty said, “where’s the Coast Guard? Didn’t you call them?”
“Yes. Then, as soon as Gus and I located Lefty’s boat, we dropped a message to the barracks and ordered them to call off the Coast Guard. We didn’t want a cutter or anything else tipping Lefty off that we were after him.”
Captain Douglas accepted another cup of coffee from Barby. “While we’re waiting for a call, suppose I try to sum up what happened?”
“Swell,” Rick agreed. “I’m a little hazy on a few things.”
“Okay. We’ll start with Strade breaking out of jail. He didn’t do it alone, obviously. It was a well-organized escape. He got out in a grocery truck, all trussed up in a burlap bag. His gang was waiting for him in a fast car. They got across the river, probably before we were able to put men on all bridges and tunnels.”
“Then Jerry and I got hit,” Barby put in.
“Yes. At that time, Soapy and Lefty were on their way to the amusement park. From the looks of the fun house, I’d say that Lefty had everything planned. There were cots, and enough food for several days.”
“If they hadn’t left a track in the grass, it would have worked,” Scotty said.
“But it didn’t.” Captain Douglas smiled grimly. “The track put the Spindrift twins on their trail, and that was the beginning of the end. The first time you got in the park, Soapy and Lefty were taken in. They thought you were only looking around, as you said.But when you showed up at night, and they were sure from the wreckage of the crosspiece that you had seen Strade, that forced their hand. Probably they were already suspicious, because one or both of them spied on you while you were connecting the plane alarm.”
“If I get another plane, the alarm will be a foolproof one,” Rick promised.
“It better be. Well, they disconnected the alarm, rigged the rattrap, and fixed the board you had broken.
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Then Lefty probably got to a phone, perhaps inSeaford , and called one of the gang. We’ll be able to check up on this later. It may be that Jimmy the Dip and Willis Jones had already rented the cottage and were living there, just in case of trouble. I rather think that was the case. We know that Soapy lays his plans carefully, and he wouldn’t have failed to make some alternate plan. Anyway, we can assume that Jimmy and Willis picked up Soapy and Lefty at the amusement park and hid them out. Am I making sense to you all?”
“You’re doing fine,” Mike Curtis assured him. “Let me pick up. Meanwhile, my secretary got in touch with me. I located the real-estate office which controlled the amusement park, and got the dope that Soapy’s brother-in-law owned the place. I phoned Spindrift. Then after I left, the girl in the office phoned Soapy’s hide-out. That’s the only solution to what happened later, and that makes me agree with Captain Douglas that Jimmy and Willis were already in the cottage, since she had a number to call. She must be tied right in with Strade’s”
“We’ll ask theNew York police to look into that,”Douglas assured him. “Go on.”
“Well, Soapy and his pals didn’t want their connection with the amusement park known. We don’t know why. But the reason was strong enough so that Soapy risked bringing his boys to the Whiteside pier to get me - because I knew about his connection with the park.”
“There were only three of them at the pier,” Scotty recalled. “Willis Jones wasn’t there.”
“He may have been,” Mike pointed out. “He might have waited in the car, ready for a getaway. We drove them off, and we pinked Jimmy in the arm.Just grazed him. His arm was bandaged while I was with him at the cottage. In fact, I changed the bandage once. Rick and Scotty nailed the other two with rocks. Not hard enough for real damage, but they left some marks to pay back for Rick’s black eyes.”
Rick grinned. His eyes were almost normal now, but they still had faintly colored rings around them.
“After that, Rick and Scotty identified Soapy and Lefty, and I got the idea of going after the reward money. Rick will get the reward now, I hope. He certainly earned it - with blood!”
Rick hadn’t thought of that!
“He’ll get it,”Douglas agreed. “It will buy you two new planes if you want them, Rick. No one will argue thatyou, and you alone, got Soapy Strade. Even if Scotty and my troopers hadn’t arrived, Strade couldn’t have gotten away. He was too badly hurt.”
Mike Curtis continued, “I narrowed the search down to that one summer colony after talking with the phone operator. She had a record of the call, but there was no exact address because the cottages don’t have them. She couldn’t tell me which house, but she did tell me the colony. I think that Jimmy saw me going from house to house and recognized me. I met him while I was working on a case inNew York some time ago. So when I knocked on their door, they were waiting for me.”
Captain Douglas picked up the thread of speculation. “One of them must have reconnoitered the amusement park. Mike, did any of them leave the cottage yesterday?”
Mike snapped his fingers. “Yes! Jones took the car out late yesterday afternoon. He was gone for about two hours.”
“That must have been when my troopers were spotted,”Douglas said. “I can’t figure anything else.
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Probably Jones went to see if the coast was clear and spotted the patrol car among the trees behind the parking lot. That’s why Strade and Lefty were prepared.”
“And that’s why I got to the fun house before they did,” Rick added. “They took their time sneaking up on the troopers. They had to be dead sure of getting them the first try. I wish you’d told us you’d placed a guard on the park, Captain.”
“I should have,”Douglas admitted. “To be frank, I didn’t think about it.”
“It all adds up,” Tony Briotti said. He had been listening with great interest. “But there are still a couple of questions. Did Strade expect to have a boat pick him up? If so, what delayed it? Why wasn’t he picked up the first night he arrived?”
That was an answer they didn’t get until much later. The boat scheduled to pick Soapy Strade up and take him out of the country had indeed tried to sail on schedule, but had been picked up by customs authorities who had been watching it for some time. The customs men had impounded the craft pending further investigation into narcotics smuggling.
Strade’sNew York contacts had learned that their boat was impounded and had been forced to make other arrangements to get Soapy out of the country. While thegroup on the Spindrift porch were talking, a Coast Guard plane was at that very moment circling low over an expensive yacht belonging to a well-known gambler. The Coast Guard couldn’t know, of course, that the yacht had stood off the coast near the amusement park all night, waiting for a boat that never came. Lefty had tried to reach the yacht but had turned too far north. Missing it, he had run in desperation for the cottage hide-out.
Briotti continued, “The other question, which you have already stated, iswhat is the real answer to Soapy’s connection with the amusement park ?”
At that moment the phone rang. Scotty ran to answer, Captain Douglas with him.
They were gone a long time. The group on the porch waited anxiously, not talking. Finally the two came back, and they had very strange expressions on their faces.
“That was Dad,” Scotty said. “They searched the fun house and found nothing. So they turned the Tractosaur loose and knocked down the roller coaster. It was a public menace, leaning over that way, so they didn’t hesitate. Rick, remember that the very top of the coaster was boarded solid instead of having ope
n ties like the rest?”
Rick nodded. “I remember.”
Scotty continued, “The boards came loose while the machine was battering away, and it started raining money!”
“Big money,” Captain Douglas interjected. “There was a tar-paper lined space about an inch deep, three feet wide, and four feet long. It was jammed with money.”
Scotty added in a hushed voice, “They’re still counting it. So far, they have more than four hundred thousand dollars!”
There was a chorus of gasps. Rick saw in a flash the reason for Soapy Strade’s actions. The light on the coaster had been Soapy, looking to see if his cache was still there. He had left it, knowing it would Page 104
remain safe until his getaway was fixed. Then he had returned to collect it, to take it with him out of the country. No wonder he had been willing to commit murder or anything else to keep anyone from suspecting his real association with the amusement park! The money must have been there since before Soapy was sent to jail!
“Soapy only made one haul that big,” Mike Curtis told them.“The pay-roll robbery that was never proved against him.Rick, looks like you and Scotty can split another reward. The insurance company that insured the pay roll has a standing offer of twenty thousand for information leading to recovery of the money, or arrest and conviction of the men responsible.”
Rick sank back in his chair, openmouthed. Why, he was rich!
“Incidentally,” Scotty said to Rick, “the men fromWashington thought the Tractosaur was terrific. Dad said it worked even better than they had hoped.”
Howard Shannon turned to Rick. “Did I hear you intend getting a bigger plane? This reward money will make it possible.”
Rick nodded. “I’ll get a four-seater flying station wagon.”
“Good! This will solve a transportation problem . . . if you and Scotty will go on an expedition with Tony and me.”
“Willwe !” Rick exclaimed.“Where?” He was amused when he realizedShannon had remained silent until he saw that the reward money would help him to solve a problem connected with his work. Not that the scientist cared about the money. It was just that he was completely absorbed in his work.