Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-10-25
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- Vi 1Ao 1AOfSt 49,"
disappeared Ranger is assisted in
liz search by his two friends, Eus-
ice Highly. attorney, and Juarez
Charley, ad%venturer.
A message comes to Hopes father
%nstructing him to buy her a hat
and leave it in a certain place. This
command is carried out by Ranger
and later a picture or Hope. taken
in the hat, is sent to the girls faith
or.
The next message from Hopes
captors tells Ranger to leave one
hundred thousand dollars worth of
bonds under a certain railroad cross
Ing. At DIR. Bristow's sanitarium
George Kelsey and the supposed sis
Ter of Nurse Copley become &C
%luainted.
J NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
He settled down 10Y to unrelaxed
watchfulness. A long string of cars
came along from out of town, then
an almost equally long string from
the opposite direction; a couple of
trucks; and then from the north a
lone flivver containing two men.
Just before its reached the cut, a
trio of motors came up from the
south and the f%livver stopped, its
driver getting out to fuss with the
engine.
The three cars came up and pass
ed. Nothing else was in sight in
either direction. The driver of the
flivver climbed quickly back into his
seal and started for the cut.
1.-TWO minutes is all l can allow
them at the most" Charlie whisper
ed excitedly.
The long indicator of the stop
watch swept around its circle. one
minute gone. Another round, and
still the car stayed down in the cut.
Before it came into view again,
there had elapsed exactly three
minutes and 20 seconds.
Hardly did the top of 1t appear
over the edge of the dip before
Charlie, slipping the s~top-watch in
to his pocket, swung down through
the branches.
He rushed across the Jungle
and jerking his motorcycle out from
under it's concealing pile of brush,
pulled it into the road. But when
he attempted to start, he found the
mechanism gone dead. Impatiently
he leaned over to see what was the
matter. and found to his amazement
that the spark plug was missing.
Hastily he rummaged in his tool-bag
for another, but although he would
have sworn he had three spare
plugs there was none to be found.
Then he suddenly froze. On the
flap of the tool-bag was chalked n
rude Ky within a circle-the sign
of the Combine.
The thing was plain enough to
him now. In spite of all his efforts
at camouflage, his artful twists and
turns, the agents of the Combine had
. evidently succeeded in trailing him
to the Jungle" and there while he
slept. had effectively put him out
of the running.
Charlie cast up his eyes, as he
himself would have expressed 1t, like
a dying duck, and wretchedly shook
his head. He was facing down the
by-road toward its junction with the
Lone Hill road OH the other side of
the railway; and now there swept
across his field of vision the suspect
ed flivver.
Driven hard in its progress toward
town. it had covered the distance
down from the archway during the
two or three minutes that he had
spent in lamentation. Charles
plan had been to lIad it along the
highway on his motorcycle and let
it overtake and pass him, so as not
to give the suggestion of pursuit.
Now the sight of it, spinning tri-
umphantly by. only added poignancy
to his humiliation.
Then suddenly his fingers went
fumbling at the leather case which
I1oII lite f;n1l- uIo ccaC He Noticed
that the rear left wheel of the fliv-
ver carried a new tire, and remem-
bering that the Lone Hill Road had
Just been freshly oiled, 1t gave him
a new idea.
He jumped to his feet and leveled
his glasses on the flivver's whirling
wheels. A little thrill of hope woke
In him. His yes had not been mis-
taken. The three old tires had n
smooth tread; that of the fourth was
corrugated. Perhaps-perhaps it
might be possible to follow that
spoor on the oily roadway.
He bent another look through the
glasses at the back of the receding
car to take the number on its Ii
censeboard. 1t was 2,155,633.
"You never can tell" He screwed
up his lips. Chances are that it's a
false number but they mightn't have
forgotten to shift. Anyhow, that
and the tire-tracks are the only
Ac1ues I've got, and I'll take 'em for
what they're WORTH"
So, pushing the crippled motor
cycle beside him, he hurried on in
the flivvers wake.
CHAPTER XII
DIR. Hristow was sitting at his desk
in the outer office of his suite GO
ing over a pile of letters.
The clock on the mantelpiece had
just struck nine, and Bristow's
brows puckered as he surveyed the
accumulation of mail yet to be con-
sidered. He had sat down to it i'm
mediately after dinner and was still
not half through.
AS he picked up the next envelope
and drew out it's enclosure, there
came a tap on the door. Before he
could respond, this was pushed open
and Anita Copley entered.
"Ah, Anita!' He leaned back in
his chair. "Strictly on time, and I've
scarcely begun. Vile nuisance, this
sort of thing. No more oft for me
tonight anyway. Well" he thrust
the pile of letter away from him
and turned toward her, chow is the
little sister today?"
Just the same.' She helped her.
self to a cigaret, lighted it, and sank
far down in an ~easy-chair, stretching
her feet out before her. 1--WE put
her to bed and locked the door on
her; she won't stir. She doesn't
even get up in the morning until /