The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-11-25

OF the porch chairs to enjoy 1t. Wally'S
car hadn't been out Of sight more than
five minutes when another car drove
up. The man who got out of it had on
a white uniform and said he was one
Of the nurses at the railroad hospital,
and that daddy had just been brought
in from the fossil beds badly injured.
l didn't stop to think. just flew down
the walk and jumped into the car. The
man got in with me.
I'm just a few minutes the man,
clapped bandage over my eyes and
told me to keep still. OF course knew
then the story about daddy was just
made-up lie to get me away from the
house and into the car. I tried to get
the door open so 1 could jump out. It
didn't do any good, and when 1t was
over he had me tied and blindfolded
and was threatening me with pistol"
"And after that?'
II don't think we'd been going more
than fifteen minutes before the car
stopped and was made to get out and
walk. In little while could tell we
were somewhere underground. When
they finally let me stop, they put me
into that wooden bucket thing, united
my hands so could hold on. and low
cred me down here. What does it all
mean, Owen?"
sit seems to mean that somebody, or
may be bunch of somebodies, wanted
to get you and Wally and me out of
the way, for some reason"
"Of course. But whyT'
"You know how we-Wally and 7
drove through from Carthage. There
were some startling things happened
on the way. We seemed to be close
behind gang of safe blowers. Since
we were right behind them all the
time, Wally and l began to make in
quiries along the road. We soon
learned that there were three men
driving few hours ahead of us, bust
ness men from Louisville, they called
themselves; and from some suspicious
circumstances we began to wonder If
they might not be the bank wreckers.
'At little town in Kansas Wally's
car was stolen and run out in the coun-
try and smashed. We then went by
train as far as Colby, where Wally
bought another. ear Nothing more
happened until we were this side Of
Denver, when he found that we were
just behind the three men. They were
driving a Fleetwing car. Just before
we reached Copah we passed stopped
car on the mountain road; and as we
were running down the next loop be-
low. a big rock came tumbling down
and barely missed u.s."
"Mercy-how horrible!" she shud-
dered. did anything else happen"
Yes; we went on from Copah that
night, and again the Fleetwing was
ahead of us all the way across the
Red desert. At a little village called
Atropia, we had fiat tire; and after
we had changed to the spare, we found
we were out of gas. We were delayed
for some time, and when we finally
went on up the mountain we ran into
another of the mysterious robberies
The commissary at mine had been
looted and set on fire, and two men
who were guarding the safe and the
payroll money were murdered. OF
course, there was no evidence that
the three men in the Fleetwing had
done it; but we knew that their car
had passed through Atropia just be-
fore we got there"
He felt her shudder as she said, "It
makes cold chills run up and down
my back Is there any more of it?"
"a little more. We came on, and
as we were driving down the noun
tain road above Lake Topaz, we saw
something on fire in deep gulch, and
wondered what it could be. The next
day we made inquiries in Brewster to
find out if the Fleetwing had come in
the night before. So far as we could
learn, it hadn't.
I'VE spent that evening with Mr.
Starbuck, and on our way back to the
hotel we were set upon by three men.
| was 'sandbagged and knocked out,
but Wally beat them off and helped me
to the hotel. The next day we thought
we'd see if we couldn't find out what
had become of the missing Fleetwing,
and drove up to the place where we
had seen the fire in the gulch. We left
our car and climbed down to see what
had burned. It was a big car, so badly
wrecked that we could hardly tell
what it was; but guess it was the
Fleetwing."
Another mystery! Is that all?"
"Not quite. While we were looking
at the wreck somebody began shooting
at us from the road on the other side
of the gulch. We ducked and climbed
up through the woods to where the
shots had come from. There were
two men, and the shooter said they
had been told there were bears In the
mountains. and he'd taken US for one.
There was nothing to be done about
it, so we let them CO."
"Can you put it all together and
make the pieces fit?" she asked.
After a fashion. Those three men
we followed all the way from Indiana
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