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Page 7
An orderly clattered up on a sweating horse.
"They have found the automobile, sir," said the gallant youth.
"Good!" cried the Colonel, rising.
"Yes, sir, it is lying in four feet of water at the edge of the
bluff where the road from the village winds round the curve half
way to Manlius Center."
"And the men?" the Colonel enquired sharply.
"They must be pinned under the car, sir," said the soldier.
"We thought if you would detail Dennis and Harrison--they are
crackerjack swimmers--they could soon see what is under there."
"Tell the men to go at once," said the Colonel. "I will follow."
The Colonel called his car, and with a nod indicated to the boys
that they were to accompany him. The Colonel's orderly leaped
into the front seat beside the driver and Asa, and on the back,
seat, on either side of the big Colonel, sat the Potter twins
looking so alike that it seemed a loss of time to look at one of
them after you had seen the other, and feeling-well, they felt as
important as you make 'em!
Arriving at the wide waters, they followed the Colonel and his
men as they went down the gouged out place in the bank where the
car had cut its way to the water, and looked at the smashed
machine that lay almost out of sight. It was in such a position,
however, that it was plain that no one could be concealed under
it. The men had escaped.
A keen look of anger and surprise came into the Colonel's face.
"I imagine they have driven the car off the bank to put us off
the scent," he said. "There is a life sentence for those men
when we get them. They meant to kill me. I can't see the point
in it; either." He walked back to his car and, entering it, was
driven back to camp, stopping at the Potter house to drop the
twins.
After the Colonel's car had disappeared round the bend leading to
the village, a small, wiry, evil-looking figure slipped
cautiously from the dense underbrush at the edge of the road away
from the cliff. He brushed the dirt from his clothes and
laughed.
"Can't see the point of it, can you? I suppose not, you old
saphead! It takes the Wolf to plan things too deep for the likes
of you." He laughed again, and with a glance in the direction of
the village struck off over the hill into the fields beyond. He
walked listlessly for half a mile, as though there was little
need for haste, and any one watching him would have seen him
finally lie down in a shady lane and, taking a small package from
his pocket, open it and eat a sandwich. Then he drew his ragged
hat over his piercing little eyes, and at once went to sleep. He
slept for hours, scarcely shifting his position. When he finally
stretched and sat up, the sun was going down. He looked at it,
and came to his feet.
"A couple of hours more," he said to himself, and slowly
sauntered back to the road and struck off toward Manlius Center.
Night was falling when three men, sitting silently in a bare,
dusty, unfurnished room, looked up as a queer scratching sounded
on the outer door. They glanced at each other. "It is the
Weasel, think you not?" said one, a tall man with a sear across
his cheek. It was a mark that was scarcely noticeable unless he
was angry; then it suddenly went white and stood out clearly
across his brown skin.
A thick-set man at the table gathered up a greasy pack of cards.
"Yes, it's the Weasel, all right," he said. "I'm glad he obeys
orders. I told him not to show his face here before dark."
The third man did not speak. He sat in the best of the poor
chairs, and was snowed under with newspapers. He had the look of
an educated man, the jaw of a brute, the cold eye of a panther,
almost golden in color, and the slender hands that held the
printed sheet had the delicate, thin fingers of a thief.
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