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Page 9
He waited with a slim hand stretched across the table, while
Adolph plunged a hand into an inside pocket with a grin, felt in
another concealed pocket, and returned to the first with his face
growing grave and pale.
The Wolf watched him with steely eyes, suspicion dawning in them.
"Too slow; too slow, Adolph!" he smiled.
Adolph looked up. "It is not here! It is gone! Some one has
stolen it!" he stammered.
The Wolf snarled. "Oh, no, good Adolph!" he said silkily. "Look
again."
Adolph, with fingers that shook, turned his pockets out one by
one, then looked into the Wolf's yellow eyes with a gaze pleading
yet sullen. "They are gone," he said huskily.
With a flashing motion the Wolf reached across the table and
clutched Adolph by the throat. In a steel grip that he struggled
hopelessly to loosen he was helpless as a child. Brutally the
Wolf bore him back to the wall, where he beat his head savagely
against the door frame. A look of savage glee shone on the
Wolf's smooth countenance.
Ledermann leaped across the floor and seized the Wolf's arm.
"Off!" cried the murderer, and with his hand dealt Ledermann a
stinging blow in the face. He fell back. Behind the overturned
table, the Weasel sat looking at the floor. It was nothing to
him what they did. He shrugged his thin shoulders.
Suddenly the Wolf stopped and let Adolph slip to the floor, where
he lay unconscious.
The Wolf kicked him. "I won't kill you, you swine!" he said.
"You have got to find that paper. Then I'll see about it. Pick
him up, somebody. I can't trust myself to touch him. Lost that
paper--of course it is written in invisible ink; but suppose some
blundering fool should get it near a fire?"
"They won't," said Ledermann as he worked over Adolph. "These
stupid country people, what would they know about invisible ink?
It may never be found at all. It may even now be trodden in the
dust."
"Let us hope," said the Wolf. "Adolph shall retrace his steps
inch by inch until the paper is found, even so much as a tiny
scrap of it, so that I may know where it is."
"He will find it in the dust," repeated Ledermann and threw water
over Adolph, while the Weasel stood up and tightened his belt.
Then the Wolf counted out to him the money needed for his short
journey to Ithaca. The counting was interrupted with directions
and threats. The Weasel drew a long breath of relief when he was
finally dismissed, and was allowed to slip out into the night,
where he turned toward Syracuse. Ledermann still worked over the
unconscious man.
The Wolf called at headquarters and was pleasantly received, with
the formula that was to overthrow the world lying in his pocket.
Days went by, and Monday came, and flags flew, and bands played,
and crowds gathered, and the New York State Fair opened at last.
The Wolf went unmolested; indeed he was an honored guest. Quite
safe he was for just one whole day. Tuesday morning, as he drove
in his fine car, splendidly dressed, his yellow eyes half hidden
behind smoked glasses, a couple of Boy Scouts came out of Colonel
Bright's office as he stopped his car at the steps. Porky and
Beany stopped and stared.
"Out of the way!" said the Wolf, as he approached the door.
Porky and Beany stepped obediently aside. For a long time they
stared at the door through which he had disappeared.
"It's him!" said Beany at last. "He drove the car when the other
man shot at the Colonel."
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