CHAPTER XXVIII—OUR CASE IS DISMISSED
Oh, boy! Laugh! I guess, to use Pee-wee’s favorite words, those men thought we were some deep mystery. I guess they didn’t know what to think at all. Anyway, two of them took the dummy in the Ford and the big man rode with us—pity the dummy! That was the hardest part of all his adventures.
It was awful funny to hear Harry talking on the front seat. He said, “I’ve often wondered why you fellows don’t get after the garage-keepers—they’re the real robbers. I’d be willing to take my chance with a highwayman, but with a garage-keeper, nix.”
In Lurin, we all stopped in front of a nice white house that had a sign on the door that said:
GEORGE WINTERS
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
I guess poor little Skinny thought our mad career of evil was up at last. Pee-wee looked kind of scared, too.
We all went in and stood in front of a desk and George Winters, Justice of the Peace, sat on the other side of it. He wasn’t cross and ugly at all. He said good morning, and he thought it would be a nice day.
“Not if we go to jail it won’t,” Pee-wee said.
“Will we have to stay as much as ten years?” little Alf, wanted to know.
Justice Winters said, “Well, what’s all the trouble?”
The big man told him that they gave us the chase out of Utica. Can you beat that? A flivver chasing a Cadillac! Excuse me, while I laugh. He told the Justice how we had reached Utica very early in the morning and had stopped at a hotel, and how a porter who was cleaning up in the sheds had seen the things under the back seat of the car. Then he said how we left very suddenly and, several hours later, were seen passing through Utica again with a different number on our machine. He didn’t say anything about Mr. Ragtime Sandbanks. Gee whiz, I didn’t blame him for that.
But Harry wasn’t going to let him off so easy. He said, “You forgot to tell the Justice about the murder we committed. We wish to plead guilty to that.”
Oh, gee, that poor man; he had to tell about the whole business, how they hunted around in the water and found the rag dummy. That Justice scowled, kind of, and I guess he didn’t know what it all meant, but anyway, he had to smile. “That shows we’re innocent,” Pee-wee spoke up, “because if a thing isn’t alive, you can’t murder it, can you?”
Justice Winters sort of smiled and he said, no, you couldn’t.
After he had listened to what all those men had if say, he said, “Well, you wish to make a charge against these people?”
“I want ’em held for complicity,” that’s what the big man said.
“That’s one thing we didn’t do, anyway,” Pee-wee said; “complicity. How did we complicit?” Justice Winters smiled kind of, and began rooting around among a lot of papers. He said, “Well, I’m glad you caught these fellows, because they’re wanted.”
The big man said, “I knew there was something wrong when I heard of their coming back through Utica with a different license plate and getting off the state road and cutting up through the hills. They was looking to get off the main line of travel.”
Justice Winters said, “We have already received a phone message to have them stopped when they passed through the town. Judge West of Crystal Falls, lost no time in having them traced. It is fortunate that you caught them, though our own authorities were on the watch.” He began rooting among his papers some more, and pretty soon he picked up a long envelope.
You ought to have seen Pee-wee and Skinny. They looked as if all hope was lost. Even Harry looked kind of puzzled. But those men—oh, didn’t they look chesty!
“I knew there was something wrong about ’em,” the big man said.
Justice Winters said, “Yes, you’ve made a good capture. I was talking on the ’phone with Judge West last night, and promised to have this party stopped if they passed through. Very early this morning I received a special delivery letter from him. I will read it to you.”
“I’m glad we were able to do a favor for the Judge,” that big man said, awful important like.
“We haven’t found his valuables yet, but we will. This oldest fellow knows where they are.”
“Right the first time,” Harry said; “I do.”
Then the Justice read the letter and g-o-o-d night, this is just what it said:
“Dear Justice:—
“Pursuant to our ’phone talk just now, I am enclosing check for five hundred dollars, payable to bearer, by registered special delivery. I hope it will reach you before this young man and his friends pass through your town. I was sorry not to see them when they restored our property. Please hand him this check, which is for the amount of the reward I offered, and insist upon these boys accepting it. I do not know where they belong and could probably never get in touch with them, so do not let them get away. Convince them that this money is theirs, and that they earned it.
“Hurriedly,
“Josiah E. West.”
“That’s all there is to it,” Justice Winters said; “there’s no use trying to get the better of a man like Judge West. Which would you prefer to do; accept the money, or have me hold you on a technical charge of appropriating a rag dummy, until I can notify the Judge?”
“You’d—you’d better take the check, Harry,” Pee-wee piped up; “it wouldn’t be safe to try to foil a man like Judge West—safety first, Harry—we’d better take the check.”
I wish I had a snapshot of those three men to show you—especially the big one. They looked as if they were suffering from shell shock.