“Here’s nerve!” muttered Clancy. “Hibbard is using the judge’s car for his night’s work, and will run away with it when he gets through at the house, unless—— Well, I’ll fix the machine so he won’t run away with it.”
Getting up on the running board, Clancy reached over to the dash and removed the switch plug. After that he sped lightly to the opposite side of the street and returned along the side of the judge’s premises.
Getting down on his knees under the lee of an iron fence, he crawled past the house, listening sharply as he proceeded. He could hear nothing. Not a sound reached his ears that would indicate that anything unusual was taking place around the house or inside it.
At the corner, Clancy arose to his feet. A few seconds later he was with his comrade again.
“Find out what you wanted to know?” queried Fortune eagerly.
“I’ve spotted the house,” Clancy answered, “and the car. Fixed the car so it can’t be used. If those chaps try to get away in it, they’ll have their trouble for their pains.”
“That’s you! Where’s the house?”
Clancy faced Fortune in the right direction, and pointed.
“Are them coyotes around the place?” asked Fortune.
“I came past the yard but couldn’t hear or see anything of them. We’ll have to get over the iron fence and prowl through the shrubbery, Jimmie. Of course, they’re there—they must be. And it’s up to us to find them and block their game, whatever it is.”