“Our best protection will be to keep on the alert,” said Tim. “We’ll keep our eyes open and our wits about us. In the morning we’ll get some pictures of Sam and Pierre from the state police and become more familiar with their looks. They’ll try another job in a few days and we’ll want to be ready to cope with them in any emergency.”
They left the office together and long after Tim had gone to bed he thought of the strange marks. They were connected in some important way, he felt, with Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard.
The next day Tim went to the public library where he spent the morning reading all that was available about Pierre Petard, the former war hero. There was nothing in the library about Pierre Petard the criminal. Tim also read voluminously about the development of airplanes and of the many freak planes that had been invented and of a few that had been made to fly. There was a growing conviction in his mind, but he was not yet prepared to divulge it even to Ralph. It was so simple that they might all laugh at him.
When Tim returned to the office, Captain Ned Raymond was talking to Ralph. The captain had pictures of Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard for the flying reporters to study.
“They’ll try something else soon,” asserted the state police official, “and we’ll rely on you boys to help us in running them down. The railroad has offered a five thousand dollar reward and it will be yours if you bring about their capture.”
“We’ll do the best we can,” promised Tim, “for the five thousand dollars would come in handy.”
“Just two thousand five hundred dollars apiece,” smiled Ralph. “What a lot of ice cream that would buy,” he added.
Captain Raymond cautioned the flying reporters against taking any undue chances and warned them that the state police were without a single clue as to where Sam and Pierre were hiding.
“You’ll never find them in Atkinson,” said Tim.
“Why not?” asked the police official. “It’s the largest city in this part of the state.”