In five minutes they were at the Citizens National Bank building, elbowing their way through the crowd which had gathered.
Their state police badges got them past the cordon of guards and they rushed into the lobby.
The robbery had been well planned and executed. The two bandits had entered the bank just before closing time and secreted themselves in a washroom. Just as the cashier was about to place the currency in the vault, they emerged and covered the employees with a sub-machine gun. One of them took the money, stuffing it in a brown leather portfolio. Then they slipped out a side entrance and into a waiting car. Twenty more seconds and they were lost in the heavy traffic.
A clerk had gathered his wits enough to obtain the license and a brief description of the car. It had been a black coupe, low and powerful, with license No. 52-621.
State police were scouring the highways but so far there had been no report of the car. Then came the news that the coupe had been stolen only a few hours before in a village fifty miles away and toward the Cedar river.
When that news reached the bank, Tim determined to take up the chase in the Good News and fifteen minutes after leaving the bank the plane was soaring into the sky.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The flying reporters headed into the east toward the valley of the Cedar river.
Tim’s mind was working rapidly. The robbery had all the signs of having been done by Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard. The smooth efficiency with which they had worked and the perfection of their escape pointed to the plans of men well versed in crime.
The Good News roared over the village from which the bandit car had last been reported and Tim swung the plane low. Excited residents pointed down a road that angled away to the right. Tim kept the Good News low and they sped along the country highway, every nerve tensed for some glimpse of the bandit machine.