“Wouldn’t do any good and besides I want to do a little private sleuthing of my own. We might just as well have that fat reward the railroad people have out. The bank may offer a sizeable sum and it won’t be long until the capture of Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard will mean a small fortune.”
Captain Raymond, accompanied by the managing editor, came into the editorial office.
“Boys,” said Carson, “Captain Raymond believes one of you should stay at the airport all the time in case there are any more robberies. I agree with him and we’ll work out arrangements at once.”
In less than an hour Tim was back at the airport where he explained his needs to the genial manager.
Hunter agreed to put an extra cot in the pilot’s room and Tim sent into town for bed clothes and toilet articles he would need. It had been decided that Tim would take the night shift, sleeping at the field while Ralph would remain there during the day.
The reporters soon settled into the new routine. Hours lengthened into days and there was no further word of the gangsters who had robbed the Citizens National. It was as though the world had swallowed them.
The state police never relaxed their vigilance and extended their tentacles into every section of the state but without avail. No one seemed to know where Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard had gone after they had wrecked their car.
The spring days faded into those of early summer and Tim and Ralph were restless under the routine which kept them on such confining hours. They didn’t dare venture away from the airport, yet both of them had commenced to feel that their steady vigil was of little avail.
Tim continued to read avidly all of the aviation journals he could buy as well as spending considerable time looking into the files of old technical magazines and heavy volumes which he borrowed from the library
Tim had returned to the field late in the afternoon to relieve Ralph and they were discussing plans for their summer vacation when the telephone rang.