Tim went wild with rage and wept in his futile anger. When he finally calmed down it was with a quietness that foreboded no good for Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard.
“We can’t learn anything more by inspecting what’s left of the Good News,” he said. “Let’s circle around and see if we can find trace of a car they might have had waiting for them to make their getaway.”
Captain Raymond agreed that Tim’s suggestion was a good one and the state police spread out in their search for clues.
Tim and Ralph, working together, found the only clue of the afternoon. Half a mile beyond the wreckage of the Good News they found two marks, about six feet apart and nearly forty feet long, in a small field which was hidden from the nearest road by a heavy growth of trees. Tim made a careful inspection of the marks.
“That settles it,” he said finally. “I’m going east tonight and when I come back we’ll make it hot for the fellows who stole the Good News and then deliberately crashed it.”
When they returned to Atkinson, Tim carried his story to the managing editor and Carson was wrathfully indignant. He had no word of censure for his flying reporters. Instead, he praised them for their daring and urged them to new efforts in the detection of Shanghai Sam and Pierre Petard.
“I’m playing a long hunch,” said Tim, “but I feel that if I can go east tonight, I’ll be able to learn information there that will bring about the arrest of this pair of air pirates.”
“Go as far as you like, Tim,” said the managing editor, “just as long as you deliver the goods.”
“Thanks, Mr. Carson. I’ll leave on the early night train for New York.”
Ralph helped Tim throw a few things in a traveling bag and saw his flying companion to the union station and aboard the limited which would carry him on his quest for new clues.