A man alighted from the coupé and walked to the tree. A Panama hat shaded his face and I could not get a good look at it. He walked around the tree and seemed to be gazing up in its branches, as well as looking down at the roots. I could not understand this evolution, still I was pretty sure that I saw him stoop and pick something up.
He returned to his car, and it started forward.
"Go ahead," I said to my men.
They knew what they had to do. I lingered a moment to see whether he was going to turn around or come on. He came straight, faster than he had been travelling. I ran after my cars.
According to instructions they moved out in line across the road, completely blocking it. I timed it as closely as I could, but unfortunately the road was perfectly straight. With the appearance of the first car out of the wood, the green car took the alarm. We heard the screech of the brakes. They came to a stop in a cloud of dust. Those town cars can turn almost in their own length. Around they went and back with the exhaust opened wide.
We jumped aboard our cars and as soon as we could disentangle ourselves took after them. They were half a mile away when we got straightened out. Now if only Lanman did not fail me!
To my joy, away ahead I saw the police cars slowly move one, two, three across the road. We had him trapped! Once more the green car stopped in a cloud of dust.
Lanman and I approaching from opposite directions, reached it simultaneously. We had our guns out.
"What's the matter with you?" the angry, frightened chauffeur cried.
We paid small attention to him. I and my gun looked into the coupé together. Lanman ran around to the other door. In the corner of the seat I saw, exquisite, immaculate—Alfred Mount!