The Auto Boys' Vacation

by James A. Braden

Deeply interested in the exciting occurrences of the evening, Landlord Wagg had not gone to bed, as proved quite fortunate for the Auto Boys and the detective. When Mr. Peek had been given every attention, he announced that a little supper for five was ready to serve whenever wanted.

“I rarely venture an opinion without having facts to support it,” said Mr. Rack, smiling, “but on this occasion I will say that I think all of us are ready to show our appreciation of such an invitation in a very thorough manner, provided you will join us, Mr. Wagg. Also I’ve promised the boys a little history of the case that brought us together. Perhaps you may be interested.”

A large part of the story told by Mr. Bob Rack as the party sat long over a supper of cold meats, bread and butter, coffee and fruit, is familiar to the reader. Without quoting his language then,—and the pleasing modulations of his voice could not be shown in print, in any event,—the narrative was substantially as follows:

When the theft of Adam Kull’s car, at Harkville, was reported to the authorities two months earlier, Mr. Rack had been asked by the insurance company, in which a policy covering theft was held, to assist in the search.

Not a trace of the car was found. There seemed to be no clue to go upon. An odd circumstance which, though it apparently had no connection with the case, yet which Mr. Rack was unwilling to dismiss wholly from his mind, was the fact that a few days earlier Mr. Kull had purchased from a neighbor and shipped to a middle western city a fine Scotch collie. The dog was greatly attached to the automobile, and had sometimes been allowed to ride. This simple fact in itself was not important; but the purchase of the dog, apparently for the mere purpose of giving the animal away, was not in keeping with Mr. Kull’s usual disposition.

From so trifling a cause for suspicion the detective was unwilling to make even a hint as to what was in his mind. All he could do, and the thing he did do, was to place a watch upon Adam Kull while secretly he made a thorough search of the man’s record.

Among other things it was found that, as a young man, Kull had been a party to a transaction by which he and his mother obtained a strange hold upon a wealthy farmer near Griffin, Henry Peek by name. The woman married Mr. Peek but they soon separated. To be free of the woman and her son, Mr. Peek had entered into a written contract involving the payment of a large sum of money at once, and the further stipulation that, should the wife survive the husband, she should receive the entire Peek estate. If, on the other hand, Mr. Peek survived his one-time wife, the estate should ultimately go to his heirs alone, and no heir of hers should be considered as having any claim whatever upon the property. The bargain seemed a very good one for the woman as she was much younger than Mr. Peek.

Years passed. Mrs. Peek, who had resumed her former name, Kull, lived with her only son and they had eventually settled in Harkville. Here the man was engaged in real estate, a number of shady deals being credited to him in that connection.

Within a few months of the present time, the mother, though but little past middle age, had been stricken by an incurable disease. The son could not have failed to remember that, unless she survived his former step-father, the rich Peek estate would not descend to him.

Matters were at this pass when Detective Rack obtained his first extended knowledge of Kull, following his investigation of the disappearance of the automobile the latter had owned. Several weeks slipped by and, as the man under scrutiny had made no movement which would in any way strengthen suspicion against him, the watching of his going and his coming was relaxed.