“Good for the constitution,” he replied and began to walk away more swiftly.
“Wait!” cried Judy. She couldn’t let him escape. It had been a mistake to run and meet him in the first place. And she should never have spoken to him in the way she did. Now he was nearly to the bridge. Should she turn back or follow him and try to persuade him to return?
Judy had forgotten, for the moment, that Peter was part of an organization far better equipped to deal with criminals than she was. He was armed, for one thing, and she was not. She had just decided to follow Clarence Lawson when suddenly, with a snarl of rage, he whirled around toward her. Judy saw the gleam of a gun in his hand.
“You’d never use that!” she gasped, terrified.
He wasn’t given time to answer. It was growing dark, but she could see a figure loom up behind him and whip the gun from his hand. Scuffling sounds followed. Judy heard a thud and then a splash.
“Peter!” she gasped. He had appeared from behind her. “That—that was Lawson, the man you want—”
“You mean the man we’ve got. There’s a good hiding place under the bridge,” Peter continued as two policemen emerged with a dripping Lawson between them. “We walked into a trap all right, but it was set for a prisoner who can use one of those talking pillows I was telling you about.”
CHAPTER XXV
Real Friends
“What next?” asked Judy. Things were happening so fast she could scarcely keep track of them. “I thought you said—talking pillows—before all the excitement began. Oh, Peter, I was so afraid!”