“No brain, just a memory,” Judy corrected. “I recall hearing a filling station serviceman relate how vandals once damaged big truck tires that way. I’m sure it will work if we can do it!”
“I’ll get the nails,” Miss Meadows said, starting away.
In a moment she returned with an assortment in a tin can. As fast as they could, the three punctured the rubber mat, forcing the nails through so that their sharp points were upright.
“Listen!” cried Judy suddenly.
She had heard the roar of a powerful motor starting far down the private road.
“It’s the truck!” Kathleen exclaimed. “It’s coming, and we don’t have half enough nails in this mat!”
“There will be enough if the tires hit it,” Judy declared. “The important thing is to get it placed, and fast! Come on!”
Without waiting for Kathleen or her aunt, she raced for the entrance to the private road.
She could not see the big truck which was hidden by the curves of the rutty thoroughfare, but she could tell from the roar of the engine, that it was coming as fast as it could climb the steep slope. Evidently, Diethelm had warned the hi-jackers, and knowing that delay would be fatal, they were making a run for it!
Judy had no time to deliberate where she would lay the mat. She dropped it on the right hand side of the road, directly across an old truck track.