To that end, he dragged Jack’s inert form around the corner of the garage to a point close beside the lumber pile. Then very quietly he began removing boards from the top of the pile and placing them in another and narrower pile just on the other side of the body.
When he had raised this smaller pile to the required height, he began placing more boards in such a way that each one projected an inch or so beyond the one below it, thus forming a sort of arch over Cray’s outstretched form—a one-sided arch that soon touched the original pile of lumber and leaned against it more or less securely.
“There!” Green Eye muttered. “Now he can’t be seen from the house or the road here at the back. The ends are open, to be sure, but I can’t help that. I haven’t anything here to cover the openings. All I ask, though, is a start of a few hours, and that I shall certainly have.”
As best he could, he obliterated the track he had left in dragging Cray to the lumber pile, after which he climbed into the machine, disposed of the precious suit cases to the best advantage, and touched the starting lever.
He had not yet turned on the lights of the car, but the hours he had spent in the gloom had thoroughly accustomed his eyes to the darkness, and, therefore, he had no trouble in guiding the easily controlled car out through the gate and into the road beyond.
There he brought it to a stop, and, returning hastily, obliterated the tire marks in front of the garage and such of his own footprints as he could find. He did not wish to use his flash light too much, however; therefore, it is quite possible that the job was not a very thorough one.
Finally he passed through the gate, closed it, and reëntered the car, which quietly purred away into the night.
Green-eye Gordon’s extraordinary daring had put him into possession of a fortune of close to seventy-five thousand dollars, at least, as well as a bundle of papers which might yield him several times that amount.
He had robbed a thief and left the latter an unofficial prisoner, doomed to starvation, in all probability, if he were not soon found.
And he had murderously assaulted Jack Cray and left him, a battered and bleeding hulk, supposedly dead.