“Of course it does! You don’t suppose anyone really ever had such a name as ‘Myron Addicks,’ do you? And I guess you never saw a civil engineer playing a piano in a theater, did you? And what about the disguise?”
There was no getting around the disguise, and Perry hedged. “Well, anyway, we’ve got to find out more than we have yet, Fudge.”
“Oh, we’ll find things out all right. And I guess we’ve got plenty of time. That sign shows that he means to hang around here awhile, you see. If he was going to crack a safe within a few days he wouldn’t go to all that trouble. I guess he’s about as slick as they make them. Say, what time is it? I’ve got to get home!”
“About half-past twelve. Do we have to do any more shadowing this afternoon?”
Fudge shook his head. “No, he’ll be in the theater from two to half-past four. Anyway, I’ve got to think over the new evidence before we go on. We—we’ve got to proceed very carefully. If he should suspect anything—well, it might go hard with us.”
“I wish,” said Perry dubiously, “we could find out if there really is a reward out for him. Only, if there was, I don’t suppose we could get it.”
“Why couldn’t we?” demanded Fudge warmly. “All we’d have to do would be to go to the police and say: ‘Come across with the reward and we’ll lead you to your man!’ That’s all we’d have to do. Of course I could go to the police station and ask what rewards are out, but, you see, that might make them suspicious. All they’d have to do would be to shadow us and find out about him and—bing!—good-night, reward!” Fudge shook his head. “We won’t give them any chance to do us out of it. Well, so long. Going out to the field this afternoon?”
“Are you?”
Fudge nodded. “Guess so. Come on and watch practice. Maybe they’ll have a game to-day. Stop for me about two, will you?”
Perry agreed and Fudge took himself off, for once neglecting to proceed along the street with his usual caution. If an enemy had been lurking behind one of the maple trees, Fudge would have stood a poor chance of escape! Perry dragged his tired feet into the house and up the stairs, reflecting that this game of shadowing was far more wearying than the long, slow runs that had fallen to his lot the last three days. He was very thankful that work for the track candidates was to be omitted this afternoon.