“Look!” cried Tom the next instant; “he’s throwing something away.”
“So he is; a bundle of papers.”
“They’re the ones he stole! I reckon he knows we’d soon catch him if his machine broke down, and he has thrown them away to cause us to stop and pick them up. Are you going to?”
“Yes; they must be more important than capturing the man. Slow up, Jupe, we’ll pick up those papers.”
“I hate to lose the chance of catching that rascal.”
“Well, maybe we can catch up with him again,” rejoined Jack.
The machine came to a stop and Jack jumped out. A glance at the papers showed him that they were covered with carefully drawn plans and calculations. He readily guessed that they must be the articles for which they were in search.
“That came out finely,” he said as he revealed the contents of the bundle to Tom; “we’ve recovered Mr. Dancer’s work without half as much trouble as I expected.”
“Yes, but we’ve lost that man,” declared Tom.
He pointed ahead. Far down the road a dot was rapidly disappearing in the distance. Somehow the motorcycle had recovered its speed and was now so far ahead that catching up to it seemed impossible.