No greater falsehood was ever uttered than this. Dead men have told many tales. More than once a dead man’s tales have brought men to the gallows. But gangsters have not learned this. They are a stupid lot.
One fact consoled Johnny. These gangsters wanted something. They wanted the telltale bullets that were capable of sending their fellow gangster, him of the masked face, to the electric chair or to prison for life. These they would have at all cost. They undoubtedly expected to find them on Johnny’s person.
“They will question me,” Johnny told himself. “I can stall; hold them off. They may torture me!” He shuddered and turned his thoughts to other channels.
He thought of that slim, dark-eyed girl, Joyce Mills. Drew had told him all about her. He was sure he would have enjoyed knowing her. Frank, friendly, fearless, she would have made a great pal. He regretted not having seen her. Had she gone to her cousin’s in Naperville? Somehow he doubted that. She had said she could help her father; that she would. She had seemed very determined about this. Was she trying to help? How? He had seen no sign of it.
At that moment they approached the end of a street. A blank brick wall loomed darkly before them. Of a sudden, above the blur of white caused by the car’s lights, there appeared a spot of vivid red which formed itself into an arrow of fire, then as quickly lost form and vanished.
At the same instant the car swerved sharply to the right and missed an iron post by a narrow margin.
The man sitting beside the driver seized the wheel with a curse.
The driver muttered something about the “arrow of fire,” then settled down once more to steady driving.
The thing puzzled Johnny. At the same time it cheered him. He had not forgotten the words of Drew Lane: “Justice is an arrow of fire.” It seemed to him that he felt the presence of someone hovering near him, someone who cared and would help if such a thing were possible.
The shadowy creature that had sprung out to attach itself to the spare tires when the car started, still clung there.