“Between us,” said Drew.
“My share goes toward sending Rosy and her mother back to Italy.”
“Between us,” Drew answered again.
For a time they rode on in silence. Joyce Mills was fumbling with something beneath her jacket.
All at once there appeared on the back of the seat before them a faint red arrow. It flamed up in a peculiar manner.
Drew and Johnny stared. Joyce laughed a low laugh.
“It’s a trick,” she explained. “I’ve used it before. Sometimes you can do with a trick what you can’t do with a cannon. You can frighten gunmen. They are very superstitious.
“It is really very simple.” She displayed a long black tube. “One flashlight, plus a reading glass, makes a small stereopticon. Over the glass of the flashlight I pasted a black paper in which the figure of an arrow had been cut. Before this I set a strip of glass. The glass is red, but is darker in some spots than others. The reading glass focuses the light so that the arrow becomes definite in form and intensely red. By moving the strip of red glass back and forth I am able to make the arrow appear to be on fire. Very simple, isn’t it? But it worked!”
“Yes,” said Johnny. “It worked. Once it worked too well; came near causing us to crash into a wall.”
“So you know I rode the back of the gangster’s car all the way out?”