He left the forge-room and walked cautiously toward the sheet-metal press.
As he neared it, a dark object, like some wild animal leaping from its hiding-place among the crags, leaped out, and away.
Who was this? Was it his contortionist-enemy returned in hopes of retrieving the lost bar, or was it some other intruder?
Johnny did not waste time on idle questions, but sprang away in hot pursuit.
CHAPTER VI
A WILD RACE IN THE NIGHT
Johnny had not gone far in the pursuit of the strange intruder who had leaped out from behind the sheet-steel press, before he realized that this was no ordinary runner. Not only was he fleet and sure, but he was also nimble as a deer.
Almost from the first it became an obstacle race, a hurdle race, a long-distance endurance race, all in one. Into the milling-room, where were long lines of milling-machines and where great quantities of unfinished parts—cam-shafts, crank-shafts, gears and a multitude of smaller parts—were piled close together, the fugitive raced. Over machines and heaps of parts alike he hurdled. Dodging this way and that, he was now lost to Johnny’s view and now found again.
Panting, perspiring, yet confident, Johnny followed on. Knowing full well that when it came to a test of endurance few men could outdo him, he held to his pace, striving only to keep his opponent in sight.
One thing puzzled him. In the tiger-like leap of the fellow, in the swinging, crouching stoop, there was something strikingly familiar.
“I’ve seen him before, I know that,” he told himself, “but when and where?”