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CHAPTER XVIII
A NEW THEORY
“Those robbers probably came in a light, rubber-tired rig, left it somewhere around the corner, got into the bank, did the job and drove away again,” was the opinion of Mr. Thompson, as he crawled out of the roof scuttle, followed by the boys.
“But how did they get to the roof?” asked Ned. “You’ve got to explain that.”
“Easy enough,” spoke the policeman. “You see this bank is in a row, with several other buildings, all about the same height. They could have climbed up the fire escapes, or they could have used a ladder. I’m inclined to the latter theory myself, for the fire escapes are on the front of the buildings, and if they went up them they’d be seen, whereas they could put a ladder up in back.”
The boys looked about them, and Bob took a couple of snap shots, including one of his two chums and the officer as they stood near the opened scuttle. As Mr. Thompson had said there was not much to see. The roof was a long one, extending over several buildings, and being flat, and covered with a composition of tar and gravel, alternating with tin on some of the structures, made quite a place to stroll about.
Jerry walked a little away from Ned and Bob, who were listening to Mr. Thompson’s explanation of how Detective Blake had discovered the finger marks in the dust around the scuttle rim, and had thus made his discovery.
“Blake thinks the scuttle was left unhooked, or else that the thieves reached in with a bent wire, and lifted the hook from the catch,” said the policeman.
The tall lad was walking over a stretch of tin roof, on a building two or three doors from the looted bank. There had been rain two days previous, followed by a brisk wind, which dried out the dust, and there was now quite a coating of the latter on the tin. There was also something else, and as Jerry caught sight of several marks in the dirt-coating he uttered an exclamation.
“Somebody with rubber-soled tennis shoes has been walking up here,” he said.
He bent closer over the footprints, and then he saw another mark that caused him to spring up quickly, and call to his companions and the policeman.
“Look here!” he cried, beckoning to them.
“What’s the matter?” demanded Ned, coming up on the run.
“Easy! Easy!” cautioned Jerry. “Don’t trample on these marks. Look! If some one hasn’t been up here on a bicycle I miss my guess!”
“A bicycle!” exclaimed Bob. “Do you mean to say that the robbers rode a bicycle up here?”
“There are the marks of the rubber tires plain enough,” replied Jerry, pointing to them.
“That’s no bicycle track!” declared Ned.
“Why not?” the tall lad wanted to know.
“Or, if it is, the fellow rode on one wheel, or else is more expert than anyone I ever saw. See, there’s only one straight mark, and the best rider in the world turns his front wheel every now and then, making a separate track from the rear one. That’s no bicycle mark.”
“What is it then?” demanded Jerry. “Did some one roll a single bicycle wheel about on the roof for fun?”
Before Ned could reply, Bob, who had gone off several paces to the left, uttered a cry.
“Here’s another!” he shouted, pointing to the dusty tin roof. His companions hastened over, taking care to keep off the tracks, and there saw another mark, exactly like the first.
For a moment Jerry Hopkins stared at the second impression. Then he went back to look at the first one. Next he hurried forward and began looking at a space about midway between the two tire tracks. His companions and the policeman watched him curiously. Suddenly Jerry threw up his hand as a signal.
“I’ve found it!” he cried.
“What?” asked Ned.
“The third track!” was the response. “Fellows it was no bicycle up here. It was – ”
“An aeroplane!” fairly burst out Ned and Bob together, for now, with the discovery of the third impression, midway between and ahead of the first two, it was very plain to anyone who had had to do with aeroplanes that they were the marks of the three landing, or starting wheels, of such a craft, that had left the marks in the dust of the roof.
“An airship!” exclaimed the policeman. “Do you boys mean to say that an airship has been up here?”
“It certainly has,” declared Jerry firmly. “Look here! There are more marks farther on.” He pointed just beyond a blank space, where the tin roof was clean of dust, and the marks were again visible in the soft tar of another roof. “They landed here and made a start from here. They could easily do it. In fact this long, flat roof with the tar and gravel to give good traction, is an ideal starting place for an aeroplane.”
“An aeroplane on the roof!” murmured the officer, as if unable to believe it. “Do you think, Jerry – ”
“I think,” interrupted the tall lad, “that the bank burglars came through the air, made a landing here unseen by anyone in the street, went down the scuttle, looted the safe, and made a flying start from this roof.”
“Wait! Wait!” begged Mr. Thompson. “This is a new theory – I never heard the like before. It needs a regular detective to consider this. Wait until I get Blake up here. I’ll wager it’ll be news to him. Wait here for me.”
He hurried down the scuttle, and the boys eagerly looked for more impressions and talked about Jerry’s discovery. They went to the end of the row of buildings, and there, where the roof was of tar and gravel, they found in the soft black material the plain impression of the three wheels. They came to a sudden stop before “the jumping-off place,” as Jerry called it, was reached.
“Here’s where they sailed into the air,” he declared confidently.
“Let’s see if we can find where they landed,” suggested Ned.
They did, at the opposite end of the row of roofs, just where a tall building reared itself several stories higher than the row of low structures.
“They came down here all right,” declared Jerry excitedly pointing to the deep impression made by the wheels. The boys even found the place where the drag-brake had scraped a long line in the gravel, and that, to them, made their “case complete.”
Suddenly the merchant’s son uttered a cry, and straightened up.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jerry in surprise.
“Those wheel marks!” gasped Ned. “Look! Those are new tires, Jerry. Not worn a bit, and they’re the anti-skid style – see the corrugations and the rubber-protruding cleats.”
“I see ’em – what of it?”
“Don’t you remember – Noddy Nixon’s aeroplane – after he put on the new wheels, following his smash-up? Don’t you remember? He had wheels just like these – exactly like them. Look!”
Jerry glanced at his chum with wide-opened eyes. Then he looked down at the marks. The light of remembrance came into his eyes.
“By Jove, Ned, you’re right!” he exclaimed. “Noddy Nixon and Bill Berry – and that talk I overheard between them – Noddy Nixon – his aeroplane – I – ”
At that moment Detective Blake, followed by President Carter of the looted bank, and several of the directors, came out on the roof.
CHAPTER XIX
SUSPICIONS
“How about it, Jerry?” asked Ned in a low voice, as the bank officials and the police approached. “Shall we tell ’em what we think?”
“And put ’em on Noddy’s track?” went on Bob.
“I hardly think so. Keep quiet. Leave it to me a while. I want to consider it. No, I guess we won’t say anything except that we believe an aeroplane was used. We needn’t say we have a suspicion as to whose it was.”
Thus Jerry answered his chums, and when the bank president, and the others, reached the side of the boys the tall lad was ready for them.
“What’s this the detective tells me you’ve discovered about an aeroplane being used?” asked Mr. Carter, incredulously.
“I think – in fact I’m sure one was,” declared Jerry. “It seems a strange thing to say, and a few years ago of course would have been out of the question, but it is not now.”
Then, with Ned and Bob putting in an occasional remark Jerry carefully explained his theory, pointed out the impressions of the anti-skid tires, and showed where the airship had landed, and where the robbers had gotten their start for a flight into the air.
“Hum!” mused President Carter, “I am almost convinced in spite of myself, young man. It certainly is an ingenuous explanation. What do you think of it, gentlemen?” and he turned to the directors. Some of them were plainly skeptical, some were half convinced, and one or two, who had seen some recent airship flights, expressed their belief in Jerry’s theory.
“What have you to say, Mr. Blake?” asked the president, of the detective.
“Well, sir, I hardly know. I never had any experience with a safe robber who used an airship, and yet, as this young man says, it might be possible. If it is we’re going to have a hard time to trace the thieves. It isn’t as if they had used an auto or a carriage. The air doesn’t leave any marks or traces.”
“Oh, it’s all nonsense! Utter nonsense!” interrupted a tall, thin director. “Preposterous! Why it’s out of the question. An airship indeed! You might as well tell me it was spirits that robbed the bank. I don’t believe a word of it! Besides, who are these boys who originate such a foolish theory. Do they know anything about airships?”
“They certainly do!” broke in Mr. Thompson with great earnestness. “They have been running one of the best airships ever made, and they just won the hundred mile race at Colton in their motorship Comet.”
For a moment the director who had ridiculed the theory of our friends looked first at them, and then at the officer. A change came over his face.
“Oh, these are those boys; eh?” he asked. “I – er – I read about that race – and they own the Comet? The craft that made that marvelous rescue in midair of Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson is a friend of mine. He told me about that. It was very wonderful. Well, of course that puts a different face on it. If these are the motor boys, and they say an airship was used to rob our bank, why, I don’t know – of course I don’t understand much about such things, Mr. Carter – but I should say – not to be too positive of course – but I should say these boys know what they are talking about. Oh, yes, I believe I agree with them, and the best thing we can do it to get some circulars printed, offering a reward for the capture of the airship bank robbers.”
“I agree with you, and I think these lads are right,” spoke the president. “The next thing to do is to consider ways and means for capturing the robbers, and also how we can best protect our credit. For there will, no doubt, be a run on the bank as soon as the full news leaks out, as it will. I think we had better resume our deliberations, gentlemen. And I suggest that we have these boys before us, and question them. They may be able to give us some valuable clews.”
Once more the directors were in session, and Jerry and his chums told over again, and with more detail, how they had come to form their theory as to the airship.
“Now that is settled,” began the president, “the question arises, what sort of an airship was used, whose it might be, and where we can look for it? Can you boys enlighten us on those items?”
These were the questions Jerry had been fearing would be asked. He was in a peculiar position. He and his chums had well-grounded suspicions against Noddy and Bill, and yet Jerry thought it would hardly be fair to disclose them.
“It would be very hard, Mr. Carter,” said Jerry, “to say what kind of an aeroplane was used. In general they are all alike as regards the use of bicycle wheels. I should say that this was a large biplane, and that at least two men were in her.”
“Easily two men,” confirmed Detective Blake. “No one man alone could have blown the vault open.”
“As to finding out who they were,” went on Jerry, “I think the best plan would be to make inquiries among the makers of aeroplanes in this vicinity regarding the persons who have purchased machines lately, and also what machine was fitted with those peculiarly marked tires. Do that, at the same time send out a description of the missing securities, and have detectives in different parts of the country on the lookout for birdmen who have plenty of money to spend, and I believe you’ve done all that is possible – at least for the present.”
“Why, have you any hope for the future?” asked the president, struck by some peculiar meaning in Jerry’s tone.
“No – that is I – well, my chums and myself intend going off on a trip soon, and I was going to say that we would be on the lookout also, and, if we heard anything, we’d let you know.”
“Thank you,” said Mr. Carter genially. “I believe your advice is good, and we’ll follow it. Did you make a note of it, Mr. Blake?”
“Yes, sir, part of it has already been done. We have wired to all big cities for the police to be on the lookout for the thieves, and brief descriptions of the stolen securities have been wired broadcast. A printer is now setting up a circular to be posted in all railroad stations and other public places, so you see we have covered that end. I’ll at once get busy among the aeroplane makers and tire people, and as soon as I have anything worth while I’ll let you and the other gentlemen know.”
“Very good, and if these young men can get any trace of the robbers we’d be glad to hear from them. We are about to consider the matter of offering a reward, and that will soon be made public.”
Jerry and his chums, as well as several detectives who were in the room took this as a hint that they might now withdraw, and they did so. The motor boys, after a little further talk with their friend Mr. Thompson, and lingering a while to look at the large and increasing crowd about the bank, proceeded to the supply house to get a new cylinder.
“Well, we certainly ran into a bunch of news that time,” remarked Jerry, when, having purchased what they needed, they were on the trolley, going back to Colton.
“Yes, and we haven’t heard the last of it,” commented Ned. “What are we going to do about Noddy being mixed up in it?”
“I hardly know,” replied the tall lad. “It certainly looks as if he and Bill were in it. Yet I hate to inform on them.”
“But it isn’t right to let them get away with all that money – especially when some of it belongs to poor depositors,” declared Bob.
“You’re right, Chunky. I guess we’ll have to tell all we know,” and Jerry looked solemn. It was a duty to be performed, and Jerry was not one to shrink from it, no matter how unpleasant it might be.
“When you think of the talk he and Bill had that night you overheard them,” went on Ned, “there isn’t much doubt of Noddy’s guilt. Weren’t they saying something about doing a job, and getting away from the police?”
“Yes,” assented the tall lad.
“Then you can depend upon it they’re the guilty ones. I say let’s go back and tell the bank people about Noddy’s tires.”
“No – not yet – wait a day,” advised Jerry. “If it was Noddy and Bill they can’t get far away, and we seem to have the faculty of butting into them often.”
“But they may spend all that money,” objected Bob.
“Hardly two hundred and ten thousand dollars in a few days,” replied Jerry. “We’ll take a little longer to think of it, and then we’ll decide what to do. If we make up our minds to take a flight after the robbers – whether they are Noddy and Bill, or some one else – we’ll have to get the Comet in shape. Come on now, we’ll get busy and we won’t think anything more about the robbery until we have to.”
CHAPTER XX
A BIG REWARD
There were several more events to come off in the aviation meet, but our friends were unable to take part in them because they found it a harder and longer task to put in the new cylinder than they had anticipated. But they had time to stop occasionally, and watch the birdmen in their dizzy flights high in the air or about the big valley where the contests were held.
Jerry and his chums finished work on the engine one afternoon, the day before the close of the meet, and yielding to the entreaties of the secretary and the other officials they gave an exhibition flight that was greeted with cheers.
“And this is the end of the meet,” remarked Jerry as they sat in their tent that night, for the next day would come the awarding of such prizes as had not previously been given out, and then the affair would be over.
“Well, what are we going to do?” asked Bob. “Have you made up your mind any further regarding Noddy and the robbery, Jerry?”
“No, and I can hardly say what we ought to do. Sometimes I feel like telling President Carter and the detectives everything, and again, suppose I should be wrong? It wouldn’t be very nice falsely to accuse even a fellow like Noddy Nixon.”
“Why don’t you tell the facts in the case, and let people draw their own conclusions,” suggested Ned. “You can tell of the conversation you heard between Bill and Noddy, and about the tires on Noddy’s machine. Then drop out of it, and tell them to work the clews as they see fit.”
“I believe that would be a good way out of it,” assented the tall lad. “I’ll do it. We’ll go to the bank to-morrow, and then we’ll start on a trip out west and see if we can’t get that flying frog for the professor.”
“Oh, you don’t know how anxious I am to start on that quest!” cried the scientist. “I can hardly wait! And so we will go to-morrow. Still, I can’t complain. I caught a pink striped June bug to-day, a very rare and valuable specimen,” and then the little man began poring over his note books.
There was little of interest to our heroes at the aviation grounds the next day, and Jerry and his chums made a trip in to Harmolet with the intention of having an interview with the bank president and the chief detective.
As they neared the bank building they saw in front of it almost as large a crowd as had been there the morning after the robbery.
“Hello!” exclaimed Ned. “I guess the run is still keeping up. Let’s get off the car and see what’s doing.”
“Maybe the robbers came back for the silver they didn’t take,” suggested Bob with a laugh.
By dint of pushing this way and that, the lads managed to get to a place where they could read a notice, which, printed in large type, posted on the side of the bank building. It caught Jerry’s eyes at once. The notice read:
$10,000 REWARD!
The above reward will be paid to any person or persons who shall cause the arrest and conviction of the robber or robbers who, on the night of July 15, broke into this bank, and stole bank notes to the amount of sixty thousand dollars, and negotiable securities to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand. About four thousand dollars in gold was also taken.
It is believed that the robbers used an aeroplane to land on the roof and in which to make their escape. The above reward will be paid immediately on the conviction of the robbers.
Thomas Carter,President.
“Well, they’ve officially adopted our airship theory,” remarked Ned, with a smile at his chums.
“Yes, and I guess now will be as good a time as any to tell what more we know,” suggested Jerry. “Come on, we’ll ask to see Mr. Carter.”
They were making their way through the press of people and finding it no easy matter, when Ned almost knocked down a boy who, with three small bicycle tires hanging over his shoulder was standing on his tiptoes, trying to look over the heads of the crowd to read the reward notice.
“I beg your pardon!” exclaimed Ned. “Did I hurt you?”
“Naw, not a bit!” exclaimed the lad good naturedly. He was a typical errand boy, always glad of an excuse to stop and “kill” time. “Dat’s a swell reward de bank is offerin’,” he volunteered. “I wish I could cop it.”
“Yes, it wouldn’t be bad,” said Bob. As for Ned, after the first shock of the collision, and his apology, he was looking at the lad in a curious fashion – yet not so much at the boy as at the bicycle tires he carried.
“Look!” whispered Ned to Jerry, pointing to the rubber circlets. “Those are tires for aeroplane wheels,” went on the merchant’s son, “and they’re marked just like those Noddy had on his machine. Jerry, here’s a clew right under our noses!”
CHAPTER XXI
THE RAG ON THE STATUE
The attention of the boy with the tires was so much taken up with trying to look over the heads of the people about him, that, for a time, he did not notice the excitement of Jerry and his two chums caused by the unexpected discovery.
“They are the same tires,” murmured Bob.
“Exactly,” agreed Jerry. “What shall we do?”
“Let’s get this lad off in some quiet place, and talk to him,” proposed Ned. “We’ll ask him where he works, and whether his firm sold any tires to an aeroplane owner lately.”
“He’d hardly know about that,” objected the tall lad, “but we’ll question him, anyhow. I’ll talk to him.”
After considering the matter for a few seconds, and turning over in his mind the best way to get at what he wanted to know, Jerry touched the lad on the shoulder, and asked:
“Have you got a few minutes to spare?”
“What for?” asked the boy suspiciously, taking a firmer hold of the rubber tires.
“We want to ask you a few questions.”
“What about?” and the lad backed away.
“About those tires,” and Jerry indicated them.
“Where can we get some like them?”
“At the store where I work, Johnson and Carroll, 236 Main street. It’s just down about two blocks.”
“Are you delivering these tires to some aeroplane owner?” asked Jerry.
“No, I’m taking these back to the store. They were out at the meet in Colton.”
“Colton!” gasped Jerry.
“Yes, some fellows that had an aeroplane out there sent for some extra ones just before the exhibition opened. They wanted a heavy anti-skid kind – wanted several sets of ’em, in case they punctured some. So I took out three sets – nine in all. But those fellows left before the meet opened, and I was sent to-day, when it closed, to get the tires they hadn’t used. They left word at the store that the unused tires would be found in their tent, but the boss didn’t think to send me for ’em before. Those fellows used only one set, and left two.”
“What were the names of those men?” asked Jerry with growing excitement.
“Brown and Black!” answered the lad, and he was little prepared for the flurry caused among his questioners by his unexpected answer.
“Brown and Black!” exclaimed Jerry.
“Yep. Was they friends of yours?” asked the boy.
“No, not exactly, but we had met them. So they used this style of tires on their wheels?” Jerry’s brain was in a whirl. His suspicions against Noddy were disappearing.
“But how is it, if they left two sets, or six tires, that you only have one set of three here?” asked Ned. “Couldn’t you carry them?”
“Sure, but they weren’t in the tent that Brown and Black had used before they left. There was only these three tires there. At first I thought some one had swiped the extra set, but the secretary of the exhibition paid me for ’em.”
“Had he used them?” inquired Bob.
“No, but some fellow who had an accident and needed new wheels and tires on his airship heard about these tires in the vacant tent, and he took three, giving the money for ’em to the secretary. The secretary knew they were our tires, and kept the money for us.”
“Were the tires exactly like these?” asked Jerry, as he noted that the ridges and corrugations corresponded to the marks on the roof of the bank.
“Just like ’em,” replied the lad. “The fellow whose airship had a smash, and Brown and Black, each have a set like ’em. They’re great for airships. Maybe you’d like a set.”
“Later, perhaps,” assented Jerry who could not but admire the lad’s business instinct. But Jerry had something else to think about just then. “Who was the man who bought the extra set of tires, and left the money for them with the secretary?” asked the tall lad.
“A young feller named Noddy Nixon,” replied the messenger promptly.
“Noddy Nixon!” exclaimed Ned and Bob in a breath. It was the answer they had expected, but, nevertheless, it startled them.
“Huh! Do you know him too?” asked the boy.
“Slightly,” admitted Jerry. “We’re much obliged to you. Here’s a dime for some ice cream soda,” and then, fearing the lad would ask questions that might be embarrassing to answer, Jerry pulled his two chums to one side, and they soon lost sight of the messenger and his tires in the crowd.
“Say, wouldn’t that make you want to go in swimming?” demanded Ned, when they could talk freely.
“It’s certainly got me going,” admitted Bob, with a sigh.
“And it knocks most of our theory squeegee!” said Jerry, shaking his head. “There are two aeroplanes fitted with those peculiar tires – Noddy’s and Brown and Black’s. Now which one landed on the roof of the bank?”
“Give it up,” answered Bob.
“Same here,” replied Ned. “It’s too deep for me.”
“Who’d ever think of such a thing?” went on Jerry. “When Noddy smashed his wheels that time he must have heard about those extra tires that Brown and Black didn’t use, and he put them on his machine. Then those two men already had a similar set on, and – there you are.”
“Or rather, there you – aren’t,” suggested Ned. “Now who committed the robbery – Noddy or the other fellows? You ‘pays your money and you takes your choice,’ as the fellow said in the circus.”
“Are you going to tell President Carter now?” asked Bob.
“I don’t know what to do,” replied Jerry, with a puzzled shake of his head. “This puts an entirely new turn on it. Let’s go off and talk it over.”
“There’s a little park somewhere up this way, not far from the bank,” suggested Bob. “It’s got a statue and a fountain in it, and right across the street is a nice restaurant. I noticed it the other day. We could go to the park, sit down, and – ”
“Then go to the restaurant and have something to eat; eh Chunky?” asked Jerry with a smile.
They walked on in silence and soon came to the little park of which Bob had spoken. It was prettily laid out, and in the centre was a large fountain, surmounted by a large statue on a pedestal, the statue being that of a man on a horse, holding aloft a bronze object that represented an ancient torch.
As the boys came in sight of this art work they saw several men gathered about it, and one was raising a long ladder to the shoulder of the figure.
“What’s going on, I wonder?” asked Bob.
“Maybe they’re going to wash the man’s face, or feed the horse,” observed Ned. “How about it, Chunky?”
A man was now mounting the long ladder, and looking up our friends saw, fluttering from the torch which the bronze figure held aloft, a long rag.
“What’s up?” asked Jerry of one of the workmen who was holding the ladder steady.
“Oh the sparrows have carried a rag up on the statue to build a nest in the torch I guess,” replied the man. “The birds like to get in there, but they make such a litter of straw, grass and rags, that we have to clean it out every once in a while. The top of the torch is hollow, you see, and it makes a good place for ’em. But I never knew ’em to take up such a big rag before. It’s been there several days, but we’ve been so busy cutting the grass that we haven’t had time to take it down. To-day there was a letter in the paper from some old lady, who said the rag looked bad, so the superintendent of the park told us to get it down.”
The explanation was satisfactory, and the boys watched the man climb up, and pull down the offending rag.
“Pretty good size for sparrows to take up,” he remarked to his fellow workmen, as he descended. “There was this package in the hollow torch, too. I wonder how it got there?”
He tossed the rag on a barrel full of leaves and paper refuse that had been swept up on the park paths. Something about the cloth attracted the attention of Jerry, who picked it up. No sooner had he felt of it than he uttered an exclamation.
“Fellows!” he cried, “this isn’t an ordinary rag. It’s a piece of canvas such as airship planes are made of!”
“Are you sure?” demanded Bob.
“Certainly,” replied Jerry. “See, it’s just the kind we use – in fact nearly all planes are made from this kind, which is woven especially for the purpose.”
“An airship; eh?” mused the foreman of the park laborers. “Maybe it dropped from some of the machines that were flying out at Colton.”
“It didn’t drop, it was torn off,” declared Jerry, looking at the ragged edges. “Some airship went too close to the statue, and a wing tip, or a rudder hit the torch. It was risky flying all right.”
“Then it must have been done at night,” declared the foreman, “for some of the men are on duty in this park all day, and they’d have seen it if anything like that happened.”
“Perhaps it was a night flight,” assented Jerry, as he looked at Bob and Ned. The same thought was in the minds of all of them – the aeroplane of the bank robbers!
“What’s that other thing you found in the torch?” asked Ned of the man who had climbed the ladder.
“I don’t know. It’s pretty heavy. Likely it was dropped by the fellows in the airship. I’ll undo it.”
He took off the wrapping paper, disclosing a small flat stone. As he did so two pieces of white paper fluttered to the ground. Jerry picked them up, and, as he read what was written on them he could not repress a cry of surprise.
For the names that confronted him were those of Noddy Nixon and Bill Berry!
