Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FRO AIIUNee ies rom Crkeue tet i a ¥ a 1 ay i >t yf Ay yr ib _ j common police kind of thing. I put him at work just after father’s death when the paintings that father had been collecting in Europe was shipped to this country. We found that an excellent copy of a Van Dyck had been substituted for the original. Dick ran it down most remarkably.” Ward considered the suggestion for sev- eral minutes. “What is your idea in the present case? What would you have Greiner do, I mean?”’ “Well,” explained Phil, “it might seem like butting in to put our own detective on the Blaydon’s family affairs, but this night’s developments force us to look out for our own safety and involve us in the case in such a way that we’ve got a perfect right to take care of ourselves the best way we know how. ‘“‘There are two things that these fellows may do now. One is to make another. at- tack here. In that case, our best plan is to stay here and meet them and have the —— thing over with. The other thing they may do is to get scared because we have discov- ered them, and scatter before they are caught. We don’t want that to happen be- cause it wouldn’t be Tight to the Blaydons to leave this case up in the air the way it is. That’s what I want Dick Greiner to take _ care of. I want him to get right after those fellows and run them down from the other end.” Ward nodded his agreement. “T believe you are right,” he said. “You’d better go tonight. It isn’t likely that they will come back at once because they will naturally suppose that we are alarmed and on the lookout for them.” “But I can’t very well. They’ve got the car up at Sea View, you know.” “T can fly you up there and come back easily enough. And I think it would be as well not to say anything to Miss Nellie about it until her uncle gets here. Let him tell her if he wants to.” “T shall look him up first thing when I get to New York.” “He isn’t in New York. You remember that it was Nellie’s telegram to Chicago that caught him.” “Oh, true; I’d forgotten. Well, we can’t wait to get in touch with him. Dick ought to get on the track of these fellows right away. I could catch the midnight out of Sea View, couldn’t [?” _ Adventure “Easily. We'll get the machine into the water right away.” They walked back in silence through the bright moonlight, up the shore to the tents. Each man appeared to be busy with his own thoughts and the few sentences they spoke had to do only with the details of wheeling the big biplane out and down to the shore where they shoved it into the water. “Now,” said Phil, “T’ll throw a few things into a suit-case while you get everything ready and then we'll be off.” When he returned, he placed his suit-case in the hull behind the seats, and then stood thoughtfully looking out across the water. “Do you know, Ward,” he said with some hesitancy, “I believe I can see in this thing an indication that Nellie Blaydon is not in- volved in anything crooked after all.” Ward nodded slowly. “Yes,” he agreed. “I begin to see things differently, too. I believe I misjudged the girl. It looks to me as though the news I took to her simply confirmed the fears that she and her uncle had already had. I be- lieve they were already investigating the disappearance of her father.” “Exactly,” said Conway. “And, natural- ly enough, as Nellie didn’t know you from old Adam, she did everything she could to spar around for time to get in touch with Stephen and still not let you get away from Baltimore.” “She probably was suspicious that I was one of the gang, telling my story simply as an opening to the demand for a big ransom or reward.” “Why not?” Phil shrugged his shoulders expressively. “You bore no credentials and she was all alone with no one to advise her what to do. Seems to me she was mighty clever about it after all.” “T’ll have to alter my attitude toward her,’ Ward laughed. “I’m rather glad of it, too. She’s an immensely attractive girl and I didn’t want to dislike her one bit. In fact, I was liking her in spite of myself.” “Well, you can take care of her until I return. But don’t let your liking get too strong, old chap. There have been a dozen who have tried for her with everything in their favor except Nellie herself.” “Never fear,” Ward scoffed easily. “They overlooked me when they passed the romance around in this world. It isn’t in my line.”’ He took his seat in the machine and Phil - Eomichbooks