False Alarm!

Ken was sitting on the steps of the porch. He jumped up as he heard the door open. “Hello, fellows,” he cried.

“Hello, Ken. You’re lucky; you always get away with things.”

“What’s the trouble this time, Paul?”

“My dad just had us up at the bar and almost made us tell.”

“You can’t do that. Not yet, at any rate.”

“For the present we got away with it,” remarked Jack.

They went across the street to Ken’s garage where they would have the privacy they wanted. Seating themselves on boxes in a circle, Jack heaved a sigh, then said, “Well, Paul, now you can tell us everything that happened.”

Paul grinned mischievously. He leaned forward and whispered, “I found out their secret entrance to the cellar.”

“You mean it!” exclaimed Jack.

“That’s perfect!” cried Ken.

“It’s in the house to the rear of the empty house.”

“I had a suspicion it would be something like that,” commented Jack. “What sort of a house is it?”

[157]

“It was dark and there was not much chance to see anything. By the way,” he asked, “whose idea was it to suspect the grocery man?”

“Mine,” answered Ken. “Was I wrong?”

“On the contrary, you were right and you deserve a medal as a fine detective. That man is one of the gang.”

“You don’t say! Well, come on, tell us about it.”

Paul commenced at the very beginning and related all that had happened to him the previous night. Completing his narrative, Jack muttered, “So! That’s the way things stand.”

“Yes. Now you tell me what happened to you two last night.”

“In one word,” replied Jack, “nothing.”

“Tell him about the printing press,” suggested Ken.

“Well, yes, but that wasn’t much. By putting our ears to the ground, we could hear very slightly the printing press going.”

“On the contrary. You should have been able to hear it very well,” commented Paul.

“Come to think of it,” remarked Jack, “you’re right. They must have muffled the noise of the machine somehow.”

“They are certainly going in for it in a big way,” said Ken.

“It seems that they are,” Paul replied. “Now, if we can get a couple of things straightened out,[158] we can tell the story to the police and have the gang arrested.”

“I think we ought to wait a while,” suggested Jack. “It is a little too soon yet.”

“Yes. From every indication,” commented Paul, “it seems that they are on the alert. We have to catch them at a moment when they are off their guard and make sure that every one of them happens to be there.”

“There are also a couple of more things that we have to check up on. For example, we still don’t know how Mr. Grey fits into the picture and—”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” interrupted Paul. “Following the grocery man, he and Mr. Grey passed each other and nodded. Whatever that meant I don’t know, but it establishes beyond a doubt that they know each other and that Mr. Grey is in with the crowd.”

“That’s very interesting to know,” said Jack enthusiastically. “But in that case, how are we going to explain his past behavior?”

“I don’t know,” answered Paul. “But there is no doubt that there is some connection between his past behavior and what we are up against now.”

“Yes,” muttered Jack, “I’d give a penny to know exactly how those fires and the robbery fit into the puzzle.”

[159]

“Eventually, we will solve that,” remarked Paul. “I have a notion how they fit in but—”

“Tell us!” exclaimed Ken.

“I would rather not; it sounds foolish and I may be mistaken. Besides, I couldn’t very well substantiate my argument. But what we have to decide now, is what we are going to do next, what our plan of action is going to be.”
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