“Hello, I say, I happened to be riding near here, sort of meandering along not making much noise and I passed a big car parked back of those elm trees. Thought it was a spooning party, so came along minding my own business, then I heard shots and almost at the same time the motor of the limousine was started. I put on the brakes just in time to keep from hitting a man who was running toward the road, and he hopped into the car, another fellow right after him.”
“Did you turn round and chase them?” Roberta asked eagerly.
“Yes, Miss, I did, but they opened her up and went ‘hell bent for election,’ I beg your pardon. And pretty soon I couldn’t see anything but the dust they made, and there was plenty of that.” He fumbled in the pocket of his jacket.
“Bet your socks,” the boy grinned. “Here she is.”
“Good piece of work.” Mr. Howard took the scrap of paper upon which the license number had been hastily scrawled.
“Wrote it down quick so I wouldn’t forget it. Anybody hurt?”
“Thank you, we are all right,” Mrs. Langwell assured him. “Won’t you have a cup of coffee, or something to eat?” The chap was about Harvey’s age.
“Thanks just the same. I’ll ooze along. You people will want to get back to bed. If you care to bump-the-bumps with me, sheriff, I’ll give you a lift on this cycle.”
“Thanks. I’ll get home as fast as I can and start things humming on the telephone. Spread this number over the country through the broadcasting stations and find out who owns that car.”
“Ought not to be hard finding the would-be thieves,” the boy grinned.
“Looks as if it might be easy, thanks to your good sense.”
“Say it with flowers,” the lad chuckled. “Come along. As long as I live I may never get another chance to have a sheriff in the saddle behind me. How I wish a cop would try to stop me on this trip.”
The pair went off amid the reports of the motorcycle, and then the neighbors, assured that the Langwells were unhurt and in no further danger, departed. Before she went to bed Roberta took another look at the old barn-hangar where Nike and the Falcon were still resting securely. With a sigh of relief she glanced toward the sky, which was mighty dark, but she caught the faint outline of the moon shining through as if she had decided to lighten things up a bit in the vicinity of the beloved airplane and its owner. In spite of the excitement and terror, the girl was so weary that she dropped off to sleep at once and it was late when she awakened. To her amazement she heard voices in the vicinity of the hangar, but when she hopped out of bed, she saw it was her Dad there with the village electrician.