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:
[164]
“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.”
[165]
“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.”
[166]
“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.
[167]
“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[168] 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[169] 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[170] 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!
[171]
“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!
[172]