“He brought the mail from New York. Was forced down; plane robbed. He—”
“Spare your breath,” Curlie grinned. “I’m the guy.”
“Come on over and have a cup of coffee. Got a heavy date with a lady.”
“Professor’s daughter. Thinking of taking a course in something or other myself,” Curlie bantered. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Seated on lunch counter stools, devouring ham and egg sandwiches and drinking coffee, the one time pals told of their experiences.
Johnny listened in silence to Curlie’s account of his narrow escape, his forced landing, his night wanderings as a messenger boy, his thrilling adventures in the tunnel beneath the city. When he came to the point where he had lost the trail of the one who had snatched the package of rare jewels (if, indeed, the Secret Service man’s statement were correct) he straightened up and put a hand on Curlie’s arm.
“I’ll tell you what I think.” He was in deadly earnest. “That fellow never left the tunnel. Why should he? Finest hiding place in the world. What?”
“No doubt about it. For all that, I think he did leave it.”
“You’re wrong. Come with me to the tunnel, and we’ll find him.”
“Can’t. Got a date to search an island; date with that college girl, Grace Palmer.”
“An island?” Johnny pondered. “Oh, yes, I remember.”
Johnny did remember many things about that island. Thrilling adventures had come to him there when the island was younger, as you will recall if you have read the book called _The Fire Bug_.
“Might be something to it,” he said thoughtfully. “Well, you look that place over and I’ll take a look at the tunnel. Somehow, we must find that man.
“Old Greasy Thumb and his pals were at the bottom of this Air Mail robbery, or I’m a green one. Thing to do is to get evidence, then get them. Next time they’ll stay in jail.
“One thing troubles me most of all.” His brow wrinkled. “That’s the way the Chief acts about the whole affair. Then, too, there’s that reporter. He’s certainly a queer one. You don’t expect to find anything wrong with a reporter from a paper like the _World_. They’re always on the side of decency, and honest reform. Oh, well, we may be all wrong about everything. Time’ll tell.
“You’d better hurry over and keep your date. I hope we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other.”