“We’ve got to get out of this, and get out of it quick,” exclaimed Dugan, excitedly; “we’ll have a whole hornet’s nest about our ears if we don’t.”
“You’ve got the box with the plans in it?”
“Yes, but the smoke was so confounded thick that I could hardly see to get it.”
The last two speeches we have recorded were exchanged while the two rascals were diving down a side street where their automobile was concealed. As the Boy Scouts came pouring round the corner, to be met by a cloud of acrid smoke rolling from the open bank door, there was a sharp “chug-chug!” as the former soldier and the treacherous Jap made off with their spoil.
“What’s the matter? What is it? Who blew the alarm?”
These and a thousand other questions came from the anxious boys as they ran about trying to discover what had happened, and what was the matter. A cry from Merritt summoned them down the street past the bank. The corporal had stumbled over Rob’s unconscious form.
“Rob! Rob! What is it?” he was saying as the others came up.
“Somebody must have struck him and left him here,” said Tubby. “Fan his face, Merritt.”
The corporal produced a handkerchief and vigorously fanned the recumbent lad’s countenance. It so happened that in doing this he removed the subtle powder which the crafty Jap had had concealed in his handkerchief, and as its fumes lost their effect Rob awoke. At first he gazed dazedly about him, but presently all that had happened came rushing back to his mind.
“Did they get away?” he asked in a feeble voice.
“Who, old fellow?” asked Tubby, “whom do you mean?”
“Yes. I’ll explain it all afterward. Did they get away?”
“An auto just chugged off down H street, if that’s what you mean,” volunteered Hiram.
“Down H street,” echoed Rob, “that leads into the New York road, doesn’t it?”
“Why, yes,” rejoined Merritt, “but what has that to do——”
“Everything,” exclaimed Rob, cutting him short; “come on, boys. My dad’s car is just up the street. We’ve got to take after those fellows and have them arrested. They’ve got valuable papers.”
“Rob! They’ve stolen the airship plans?” gasped Tubby, guessing what had happened.
“That’s right. But come on,” exclaimed Rob, frantically tugging at his chum’s coat-sleeves. Leaving the others behind with orders to telephone to the various villages about, to apprehend the robbers if they appeared there, the boy, followed by his chums, made for his automobile which, it will be recalled, he had left a short distance up the street. A few turns of the crank and a quick snap as spark and gasolene were turned on, and then a quick dash round the corner into H street and a flying leap down the country road leading into the turnpike to New York!