CHAPTER XXIV
THE PURSUIT
"How did it happen, Russ?"
"Where have the men gone with the model?"
"Can't you get some trace of them?"
Thus Ruth and Alice questioned their friend, as he stood at the openwindow of the taxicab, looking at the crumpled paper.
"I--I don't understand it all," he confessed. "After I knew thosefellows were after my patent I cautioned Mr. Burton about letting anystrangers see it."
A figure came into the doorway of the machine shop. It was that of anelderly man, with steel-rimmed spectacles. His face was grimy withthe dirt of metal.
"I'm awfully sorry, Russ," he said, contritely. "But of course Ithought the note was from you, and gave up the model."
"Did Simp Wolley get it?" asked Alice, eagerly.
"No, a uniformed messenger boy came for it," explained Russ. "Thatwas it; wasn't it, Mr. Burton?"
"Yes. And I had no suspicions. You know you had said you might wantthe model some time in a hurry, to demonstrate to possible buyers,and of course when the boy came with the note I supposed you had senthim. I'm not familiar enough with your handwriting to know it," headded.
"No, I suppose not," admitted Russ. "And yet if you had been thismight have deceived you. It is very like my writing. I guess Wolleymust have had a sample to practice on."
"It all seemed regular," went on Mr. Burton. "I was working away,making some of the finished appliances from your model and drawings,when the boy brought the note. He was a regular messenger boy, Icould tell that. And the note only asked for the model--not for anyof the finished machines, of which I had two. He didn't even want thedrawings, or I might have been suspicious."
"They won't need the drawings as long as they have the model. Theycan make drawings themselves," spoke Russ.
"But if they only have the model, and you still have some of thefinished appliances," asked Alice, "can't you get ahead of themyet?"
"I'm afraid not," Russ replied. "You see, the patent office doesn'trequire models to be filed in all cases now. You can get a patentmerely on drawings. They can still get ahead of me."
"Not if you file your drawings now!" exclaimed Ruth.
"Yes, but I'm not ready. You see the machine isn't perfected yet. Iam still working on it. But they can file a prior claim, and get apatent on something so near like mine that I would be refused apatent when I applied.
"You see I haven't made any formal application yet. Of course, if itcame to a question of a lawsuit, I might beat them out. But I have nomoney to hire lawyers, and they have. The only thing for me to do isto get that model back before they have a chance to use it to makedrawings from. And how to do it I don't know."
"Do you know who that messenger boy was?" asked Alice suddenly of themachinist.
"I never saw him before, Miss--no. He came in a taxicab."
"A taxicab!" cried Russ, excitedly. "You didn't say that before. Didyou happen to notice the number?"
If ever Russ Dalwood was thankful it was then, and the cause of itwas that Mr. Burton had a mathematical mind in which figures seemedto sprout by second nature.
"I did notice the number," he said. "It isn't often that taxicabsstop out in front here, and I looked from my window as one drew up atthe curb. I was working on your patent at the time. I saw the numberof the cab, later, as the messenger boy rode off in it with themodel."
"What was it?" asked Russ, preparing to make a note.
The machinist gave it to him.
"Now if we can only trace it!" exclaimed the young inventor.
"I guess I can help you out, friend," broke in their own taxicabchauffeur. "I've got a list of all the cabs in New York, and thecompanies that run them." Rapidly he consulted a notebook, and soonhad the desired information. The office of the company was not faraway, and Russ and the girls were soon speeding toward it. What thenext move was to be no one could say.
The manager remembered the call that had come in. Two men had comewith a messenger boy to engage a cab to go to the address of themachine shop.
"And who were the two men?" asked Russ.
The manager described one whom Ruth and Alice had no difficulty inrecognizing as Simp Wolley.
"The other man was shorter and not so well dressed," the cab managerwent on.
"Bud Brisket!" exclaimed Russ. "I know him. Now the question is:Where did they take my model?"
"There I'm afraid I can't help you," said the manager.
"Wait!" exclaimed Alice. "Did you happen to notice the number on themessenger boy's cap?"
"No, I did not, I'm sorry to say," the man answered.
"Then that clue is no good," spoke Russ, with a sigh.
"It might be," put in Ruth. "The messenger was probably engaged fromthe office nearest here. We could find that and make some inquiries."
"So we could!" cried Alice. "Oh, Ruth, you're a dear!"
Russ looked as though he would have said the same thing had he dared.
An inquiry over the telephone to the main office of the messengerservice, brought the desired information. And soon, in their taxicabRuss, Ruth and Alice were at the sub-station. There the identity ofthe messenger was soon learned, and he was sent for.
"Sure, I went to de machine shop," admitted the snub-nosed,freckled-faced lad. "I got some sort of a thing. I didn't know whatit was."
"And where did you take it?" asked Russ eagerly.
"Right where dem men told me to. Dey met me around de corner, got inde cab and rode off wid it."
"And what did you do?" asked the manager of the messenger.
"Oh, dey gave me carfare, an' a tip, and I come back here."
"But where did they go?" asked Russ.
"Off in de taxi. I didn't notice."
Russ looked hopeless, but Ruth exclaimed:
"We've got to go back to the taxi office and see the chauffeur ofthat car. He's the only one who can tell us where the men are."
"Good!" cried Russ. "We'll do it."
Back again they went, to find that the car had just come in, after along trip. The chauffeur readily gave the address to which he haddriven the two men, after the messenger boy had gotten out. It was inan obscure section of Jersey City.
"And there's where I'm going!" cried Russ. "Wolley and Brisket areprobably going to try to work their scheme from there. But maybe Ican stop them."
"I--I think we had better go home, Alice dear," said Ruth gently, atthis point.
"Yes," sighed the other, "though I'd love to be there at the finish!"
"Alice!" gasped her sister.
"Well, I would," she said, defiantly.
"Maybe it wouldn't be best," suggested Russ. "I'll get a friend ofmine, though. Now shall I take you home?"
"No, indeed!" cried Ruth. "That will delay you. You go right on afterthem. Alice and I can get home all right. It isn't late."
"It will give me pleasure if the young ladies will allow me to sendthem home in one of our cabs," put in the manager. "I am sorry thatany of our men was used in a criminal manner."
"It wasn't your fault," spoke Russ. "But I guess the girls will beglad to be sent home. I'll keep on. I haven't any time to lose."
And while he sped off in his taxi, in pursuit of the men who weretrying to cheat him out of his patent, Ruth and Alice took theirplaces in another cab, and were driven back to the Fenmore Apartment.
The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First Appearances in Photo Dramas Page 24
