The Auto Boys' Quest

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER II

  A LITTLE PRACTICE IN STRATEGY

  It was a direct result of Gaines' tongue wagging much more loosely thanreasonable discretion would have counseled, to say nothing of soundsense, that information concerning the scheming of himself and hisfellow conspirators reached the Auto Boys.

  In the first place Soapy made the boast in Knight & Wilder's garagethat, when the Auto Boys set out on the tour, the object of which wasshrouded in such mystery, his own car might not be so far behind butthat somebody would look "about like thirty cents," when somebodyarrived at somebody's very secret destination.

  Again, the same afternoon, to a crowd of young fellows gathered forbaseball practice he made such broad hints concerning the Auto Boys anda mysterious spot marked by stones piled near it, many years ago, thatthe dullest of them could not but connect the same with the journey PhilWay and his friends were known to have in prospect.

  It was the most natural thing imaginable that, being very friendlyindeed with Phil, Billy, Paul and Dave, and by no means an ardentadmirer of the Chosen Trio, Ed Wilder improved his earliest opportunityto tell the former of Soapy Gaines' words and half-jocular,half-threatening manner. With equal promptitude, also, a half-dozen ormore of the baseball enthusiasts let it be known that, whatever thewell-concealed plans and purposes of the Auto Boys might be, Gaines andPickton, and very probably Perth, as well, had obtained information inregard to them.

  Thus did Soapy's exact words, in some instances, and the substance ofthem in others, reach the four friends at one time and another beforetwenty-four hours had passed.

  "Hard to tell whether they think it would be just a joke to follow afterus or whether they intend to be low-down, sneaking mean," said Phil Way,as the well-nigh inseparable quartette discussed the situation in thegreen and yellow garage.

  "I don't see that that's the important thing. The main question is, howdid the three of 'em find out so much," was Billy Worth's observation."Of course we know that our intention to go on a trip is commonproperty; but wherever could they have heard about 'three stones to markthe place'? If they've heard enough that they make hints of that kind,how much else do they know?"

  "Oh, fudge! Pay no attention to 'em, _I_ say. What's the odds whetherthey trail after us or don't?" put in Dave MacLester.

  "Huh! Plenty enough odds!" ejaculated Paul Jones, forcibly. "If we'dwanted them tagging along we'd have told 'em when they as good as askedus. And what's more, if we're going to take them into the plan we mightas well tell it to everybody and forget all about keeping our businessto ourselves. But say! What's the matter with fooling 'em! Let 'emfollow after us and when we've led 'em away off the real track, justslip away and go where we first intended?"

  There was a general murmur of interest and some laughing over thepossibilities Paul's suggestion might develop, but in the end the talkcame back to Phil Way's inquiry--were the Chosen Trio bent on makingserious mischief and of themselves a contemptible nuisance, or did theythink merely that it would be fun to ascertain and expose the object ofthe contemplated journey?

  "They've been spying on us some time or other or they'd never be able todrop so many hints about the Three Stones. Then again, though, that'sall they have hinted at, so far as we've heard," said MacLester. "Likelythey don't know about anything else. But if we are going to pay anyattention at all to them, let's do as Jones says. Let's have some funout of it."

  And so began a series of moves on the checker board of events for boththe Auto Boys and the three Chosen Ones which, and particularly withregard to the latter, gave all of them something to think about.

  A decoy movement was the first put into execution. Its purpose was toascertain to what extent Soapy Gaines and his friends were keeping tabon the going and coming of the Thirty, by which name, it will beremembered, the car the four chums jointly owned was known.

  With a tarpaulin tied over the rack behind, as if it covered a quantityof baggage, divers boxes--mostly empty--in the tonneau, two extra tiresin their racks and the whole outfit presenting the appearance of beingready for extended touring, the Auto Boys headed their car into thestreet the following morning.

  Amid frantic waving of their hands, and by Jones a most ridiculouspretense of wiping away tears of parting--fairly giggling in hishandkerchief as he did it--the machine was turned directly toward theStar Lake road. At good speed, yet not too fast--it wouldn't do toeliminate the certainty of being seen--the Thirty rolled into thecountry just as the great clock in the Court House tower rang nine.

  Going with what carelessness he could assume, yet stealthily, too,through the alley at the rear of the Way and other residences on thesouth side of Grace Avenue, young Mr. Pickton looked in at the window ofthe green and yellow garage as he had done many times before within thepast week. Not at all surprised was he to see the shed empty, but he wasastonished and not a little chagrined to notice that the extra tireswere no longer in the corner reserved for them, and various otherarticles of touring paraphernalia customarily stored in plainview--ropes, lantern, shovel, a large tarpaulin, and so on--weremissing.

  "Ginger! They're gone already!" exclaimed the dumbfounded Mr. Pickton,and took to his heels.

  From a corner drug store in an adjacent street he telephoned the news toSoapy Gaines. The latter, no less surprised than Pickton, vented hisdisgust and displeasure by applying to the Auto Boys a comprehensivevariety of names. One would have supposed they had done him somepersonal injury; at least that they had been bound by every sort ofmoral obligation to have notified Mr. Gaines and his friends of theirintended departure.

  Within a half hour Pickton and Freddy Perth were frantically workingover Gaines' Roadster while that young gentleman rushed rather foolishlyand very excitedly about the carriage house in which the machine waskept. (Mr. Gaines, Sr., had not yet relinquished horses.) Soapy'sprincipal purpose, indeed, seemed to be that of getting himself in theway. In any event, he succeeded so well that young Mr. Perth, hasteningto the tank with a heavy can of gasoline, collided with him violentlyand both rolled upon the concrete floor, the gasoline gurgling overthem as if it laughed a deep, deep, solemn laugh.

  Unlike most young fellows whose privilege it is to use and care for anautomobile, Soapy Gaines little relished the work. Instead of beingconstantly afraid his chums would have too much to do with the oiling,the lights, the fuel supply and the general keeping of the machine ingood trim, as many another young fellow would have been, Gaines was theopposite--afraid only that they wouldn't.

  Not to any motive of generosity was this attitude of his to be credited.Soapy just didn't like to work and, moreover, had never learned how toperform even the simplest tasks, whether in connection with theautomobile or otherwise. It was a misfortune real and serious. To agreat extent, however, since such learning had never been required ofhim, was he to be pitied rather than blamed.

  Notwithstanding their various vexations, for the spilling of thegasoline was but one of several annoying experiences, the Chosen Triowere presently spinning down the street at a rate of speed invitingunpleasant notice should a bluecoat be encountered. They were by nomeans equipped for an extended journey. All they hoped to do wasascertain the road the Auto Boys had taken. With this information inhand, they would return home and make ready for a long tour. It would beeasy to trace the well-laden touring car once its general route beyondthe city was known.

  Perhaps the Auto Boys made a mistake by not slipping away quietly, thisvery morning, well ahead of their expected schedule. They could probablyhave eluded successful pursuit more easily at this time than later. Andyet it must be remembered, and their own opinion in the matter was thatonly by a decoy movement could they assure themselves with regard to theTrio's real intentions. So all in all Phil and his friends thought theyplanned extremely well.

  Alighting from the Thirty in the city's outskirts, Billy Worth hadquietly returned by street car to the business district. In theseclusion of the private office of Knight & Wilder's garage he awaiteddevelopments. Nothing ha
ppening at once, he bethought himself of thetelephone, and obtaining ready permission to use it, he called up BenRyder.

  Reflecting with no small interest that, as the Ryder home was but acrossthe street from the Gaines mansion, and Ben being a pretty wide-awakefellow and likely to be observing, also a good friend, even if he wasgoing to college next fall, Billy was mightily pleased with himself forhaving thought of him. He rejoiced the more, too, when Ben--Mr. BenjaminHarrison Ryder, left tackle, if you please, sir!--but just good, honestBen, for short, answered his summons.

  "Yes, the three of them went bowling down the street in Gaines' youngbattleship twenty minutes ago," was the answer to Worth's question."Don't mention your having inquired? Why, not if you want it that way,certainly. Might not promise so readily if I saw the thing from thesame angle that makes it look so important to you. Hope you won't takeoffense if I say I really don't, though, Billy!"

  As this laughing answer terminated the conversation, Worth scoured hisbrain for other sources of information. The Park Garage, and theAutomobile Club were called in turn. From the first nothing was learned,but from the club came the news that Gaines and Pickton had been in therooms to look at some road maps, leaving later to overtake Phil Way'scrowd. The latter had driven out on the Star Lake road some time before.Dr. Malcom told Gaines and Pickton of having met them as he returnedfrom a country call.

  John Lawdon, the snappy young secretary of the club, always eager to beaccommodating, told Billy all this without so much as asking to whom hewas speaking. He had helped Pick and Soapy look over the maps, he said.Yes, Fred Perth was with them. He had seen all three drive away.

  So delighted to have obtained a positive key to the Trio's movementsthat he could hardly say "Thank you," without betraying excitement inhis voice, Billy hung up the receiver. Then he waited, but not long washe kept in suspense.

  The telephone rang. Mr. Wilder's stenographer responded. "It is for you,Mr. Worth,"--with a peculiar little accent on the Mr.

  It was Phil Way, calling in from Star Lake as had been agreed he shoulddo. Promptly and with many a laugh over the success of their ruse, Billyreported all he had learned.

  "Good enough!" exclaimed Phil. "We will run over a lot of cross roadsand finally back to town before noon, giving them a route to trace thatwill keep 'em out all day."

  "Hurry along! They'll be there soon!" Worth replied, eagerly. "Get agood start ahead and we'll watch for them as they come back! Let themsee just a smile in the corner of an eye, you know! Better than to give'em the laugh right out."

  Almost to the letter was the plan of the Auto Boys consummated. Thehitch in their program followed the early discovery by Gaines and hiscompany that they themselves had made a serious mistake or else had beenmade the victims of a trick. That one or the other proposition was truedawned slowly upon them as they painfully traced the car they sought bythe tracks of its wheels, or, where these were lost in the dust, by manyinquiries at farmhouses and of fellow travelers upon the road.

  "If it was just a low-down scheme to send us wild-goose chasing, they'llbe hanging around somewhere to gloat, you bet!" Fred Perth suggested, asit became painfully apparent that the Auto Boys' machine had simply madean extended series of turns, then returned to town.

  "Anyhow, it's all the more reason we've got to upset their old secrettour," said Gaines, with determination.

  Pick was driving. "I'll run her around the suburbs to the South road,then up to your house through the back streets, Soapy," he proposed."They'll be watching for us to come in through town, if this _was_ justone of their measly tricks."

  "Her" being the automobile and being also a well-behaved car, "she" madeno protest of any sort to the longer way home, as Pickton suggested.Soapy and Perth likewise agreeing, a half circle was made around thetown. It was nearly two o'clock when the Roadster, with the water fairlyboiling out of the radiator, rumbled into the Gaines carriage house.

  Perhaps it was because they were not only disgusted with their fruitlessjourney, but very hungry as well, that the Chosen Ones unanimouslyagreed that, in substance, Messrs. Way, Jones, MacLester and Worth werea precious lot of rogues who thought themselves extremely smart. And itis very much to be feared, indeed, that some such feeling with regard totheir mental capacity was entertained by the four friends when a coupleof hours later the two parties of young gentlemen came face to face onMain Street.

  But if there was in the glances of the Auto Boys an exultation which,strictly speaking, was not at all to their credit, it must be rememberedthat they were only human. Only human, and not so trained in thesuppression of the appearance, only, of exulting over a fellow creature,as older members of the human race sometimes become.

  Phil and Billy were on the way to deliver the large route of eveningpapers they managed every week day, and Dave and Paul to buy somesupplies for the proposed trip when the opposing parties met.

  "Oh, hello!" cried Paul Jones with an expansive grin.

  "G'wan, you--" It was Soapy who answered, but the final word, if hecompleted his sentence, was lost in the noise of the street. What thatword was is immaterial, perhaps. What it wasn't was made very plain byhis manner and the term was certainly _not_ "young gentleman,""cherished friend," or anything of that order.

  "Oh, well, they had no business trying to inject themselves into ouraffairs," said Billy Worth, sorry to see the bitter feeling of the threelads.

  And there was really broad justification for Worth's remarks. For alarge part of a year--ever since the preceding fall, and it was nowJune--the Auto Boys had had in contemplation the journey they were aboutto begin.

  For reasons they deemed sufficient, their destination and their objectthey had revealed only in their families. All comment, all conjecture,all inquisitive or teasing words from their friends had beensuccessfully resisted.

  The curiosity of their usual associates was only heightened by thisfact, and in time the secret plans of the lads were vested by theirwhole acquaintanceship with an importance far out of proper proportionto their probable consequence. Then came Soapy Gaines and his followers,Pickton and Perth, with frequent hints of a truly mysteriousnature--"Three stones piled one upon another to mark the place."

  What place, and where? And why? And who marked it, and when?

  Not only those of an age with the Auto Boys themselves but their eldersas well wondered more and more as ever and again came some reference tothe secret journey.