"Dillon had a dozen or so police dogs shipped up here quietly,"
answered Garrick, now straining his eyes and ears eagerly. "He started them out each in charge of an officer as soon as they arrived. I hope they had time to get around in that other direction and close in. That was what he sent the chauffeur back to see about, to make sure that they were placed by the man who is the trainer of the pack."
"What kind of dogs are they?"
"Some Airedales, but mostly Belgian sheep dogs. There is one in the pack, Cherry, who has a wonderful reputation. A great deal depends, now, on our dog-detectives."
"But," I objected, "what good will they be? Our men are in an automobile."
"We thought of that," replied Garrick confidently. "Here they are, at last," he cried, as a car swung up the lane from the road and stopped with a rush under our window. He leaned out and shouted, "Dillon--up here--quick!"
It was Dillon and his chauffeur, Jim. A moment later there was a tremendous shifting and pulling of heavy pieces of furniture in the hall, and, as the door swung open, the honest face of the commissioner appeared, inquiring anxiously if we were all right.
"Yes, all right," a.s.sured Garrick. "Come on, now. There isn"t a minute to lose. Send Jim up here to take charge of Forbes. I"ll drive the car myself."
Garrick accomplished in seconds what it takes minutes to tell. The chauffeur had already turned the car around and it was ready to start.
We jumped in, leaving him to go upstairs and keep the manacled Forbes safely.
We gained the road and sped along, our lights now lighted and showing us plainly what was ahead. The dust-laden air told us that we were right as we turned into the narrow crossroad. I wondered how we were ever going to overtake them after they had such a start, at night, too, over roads which were presumably familiar to them.
"Drive carefully," shouted Dillon soon, "it must be along here, somewhere, Garrick."
A moment before we had been almost literally eating the dust the car ahead had raised. Garrick slowed down as we approached a bend in the road.
There, almost directly in our path, stood a car, turned half across the road and jammed up into a fence. I could scarcely believe it. It was the bandit"s car--deserted!
"Good!" exclaimed Dillon as Garrick brought our own car to a stop with a jerk only a few feet away.
I looked about in amazement, first at the empty car and then into the darkness on either side of the road. For the moment I could not explain it. Why had they abandoned the car, especially when they had every prospect of eluding us in it?
They had not been forced to turn out for anybody, for no other vehicle had pa.s.sed us. Was it tire trouble or engine trouble? I turned to the others for an explanation.
"I thought it must be about here," cried Dillon. "We had one of my men place an obstruction in the road. They didn"t run into it, which shows clever driving, but they had to turn so sharply that they ran into the fence. I guess they realised that there was no use in turning and trying to go back."
"They have taken to the open country," shouted Garrick, leaping up on the seat of our car and looking about in a vain endeavour to catch some sign of them.
All was still, save here and there the sharp, distant bark of a dog.
"I wonder which way they went?" he asked, looking down at us.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE POLICE DOG
Dillon pulled a whistle from his pocket and blew a short blast sharply.
Far down the road, we could hear faintly an answering bark. It came nearer.
"They"re taught to obey a police whistle and nothing else," remarked Dillon, with satisfaction. "I wonder which one of the dogs that was. By the way, just keep out of sight as much as you can--get back up in our car. They are trained to worry anyone who hasn"t a uniform. I"ll take this dog in charge. I hope it"s Cherry. She ought to be around here, if the men obeyed my orders. The others aren"t keen on a scent even when it is fresh, but Cherry is a dandy and I had the man bring her up purposely."
We got back into our car and waited impatiently. Across the hills now and then we could catch the sounds of dogs scouting around here and there. It seemed as if every dog in the valley had been aroused. On the other slope of the hill from the main road we could see lights in the scattered houses.
"I doubt whether they have gone that way," commented Garrick following my gaze. "It looks less settled over here to the right of the road, in the direction of New York."
The low baying of the dog which had answered Dillon"s call was growing nearer every moment. At last we could hear it quite close, at the deserted car ahead.
Cherry seemed to have many of the characteristics of the wild, prehistoric animal, among them the full, upright ears of the wild dog, which are such a great help to it. She was a fine, alert, up-standing dog, hardy, fierce, and literally untiring, of a tawny light brown like a lioness, about the same size and somewhat of the type of the smooth-coated collie, broad of chest and with a full brush of tail.
Untamed though she seemed, she was perfectly under Dillon"s control, and rendered him absolute and unreasoning obedience.
"Now, Cherry, nice dog," we heard Dillon encouraging, "Here, up here.
And here."
He was giving the dog the scent from the deserted car. His voice rang out sharply in the night air, "Come on Garrick and Marshall. She"s got it. I"ve got her on leash. Follow along, now, just a few feet behind."
Cherry was on the trail and it was a hot one. We could just see her magnificent head, narrow and dome-like, between the keen ears. She was working like a regular sleuthhound, now, too, slowly, picking up the trail and following it, baying as she went.
She was now going without a halt or falter. Nose to the ground, she had leaped from the bandit"s car and made straight across a field in the direction that Garrick had suspected they would take, only a little to the west.
"This is a regular, old-fashioned man hunt," called back Dillon, as we followed the dog and himself, as best we could.
It was pitch dark, but we plunged ahead over fields and through little clumps of trees, around hedges, and over fences.
There was no stopping, no cessation of the deep baying of the dog.
Cherry was one of the best and most versatile that the police had ever acquired and trained.
We came to the next crossroad, and the dog started up in the direction of the main road, questing carefully.
We had gone not a hundred feet when a dark object darted out of the bushes at the side of the road, and I felt myself unceremoniously tumbled off my feet.
Garrick leaped aside, with a laugh.
"Dillon," he shouted ahead at the top of his voice, "one of the Airedales has discovered Marshall. Come back here. Lie still, Tom. The dog is trained to run between the legs and trip up anyone without a police uniform. By Jupiter--here"s another one--after me. Dillon--I say--Dillon!"
The commissioner came back, laughing at our plight, and called off the dogs, who were now barking furiously. We let him get a little ahead, calling the Airedales to follow him. They were not much good on the scent, but keen and intelligent along the lines of their training, and perfectly willing to follow Dillon, who was trusting to the keen sense of Cherry.
A little further down, the fugitives had evidently left the road after getting their bearings.
"They must have heard the dogs," commented Garrick. "They are doubling on their tracks, now, and making for the Ramapo River in the hope of throwing the dogs off the scent. That"s the game. It"s an old trick."
We came, sure enough, in a few minutes to the river. That had indeed been their objective point. Cherry was baffled. We stuck close to Dillon, after our previous experience, as we stopped to talk over hastily what to do.
Had they gone up or down, or had they crossed? There was not much time that we could afford to lose here in speculation if we were going to catch them.
Cherry was casting backward in an instinctive endeavour to pick up the trail. Dillon had taken her across and she had not succeeded in finding the scent on the opposite bank for several hundred yards on either side.
"They started off toward the southwest," reasoned Garrick quickly.