"Now come here," he said. "You, Adolph, you have done good work.
That formula will mean victory for the Fatherland. Did I but dare, I would at once take it myself out of the country. But I have my orders. We must know all things about that concentration camp at the fairgrounds. Yes, you have done well, Adolph." The thick-set man smiled a queer, twisted smile with a crooked lip that always seemed to grin.
The Wolf continued. "From now on our task grows more difficult.
You, Weasel, will go to the aviation school at Ithaca. You already understand planes. Get their models; find out the methods of their management. Cripple all the machines you can.
Report to me here when I call you. Send me a name and address that will reach you. And, remember, no drinking or flirtations, Weasel. Don"t forget my long arm and heavy hand."
The Weasel shuddered. "No, Excellency," he said shortly.
The Wolf turned to the dark man with the scarred cheek, and pointed to his heavy, bristling mustache.
"That must come off," he said. "There is a job for you in the Administration Building where Colonel Bright has his office. You will clean," as the man scowled, "I know you hate it. Never mind! Care not! We are in trust. You must do all as I say. I am your superior officer."
"What do you do, Excellency?" asked the dark man with something of a sneer.
"I come to buy horses, Ledermaim, and my father and Colonel Bright"s father, they were friends. I bring a letter from my father in Switzerland. Unfortunately the Colonel"s father, he is dead; so I make acquaintance with his son. Do you see, Ledermann and Adolph, and you too, Weasel, that I take for myself the hardest job? Now attend. Under no circ.u.mstances are you to speak to me. If it is necessary to communicate with me before the close of the fair you will wipe your faces with one of these drab handkerchiefs. Then you will come here, right here; no place nearer, and wait for me. I will keep all the papers instead of dividing them as before. You, Ledermann, have plans of all the plants of any size about here. Thanks." He filed the papers away. "Adolph, give me the fair ticket, and the envelope with the blank paper. It looks innocent enough, doesn"t it? All white paper; no writing. Yet there is news indeed on that good, innocent, little sheet if one knows how to make it tell. I"ll take them, Adolph."
He waited with a slim hand stretched across the table, while Adolph plunged a hand into an inside pocket with a grin, felt in another concealed pocket, and returned to the first with his face growing grave and pale.
The Wolf watched him with steely eyes, suspicion dawning in them.
"Too slow; too slow, Adolph!" he smiled.
Adolph looked up. "It is not here! It is gone! Some one has stolen it!" he stammered.
The Wolf snarled. "Oh, no, good Adolph!" he said silkily. "Look again."
Adolph, with fingers that shook, turned his pockets out one by one, then looked into the Wolf"s yellow eyes with a gaze pleading yet sullen. "They are gone," he said huskily.
With a flashing motion the Wolf reached across the table and clutched Adolph by the throat. In a steel grip that he struggled hopelessly to loosen he was helpless as a child. Brutally the Wolf bore him back to the wall, where he beat his head savagely against the door frame. A look of savage glee shone on the Wolf"s smooth countenance.
Ledermann leaped across the floor and seized the Wolf"s arm.
"Off!" cried the murderer, and with his hand dealt Ledermann a stinging blow in the face. He fell back. Behind the overturned table, the Weasel sat looking at the floor. It was nothing to him what they did. He shrugged his thin shoulders.
Suddenly the Wolf stopped and let Adolph slip to the floor, where he lay unconscious.
The Wolf kicked him. "I won"t kill you, you swine!" he said.
"You have got to find that paper. Then I"ll see about it. Pick him up, somebody. I can"t trust myself to touch him. Lost that paper--of course it is written in invisible ink; but suppose some blundering fool should get it near a fire?"
"They won"t," said Ledermann as he worked over Adolph. "These stupid country people, what would they know about invisible ink?
It may never be found at all. It may even now be trodden in the dust."
"Let us hope," said the Wolf. "Adolph shall retrace his steps inch by inch until the paper is found, even so much as a tiny sc.r.a.p of it, so that I may know where it is."
"He will find it in the dust," repeated Ledermann and threw water over Adolph, while the Weasel stood up and tightened his belt.
Then the Wolf counted out to him the money needed for his short journey to Ithaca. The counting was interrupted with directions and threats. The Weasel drew a long breath of relief when he was finally dismissed, and was allowed to slip out into the night, where he turned toward Syracuse. Ledermann still worked over the unconscious man.
The Wolf called at headquarters and was pleasantly received, with the formula that was to overthrow the world lying in his pocket.
Days went by, and Monday came, and flags flew, and bands played, and crowds gathered, and the New York State Fair opened at last.
The Wolf went unmolested; indeed he was an honored guest. Quite safe he was for just one whole day. Tuesday morning, as he drove in his fine car, splendidly dressed, his yellow eyes half hidden behind smoked gla.s.ses, a couple of Boy Scouts came out of Colonel Bright"s office as he stopped his car at the steps. Porky and Beany stopped and stared.
"Out of the way!" said the Wolf, as he approached the door.
Porky and Beany stepped obediently aside. For a long time they stared at the door through which he had disappeared.
"It"s him!" said Beany at last. "He drove the car when the other man shot at the Colonel."
"Yes, it"s him," repeated Porky. "His ears ain"t mates."
"I know," said Beany. "What we goin" to do?"
"Keep still and say nuthin". If you ain"t eleven foot tall, n.o.body believes you. I found that out. And I got a hunch that guy has the formula."
"What makes you think that?" asked Beany. "I got it too; but I don"t believe it."
"Dunno," said Beany. "Don"t you know how you feel it back of your neck when anybody looks in the window? I know it just like that. An" we got to do this job all alone. I don"t like his looks neither. Awful smooth" but" murderin". Are you game, Porky, to land him ourselves?"
"Sure!" said Porky. "Ain"t I alwus? What comes first?"
"Le"s think," said Beany.
CHAPTER IV
REVELATIONS AT THE FLOWER-HOUSE
You would not have thought they were thinking at all as they sat on the broad brick steps, holding their chins in their right hands, left hands twisting their puttee lacers. They talked occasionally but not of the yellow-eyed man who was even then laughing and talking to the Colonel.
They came out a few minutes later, and "Captain DuCha.s.sis," as the Colonel called him, ran lightly down and drove off toward the clubhouse. The Colonel stood looking after him, and the two boys stood at attention beside him. He looked down and saw them presently.
"Boys, did you ever have a hunch?" he said.
"Yes, Sir!" they said together.
"Silly things--hunches; very silly! Never let a hunch spoil what seems to be a very good friendship, or change your opinion of a man."
Porky looked quickly up.
"I got the same hunch, Colonel," he said.
"Same man," added Beany.
"Eh, what"s this?" demanded the Colonel.