CHAPTER XXIV
Dave Gives Points to the Chief of Police
"You clumsy bungler!" spoke Dave Darrin hotly. "Chief, I demandthe right to speak to you for a moment."
"After you're ironed and taken to the station house," snappedMr. Simmons.
"Chief, you're not afraid to step aside with me and listen toabout ten words?" demanded Darrin scornfully. "And if you don't---ifyou go on in your bull-headed way---you'll be the scorn of thetown by morning. Why don't you hear what I've got to say, insteadof letting precious seconds slip by. Come! Over this way!"
There was something so commanding in Darrin's voice and mannerthat Simmons concluded to listen for a moment.
Keeping his flash-light turned on Darrin, the chief of policefollowed Dave. Darrin whispered something in the big man's ear.In another moment the two were whispering together animatedly.
"Why didn't you come to the point before, Darrin?" demanded thechief gruffly.
"Great Scott, didn't I, as soon as I could postpone your maniafor having me loaded down with police chains?"
"Yet how do I know you're telling me anything like the truth?"
"If I'm lying, you can find it out very quickly, can't you?" demandedDarrin. "But come along, or you'll be too late. Oh, why do allthe biggest slow pokes in creation get appointed to the policeforce?"
"Come along with me, Delmar," ordered Chief Simmons, turning toone of his policemen. "The rest of you stay here---though youcan pass on into the open air. Then wait there for us."
"Don't you waste any time on worry, Dick," Dave called back.
Prescott laughed easily. Whatever Dave had discovered, or thoughthe had, Darrin's chum was quite content now to await the resultof all that enthusiasm.
"We must not make much noise," cautioned Darrin, as he led theway swiftly, though on tiptoe. "We don't want to scare the otherpeople cold until we have them cooped so that they can't get away.But you'd better be ready, in case they're desperate enough totry shooting!"
Up the street, to the head of another alley way, Darrin led theswift chase.
"Now, softer than ever," he whispered, over his shoulder, withouthalting.
A moment later Dave halted before two stone steps that led downto a basement junk shop.
Just as he did so a low voice inside could be heard, saying inbarely audible tones:
"I'm so anxious to know whether Prescott fell into the trap thatI can hardly wait another minute."
"You'd better wait until morning, or you'll tumble into somethingwith your eyes shut, and that will mean both of us nabbed," growledanother voice.
"Do you think they found Prescott---that they believed in theappearances against him?"
"I can't say," came the other low voice. "And I can wait. I'mnot crazy on the subject, as you seem to be."
"Explain this all over again, to us, won't you?" shouted the chief,pushing open the door of the junk shop and striding in, backedby the light and the revolver of Officer Delmar.
"What?" screamed Phin Drayne, then sank to his knees in the extremityof his terror.
"Don't either of you try to put up any fight," warned the chief."Delmar, here are my handcuffs to put with your own. Hand meyour light, and then iron both of these fellows securely."
The owner of the junk shop, a man under thirty, dirty and lowbrowed, stood cowering back against a bench. The fellow lookedas though he would have fought had there been any chance to drawa weapon. But he was gazing straight into the muzzle of the policechief's weapon.
An instant later both prisoners had been handcuffed, and a pistolhad been taken from the clothing of each. From the junkman,too, had been taken a ring of keys.
"One of these fit your door?" demanded Simmons.
"Yes," growled the scowling one. "The long key."
"Bring the prisoners along, Delmar," ordered the chief. "I'lllock up here. We'll come back later for a search."
Out on the sidewalk Phin Drayne plucked up courage enough to findhis voice.
"For goodness' sake, let me go, Chief," he begged, falteringly."I haven't done anything, although things look against me."
"I guess we'll be able to put things enough against you," retortedthe police official mockingly.
"Think of my mother!" pleaded the wild boy. "Think of our family---oneof the most respectable in town. Think of-----"
"Oh, you're enough to make one tired," broke in Dave Darrin,in deep disgust. "You thought of Dick Prescott when you put upthe job to have him arrested as a burglar, didn't you?"
"Why, what do you mean? I didn't do anything to Dick Prescott,"shouted Drayne angrily, or affecting to be angry.
"Tell that to the marines," quoth Darrin contemptuously. "Itwas through following on your trail, Drayne, that I discoveredthe whole trick, and also knew just where to take the police tofind you."
An hour later Chief Simmons was well satisfied that he had laidthe burglar scare in Gridley.
Not that the new chief had had so very much to do with the result,either.
The first move had been to get back to the Kahn store, where DickPrescott was promptly freed, with the chief's hearty apologies.
Over at the police station, by separating Drayne from his accomplice,Bill Stevens, the junkman, and questioning each separately, thewhole story had come out, chiefly through frenzied confessions.
Phin Drayne, loafing about town, and with his pocket money nearlycut off by his father, had formed the acquaintance of Stevens,who, besides being a junkman, was a very fair locksmith, thoughabout the latter trade he had never bragged publicly.
Drayne had been ripe for any move that would place him in morefunds. So, first of all, he and Stevens had entered the commercialestablishment of Drayne, senior. There, thanks to Phin's knowledgeof the premises, they had made a very good-sized "haul."
After that the pair had operated together frequently. Stevens'junk shop had offered a handy pace in which to hide the plunder.
Then, as time went on, and Phin heard, by chance, that Dick andDave were trying to catch the burglars in behalf of "The Blade,",a plan had occurred to Phin by which he might ruin Dick utterlyin the eyes of the community.
The whole plan had been carefully laid by Stevens and young Drayne.
On this night, just after Conklin's drug store had been closedfor the night, Stevens had slipped in a key that had opened aside door for him. Then the door was left closed but unlocked.At that hour of the night no one was likely to notice anyonewho went in or out at the side door. And Conklin's was equippedwith a public telephone.
Then down to the alleyway had stolen the evil pair. Kahn's reardoor had been opened with false keys and left ajar. Then PhinDrayne stole back to the junk shop, while Stevens, whose voicecould not be recognized over the wire by Dick, sent the message.
Next, back to where he could watch the alleyway, hurried Stevens,and hid. Stevens saw Dick Prescott slip into the alleyway, thengo inside the store. That was enough for Stevens, who had slippedback and into the drug store once more, getting the police stationon the wire and 'phoning to the chief that Gridley's burglarshad just entered Kahn's through the rear door.
Only a block and a half from Kahn's was the police station. Almostimmediately the officers were on the spot, stalking---Dick Prescott.
But, at the time when Dick left his own home and went down thestreet so hurriedly Dave Darrin had been sauntering along, tocall his chum out on their nightly quest for "The Blade."Seeing Dick move so swiftly, Darrin concluded that somethingmost unusual was about to happen. So Dave trailed swiftly inthe rear.
Thus it was that Darrin drew back just in time to see Bill Stevensslipping away from a hiding place at the head of that alleyway.
"That does for Prescott," chuckled Stevens, half aloud.
"Oh, it does, does it?" silently murmured alert Dave, and nowhe intently followed Stevens to the drug store, and thence backto the junk shop. Dave's next swift move was to rush back toKahn's with the result already known.
"Well, did you think the folks of Gridley would continue to believesuch a charge against young Prescott?" demanded Chief Simmonsof the sneak.
"I knew some wouldn't, but I thought the whole affair would makesuch a row that Prescott would never be quite able to hold uphis head in Gridley again," declared Drayne huskily. "But I thoughtthat it would stop his thinking of going to West Point, anyway."
"Instead of which," muttered Simmons dryly, "you'll get fouryears---or more, Drayne at some place that won't be West Point."
"Oh, my father won't quite stand for that," returned Phin, a bitmore loftily. "He has money and some family pride."
"Money doesn't help much for confessed burglars," rejoined ChiefSimmons.
At that moment Heathcote Drayne, who had been roused out of bedby a policeman, came in, so white faced that Dick and Dave feltsorry indeed for the unhappy parent.
But Dick didn't remain to see the meeting between father and son.Prescott and his chum hastened around to "The Blade" office.Gladly enough would both boys have kept Phin's disgrace fromgoing before the public, but it was too big a story, locally,and was bound to come out. So Dick wrote a straight account,after which he and Dave hurried home to get the fag end of a night'srest.
Gridley merchants lost but little, in the end, through the seriesof burglaries. Most of the plunder was recovered at the junkshop.
Bill Stevens was sent to prison for a term of eight years. Phin,being only seventeen, was allowed to plead his youth. In hiscase justice was satisfied with his commitment to a reform schooluntil he should be twenty-one years of age.
And so ended the story of the mysterious burglaries.