Ted Strong's Motor Car

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  STELLA ADOPTS A BROTHER.

  Taking up a lantern, Ted entered the room. Beside the overturned tablelay the body of a man. It was not Checkers. There was nothing in theroom except the table, two chairs, a broken lamp, which lay in a pool ofkerosene on the floor, and the body of the murdered man.

  Wait, what was this?

  Beneath the table was a scrap of green.

  It was a bank bill, and, drawing it forth, Ted found it to be afifty-dollar note issue'd by the First National Bank of Green River,Nebraska. A valuable clew, this.

  When he had searched the body of the dead man, and found several lettersand a small memorandum book, he left the room and locked it.

  "Notify the coroner," said he to the constable, "and give him this key.If he wants me as a witness in his inquest, he will find me at theStratford Hotel, in St. Louis."

  The constable promised to carry out Ted's instructions.

  "Where is that boy Scrub?" asked Ted.

  "Here I am," said the boy, emerging from the crowd.

  "Who knows anything about this boy?" Ted asked.

  "He's just a loose kid," said the constable. "His father died when hewas young, and his mother left him a few years ago. Since then no onehas claimed him."

  "Then I will. Do you want to come with me?" Ted asked the boy. "I willgive you a good home and clothes, teach you something, and make auseful man of you. Is he a good boy?"

  Ted turned to the men about him.

  "Yes, Scrub is a good boy, only he never ain't had no chance," seemed tobe the universal verdict.

  "Say the word, Scrub. Do you want to come with me?"

  "You bet," said Scrub fervently.

  "Good! Come along! We'll be getting back to St. Louis."

  "But yuh can't get back to-night. The last train has gone."

  "Never mind. I'll get there somehow. Some one lend me a lantern for afew minutes."

  Ted was given one, and he went out into the yard and outhouses to searchfor the red motor car. He could not find it anywhere.

  "Did any of you folks see a red automobile going down the road any timeto-day?" he asked.

  "Yes, there's a red machine down in the lane running over to the RockRoad," said one of the men. "But I reckon it's bust."

  "Come on, Scrub, we'll take a look at it," said Ted, Leading off withthe man who had seen the car, and followed by the whole crowd, Ted madehis way to the lane.

  Standing in the middle of it was the red car with its No. 118 swayingfrom the rear axle in the wind.

  Evidently Checkers had started away in it, using it as a swift means ofescape, but it had stopped, and, as he could go no farther in it, he hadabandoned it in the road.

  Ted examined the machinery carefully, but could find nothing wrong withit until he discovered that it had exhausted its supply of gasoline.

  But he learned that the grocer at the village, half a mile away, hadgasoline for sale, and two young fellows volunteered to go after somewhile Ted overhauled the car.

  In half an hour he was ready to start. He made Scrub get into the seat,and, shaking hands with the constable and shouting a merry good-by tothe others, he started for St. Louis.

  It was past midnight when he drew up in front of the Stratford Hotel,hungry and tired. Scrub was fast asleep, and, taking him in his arms,Ted entered the hotel.

  As he stepped inside, the clerk stared at him as if he had seen a ghost.

  "How's everything?" asked Ted of the clerk.

  "Great Scott, where did you come from?" asked, the clerk, and addedhastily: "Better hurry upstairs to your room. Everybody is crazy aboutyour disappearance."

  Ted went up in the elevator with the boy still sleeping in his arms.There was a light in his room and a confused murmur of voices.

  Without the formality of a knock he opened the door and entered. As heappeared in the doorway there was silence for a moment, then such abedlam of shouts and laughter burst forth that every one on the floorwas aroused.

  "It's Ted! It's Ted!" they shouted, and crowded around him.

  The place was full of them. Across the room he saw the shining face ofStella, smiling a welcome at him. Ben and Kit, Carl, Clay, and all ofthem were there, and sitting at the table was the chief of detectives.

  "Hello! Holding a post-mortem over me?" asked Ted.

  "It comes pretty near that," said Bud. "Dog-gone you, what do you meanby goin' erway an' hidin' out on us that way? What in ther name o' SamHill an' Billy Patterson hev yer picked up now?" Bud was lookingcuriously at the bundle of rags in Ted's arms, for the boy still slept.

  "This is a new pard," said Ted. "If it hadn't been for this kid you'dprobably never seen me again."

  "Erlucerdate," demanded Bud.

  "Not until some one goes out to the nearest restaurant and orders up astack of grub for Scrub and me. I haven't had anything to eat or drinkfor thirty-six hours, and I'm almost all in, and this kid has beenliving on apples and water for a couple of weeks. Now, hustle somebodyand let me put this kid on the bed---my back's nearly broke--or maybeit's my stomach, they're so close together now I can't tell which it isthat hurts."

  While Ted was laying the boy on the bed he woke up, and, finding himselfin a strange place, and a finer room than he had ever been in before,surrounded by a lot of rather boisterous young men, he leaped to thefloor and started to the door. But Ted caught him by the arm and drewhim back.

  "What's the matter with you, you young savage?" said Ted.

  "Oh, I'm all right now," said the boy. "When I woke up I got rattled, Iguess, but as long as you're here it's all right."

  The food came up now borne by two waiters and piloted by Kit. There wereoysters and steak and potatoes and biscuit and a lot of what Missourifolk call "fixin's," and a big pot of coffee.

  Scrub's eyes stood out like doorknobs as he viewed this wonderful arrayof things to eat. The table was cleared, the waiters set out the food,and the boys stood back to give Ted and the boy "room to swell," as Budexpressed it. The way they tucked into the good things was a caution.

  After their hunger was satisfied and the waiters had restored order tothe table, Ted began the story of his adventures since he had let Budout of the automobile. As he talked, Stella wooed the small boy to herside, and listened to the story with her arm around his shoulder, andlong before it was done Scrub was her worshiper forever.

  Chief Desmond listened with close attention, and when Ted finished andexhibited the bill of the Green River Bank, which he examined carefully,he said:

  "Mr. Strong, you've beaten us all to it. I will go out to-morrow--I meanto-day, for it's one o'clock now--and view the body myself. If it is, asseems almost certain to be, Dude Wilcox, one of the most dangerous menin the West is gone, but he has left behind for us to fight, and you tofind, the man Checkers. This bill is your clew to the gang, but it is acounterfeit. As I have the thing figured out, the gang knew that fortythousand dollars was going to be shipped, but for some reason or otherthey dared not hold up the train out there, and telegraphed the gang inSt. Louis to get it. Dude was at the head of the bunch here, and as itwas a one-man game so near to St. Louis, Dude was elected to pull itoff, which he did to the queen's taste. Perhaps the bill you have is theonly counterfeit in the lot. Perhaps not. That is for you to work out."

  "But how he managed to get away with the swag I haven't managed tofigure out yet," said Ted.

  "Of course, I don't know either, but deducing facts from what I know ofthe gang's methods, and from long experience with gentlemen of the road,I would say that the members of the gang who were killed in theirrendezvous in Pine Street by my unfortunate men were awaiting thearrival of Dude with the swag. Checkers had secret knowledge that youhad been put on their trail, and when he saw you pick up that red carin East St. Louis he was sure that you knew about the robbery and thatyou were on to Dude."

  "That's likely," said Ted. "I hadn't thought of that."

  "Well, he got into communication with Dude, and warned him agai
nstcoming to the Pine Street place. You see, they had another rendezvousout in the country, a haunted house, the reputation of which would keepprying country boys away from it."

  "Best sort of a place for a criminal hangout," said Ted.

  "You're right, and now that you have discovered it, I'll take pains tosee that it's never used for such again. But, as I was going to say,Dude's intention was to get out of town, return, go to the Pine Streetroom, divide the swag, and skip. He probably left the train at Somerset,or some other little town down the line, hid in the cornfields untildusk, stole a horse and buggy, and drove across the country to thehaunted house, and later was joined by Checkers, who had been trailingyou, and later succeeded in getting you. Had it not been for the quarrelbetween Dude and Checkers, it is more than likely that you would havebeen murdered by Checkers. But one murder was enough for his nerve, and,forgetting you, he vamosed."

  The detective arose to take his departure, again congratulating Ted onthe outcome of his adventure.

  "Keep your eye peeled for Checkers, and if you do run across him, haveyour gun at half cock," he said, and, bidding good night to all, wentaway.

  "And now, good fellows, all to bed," said Ted. "To-morrow we start forthe West, and the capture of the head men of the train-robber syndicate,and the extermination of the business."

  In the morning, before the others were up, Ted made Scrub take a bath,and then they sallied forth to a clothing store. When they came out,instead of the ragged and dirty little boy, there walked proudly byTed's side a fine, clean, fresh-looking lad in a well-fitting sergesuit, and other appointments that transformed him completely.

  When they arrived at the hotel the boys professed not to know Scrub.

  "Hello, picked up another kid?" asked Bud. "I swow, yer allers goin'round pickin' up mavericks. I reckon yer aim ter brand this one as wellez ther one yer brought in last night."

  "Why, here's another kid," said Ben, looking over Scrub's new outfitwith interest. "He don't look much like the one you brought in lastnight. I reckon that one has run away, I don't see him anywhere."

  Poor Scrub was standing first on one foot and then on the other, fairlysquirming with embarrassment.

  Ted gave the boys the nod to cease teasing the boy.

  "Don't mind those fellows, they're only joshing," said Ted.

  "Oh, I don't mind it if they can get any fun out of it," said Scrub,with a smile. "Maybe, some day I can get back at them, when I know thembetter."

  Stella came down in the elevator at that moment, and, catching sight ofScrub, gave a little scream of astonishment at his altered appearance.

  "Goodness, what a fine-looking addition to the family!" she said,shaking hands with the boy, who blushed and looked pleased. "I don'tlike the name Scrub a bit. I'm going to change his name."

  "This isn't leap year, Stella," said Ben.

  "You hush! What name would you rather have than Scrub? That's no namefor a broncho boy," she said to the boy.

  "I don't know," answered the boy. "What name do you like?"

  "I think she likes Ben better than any," said Ben, posing in a veryhandsome manner.

  "Don't listen to him, he's always teasing. You want something short andeasy to say."

  "What's the matter with 'Say'?" said Ben. "That's always easy toremember. I notice that when a man wants to call another on the streethe just hollers 'Say,' and half a dozen fellows turn around."

  "Then that makes it too common," decided Stella. "What name would yousuggest, Ted? He's got to have two names."

  "Let us get one of the newspapers to start a voting contest on it."

  "Ben, if you don't stop your foolishness, I won't play," said Stella.

  "You name him, Stella," said Ted. "Anything you say goes."

  "Then we'll call him Dick, after my father," said Stella. "He never hada boy, and always wanted one. I'm going to adopt this boy as a brother.His name shall be Dick Fosdick. That sounds funny, doesn't it, but Ididn't do it on purpose."

  There was a tear in her eye at the thought of her father, and the boyslooked rather solemn, for while they hoped for the best, they didn't asyet know the lad, and perhaps they had saddled themselves with a futureregret, but Stella trusted and believed in the little chap, who was veryproud that at last he had thrown off and buried forever the name ofScrub.

  That evening they took the train for the West, their destination beingGreen River.

  The automobile Ted sent on by express that he might have it not only foruse, for he was becoming attached to it, but as a clew to the detectionof the express robbers.