Three to Conquer Read Free Page B

it?"
     
                  "Can't say that I did."
     
                  "Did anyone else see this? Was anyone with you at the time? "
     
                  " No."
     
                  Harper thanked him and pushed on. So far, he'd gained one item: a green Thunderbug. He didn't congratulate himself on that; the police would find it themselves before the night was through. He was one jump ahead of them solely because he was concentrating on one specific line of search, while they were coping with a hundred. Harper had great respect for the police.
     
    -
     
                  At the Star Ca fé , a pert waitress reported that Alderson had eaten a meal there and left about one-thirty. Yes, he'd been by himself. No, he hadn't shown particular interest in any other customers or departed coincidentally with anyone else. No, she hadn't seen a tall, blond fellow with a green Thunderbug.
     
                  One of the other girls had seen Alderson go up the left-hand crossroad.
     
                  Harper took that road and kept the accelerator pedal well down. Fifteen minutes later he found a tavern keeper who had seen Car Seventeen. Yes, he had thought at the time that Alderson was after someone, probably a kid in a hot-rod.
     
                  Seven miles farther on, Harper struck another filling station. An elderly man came out and handed him news worth having.
     
                  "Shortly after three, a Thunderbug hauled up to the pumps for ten gallons of alk. There were three fellows and a girl in it. The girl was sitting in the back with one of the fellows. She kept giving me sort of appealing looks; I had an idea that she wanted to scream, but didn't dare."
     
                  "What did you do about it?"
     
                  "Nothing, at that moment. I was by myself and I'm not as young as I used to be. Those three could have bounced me on my head until my brains fell out."
     
                  "So what then?"
     
                  "They paid and pushed off; as soon as they'd got up a bit of speed, I skipped into the road for a look at their plates."
     
                  "Did you get the number?" asked Harper.
     
                  "No. I waited a mite too long. I hadn't my glasses on, and the figures were too fuzzy to read." The oldster frowned, regretting the lost opportunity. "Couple of minutes later a prowl car came along. I flagged it down and told the trooper about this girl. He said he'd look into the matter, and went after the Thunderbug at a good clip." His rheumy eyes quested hopefully. "Did he latch on to something?"
     
                  "Yes — a coffin."
     
                  "Good God!" The oldster was visibly shaken. "And I sent him after them."
     
                  "It isn't your fault, Pop, you did the best thing in the circumstances." Harper waited a minute for the other to recover, then asked, "Did those fellows say anything to indicate where they'd come from or where they were going?"
     
                  "They spoke exactly one word and no more. The big blond one d ropped his window and said, 'Ten! ' I asked about oil and water, but he shook his head. The girl looked as if she'd talk plenty once she got started, but was too scared to begin."
     
                  "What did this bunch look like? Give me as complete and detailed a description as you can manage."
     
                  The other licked his lips and said, "The blond one was doing the driving. He was a husky guy in his late twenties-yellow hair, blue eyes, strong chin, clean-shaven, good looking and intelligent. You'd have called him a nice kind of fellow, if his eyes hadn't been meaner than a snake's."
     
                  "No facial scars or other identifying marks?"
     
                  "Not that I