“I won’t,” said the girl doggedly.

“I’ll ask the Chief to send you back.”

“Don’t you dare,” she retorted hotly, resenting his air of protection toward her.

She was glad for the presence of the two other men in the car.  She sensed that it was only their being there that kept Dean from making a scene.  There was nothing in his manner toward her now of the obsequious chauffeur.  While she admitted to herself that there was no longer the necessity for his continuing in his fictitious character she strongly resented his loverlike jealousy for her welfare and welcomed the chief’s return, for she saw from his face, as he came running up to the car, that he had received some sort of news that had highly delighted him.

Almost before he was in the car he had given orders to start, leaving no opportunity for Dean to make his threatened protest against Jane’s presence.

“I got Carter on the ’phone,” Fleck explained hurriedly as they swung out of the park and turned northward.  “He has succeeded in locating the place the Hoffs go every week.  It is about three miles back off the road, over toward the river from the place where you two had that accident yesterday.  Away off there in the woods in a deserted locality is a sort of club, the members of which are Austrians or Germans.  They have given it out that they are health enthusiasts and mountain climbers, ‘Friends of the Air,’ they call themselves.”

“Who are they really?  What are they doing there?” asked Jane interestedly.

“Carter has not had time yet to learn much about them.  The place was some sort of a health resort or sanitarium that failed several years ago.  Last summer it seems to have been taken over by this bunch of Germans.  At times there are only two or three of them there, but recently the number has increased.  Carter thinks there must be a dozen men there now.”

“How did he locate the place?” asked Dean.

“Carter is a real detective,” said the chief enthusiastically.  “He reasoned it out that where there were Germans there must be beer.  He scouted along the main road until he found a wayside saloon where, as he had shrewdly suspected, they got their liquid supplies.  From the proprietor of the place and the hangers-on he had no trouble in getting the information he wanted without arousing their suspicions.”

“Where is Mr. Carter now?” asked Jane.

“He’s waiting for us a few miles up the road.”

“He has only four men with him, hasn’t he?” questioned Dean.

“That’s all.”

“And there are four of us here.”

“Three and a half,” said the chief, motioning to Dean’s bandaged arm.

“It’s my left arm,” he retorted.  “I can handle a revolver, at least, with my good arm.”

“And I can shoot, too,” boasted Jane; “that makes nine of us.”

“Nine of us against twelve of the enemy,” said the chief thoughtfully.  “It looks like a busy evening.”