“Rubbish!” said Ted.  “I didn’t kill any bandits.  I took a couple of shots at them after they had fired on me, that’s all.”

“Well, yer won’t be able to get away from these newspaper stories.  If any of ther gang run across yer, they’ll shore go after yer with a hard plank.  Ye’ve placed ther black mark on yerself with ther gang.”

“All right.  I can stand it if they can.  I’ve got a few up my sleeve for them.”

Then Ted related exactly how the thing happened, and of his talk with Desmond.

“And they let that fellow Checkers get away,” sighed Ted.  “The chief says he’s the most dangerous of them all, and warned me to look out for him.  Bud, I’ve got a hunch.”

“Let her flicker.  I’m kinder stuck on yer hunches; they pay dividends right erlong.”

“The fellow in the check suit was the man who tried to stab me because I wouldn’t let him see the anonymous letter.  I don’t know which was the real man, Checkers or the other.  But there were many points of similarity between them, and when Checkers called for us to stop the automobile, it was the voice of the man who commanded me to give him the letter.  Keep Checkers in your mind.”

The next morning they went out to Don Dorrington’s house and got out the automobile.

“We’ll circulate around pretty well in this,” said Ted, “and if Checkers is in town he’ll spot us, and we may get a chance at him yet.”

“What do you want with him?”

“I’m depending on him to lead us to headquarters.”

For an hour or more they rode about the town, making the machine as conspicuous as possible.

“Bud, we’re being followed,” said Ted, nodding toward a yellow car that had been in evidence oftener than mere chance made possible.

“Yep.  I’ve had him spotted fer some time,” answered Bud.

“Why didn’t you say something about it?” Ted laughed at Bud’s silence.

“Oh, I knew that you were on to it, too,” was the characteristic reply.

“What do you suppose he’s chasing us for?  He must know that he can’t harm us.”

“He don’t want us.  He wants that red car.  It’s a beautiful piece of red evidence against him an’ his gang.  Yer see, it’s ther best kinder a clew.”

“Right again.  But he needn’t think he can steal it, for he can’t.”

They put the car up during the middle of the day.

“We’ll let it rest for a while,” said Ted, as they ran it into a public garage.  “This evening we’ll take it out again, and if we’re followed then we’ll be sure that it is Checkers, and that he is on our trail.”

It was seven o’clock when they trundled forth again.

A bright moonlight night made motoring highly enjoyable, and after they had run about for a couple of hours Bud got out, saying that he was tired of the sport, and would return to the hotel, and leave Ted to take the machine back to Don Dorrington’s basement.