With quick competence he examined the gun, counted the shells, noted the numbers.
Linda Carroll’s eyes were grateful as she looked at Merton Ostrander. “That’s the only logical course, Merton,” she said.
“Well, young man, come on,” the aunt said. “Let’s get bedded down and get some sleep. You look as though you could use a few hours... and a good hot bath.”
“I hate to impose on you,” Rob said.
“No, it’s all right. Linda is always getting herself involved in some sort of a scrape or other.”
“This isn’t my scrape, Auntie,” Linda said, laughing.
“Come on, young man,” the aunt said. “And I’m going to call you Rob. Now you can call me Linda Mae. My niece is plain Linda. She doesn’t have any middle name. Come on, let’s try getting a little sleep.
“Merton, we’re going to lock that gun up. Here, put it in this desk. All right, now you keep the key.
“Rob, come with me. You’re going to get a good bath and then some sleep. You certainly look as though you could use both!”
Chapter 18
Rob felt that he would never be able to sleep but the relaxing effect of the warm bath, the glass of hot milk Linda Mae brought him, and the sheer mental and nervous fatigue, caused him to sink into deep slumber within ten minutes of the time he placed his head on the pillow.
He was wakened in the morning by sunshine filtering through lace curtains, striking his eyelids and bringing him back to blurred consciousness.
For a few moments he lay in the delightful warmth of the bed, wondering vaguely where he was, and then suddenly, with realization dawning upon him there was a sense of apprehension as he wondered how he could ever have slept so well with so much at stake.
His head felt heavy from the effects of the beating he had received.
Lobo, who had been lying in the corner with his head on his paws, watching Rob’s eyes with unwinking scrutiny, waiting for his master to waken, whimpered with eagerness, got to his feet and moved over to the bed, nuzzling Rob’s hand.
The realization of the dog’s presence there in the room suddenly brought Rob back to a sense of his obligations. He looked at his watch, saw that it was past eight o’clock and jumped out of bed. Instantly his muscles, sore from the kicks he had received, registered a protest, but he managed to dress, ran regretful fingers over the growth of stubble on his face and opened the door. The aroma of bacon and coffee came up from the lower floor.
Rob ran stiffly down the stairs and in the kitchen found Linda Mae, attired in her house dress, glasses well down on the tip of her nose, frying bacon.
She heard Rob walk in, pushed the glasses back up on her nose with the tip of her right forefinger and surveyed him speculatively.
“Well!” she said.
Rob said, “I haven’t any razor. I’m afraid I look disreputable, and I’m hungry.”
“Don’t tell me your symptoms,” she snapped. “There’s a dozen eggs over there. Break them into that bowl and add half a cup of cream, then beat them all up. We’re going to have scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and coffee. You can get busy and help things along.”
“I thought we were going to get an early start,” Rob said. “I’m afraid I overslept.”
“Nothing to break our necks about,” she said.
“That car,” Rob said. “Despite the fact that...”
“Don’t you worry about that car, young man. After you went to bed, I had Merton Ostrander drive it up the street half a dozen blocks and leave it in a parking place in front of the Midget Market. It won’t attract any attention there. Last place on earth anyone would think of looking for a car. Besides, as Ostrander pointed out, those crooks aren’t going to claim the car was stolen. And it may have been their car. Come on, now, get busy with those eggs. What are you going to do with the dog?”
“I’ll let him out in the back yard, if I may.”
“He won’t run away?”
Rob smiled and shook his head.
“All right. Go ahead then.”
“How about the others?” Rob asked.
“Linda’s up and I heard Merton Ostrander stirring around up there. What do you think of him, young man?”
“Who?”
“You know who. Merton Ostrander.”
“He seems to be very... very competent,” Rob said.
“He seems to have a way of taking everything for granted — and getting away with it,” Linda Mae said. “You’d get along better if you weren’t so anxious to be fair all the time. Why don’t you try a masterful approach some time? Come on now, put your dog out, and get those eggs broken... and if you handle that dog, wash your hands over there in the sink before you start cooking. I don’t want dog hairs all over my food.”
Rob let Lobo out the back door for a few minutes, returned, washed his hands at the sink and started helping with the breakfast.
Linda joined them a few minutes later and then Merton Ostrander came in to say affably, “How’s everything this morning with all the conspirators? I have a safety razor up there, Rob, if you want to remove the disguise.”
“That’ll be swell,” Rob said.
“After breakfast,” Linda Mae said, “we’re leaving. We won’t stop to clean up.”
“I understand you moved the car,” Rob said to Merton Ostrander. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“No bother at all,” Merton told him. “Just ran it down to a parking place at a market Linda Mae told me about and left the keys in the ignition. I was back here while you were still in the tub. I think Linda Mae is a pretty good conspirator. The fact that the keys are still in the car will make it appear the owner has just dashed into the market.”
Linda Mae pointed her sharp nose at him. “Well, I’ll tell you one thing, young man, I’d be a lot smarter than some of the people I read about if I should decide to commit a crime. You read the newspapers and see the dumb things they do. It makes me tired to hear the way police brag in the papers, when anybody with any sense can see it was the crooks who were dumb.”
She kept her nose pointed at Merton Ostrander. “I might even turn out to be a better detective than I would a mastermind crook. Don’t be so glib when it comes to putting women in a classification. You might get fooled.”
Her eyes seemed to mock him, but Merton Ostrander’s assurance evaporated under her steady gaze. He became plainly embarrassed. “Yes, Ma’am,” he said, with exaggerated deference.
“You’re inclined to have things altogether too much your own way with women,” Linda Mae went on. “It makes you conceited, which doesn’t hurt you a bit, and sure of yourself, which irritates me to death. It’s a good thing I’m not younger and you were making passes at me. I’d take you down a peg or two.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Merton repeated, coloring slightly, and winking at the others.
“We’d better get started,” Rob pointed out. “Do we have a car?”
Linda said, “I have my convertible here.”
“I’d like to know what’s going on at my place,” Rob said. “I know for sure there were people there last night watching it.”
“Sure. The police want to nab you,” Ostrander said. “And the crooks want you. You can’t angle with a bunch of crooks like that without expecting them to do something about it.”
They made a lark of starting out on the trip. By daylight things seemed far more reassuring to Rob Trenton. Linda drove her convertible. Her aunt sat on her right in the front seat. Rob Trenton and Merton Ostrander occupied the rear seat, with Lobo over in a corner on a blanket which had been carefully tucked into the cushions.