Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/202

 moving away from him. Then the light was flashed straight ahead and the rear of a motor car was clearly in view.

"I see," said the boy, almost disappointed. "That's his game, is it? Wonder how many crooks there are in it."

But no sound of voices reached him.

"Must be whispering," he conjectured.

Presently the watcher started, with throbbing heart, as another sound, the faint put-put of a distant motor, reached his ears.

Meanwhile, the man, who was examining his machine, had caught the sound also. He turned his head as if to listen and Cat was able to get a brief glimpse of two horror-stricken eyes in a haggard face. It was a flash-light picture of agony.

The noise of the oncoming motor increased. Over a sandhill glowed the headlight of the approaching car. The man, apparently despairing of getting his engine started in time, had scurried off the road. Cat heard a vague sound as of a body rolling down a slope.

The boy fixed his eyes on the glow of the moving car, coming at a moderate speed around