ent from
the back yard. When these flats were built it was intended that the
basement be used as a garage, but so far none of the tenants have shown
a disposition to get rich enough to buy one. No one will be able to get
the machine out of there,"

"That's the only thing I fear," said Ted. "It's a cinch that the owner,
if he is a thief who has escaped with a pot of money, as I strongly
suspect, will have his pals try to get it back. And I don't want them to
get it until I have used it to try to trace them."

"I'll bet a cooky ther feller with ther checked suit wuz after ther
machine himself," said Bud. "When we eloped with it he came holler in'
after us ter bring it back, but we gave him the glazed look an' left him
fannin' ther air in our wake."

The boys rolled the motor car into the basement, which was securely
locked. Then Ted and Bud returned to town on a street car.

As they got closer to the downtown section, they could hear the shouts
of the newsboys announcing an "extra" newspaper in all the varieties of
pronunciation of that word as it issues from the mouths of city
"newsies."

"Wonder what the 'extra' is all about?" said Ted.

"Oh, same old thing, I reckon," said Bud. "'All erbout ther turribul
disaster.' An' when yer buys a paper yer see in big letters at ther top,
'Man Kills,' and down below it, 'Mother-in-law!' But in little type
between them yer read ther follerin', to wit, 'Cat to spite.' I've been
stung by them things before."

"I'm going to buy one, anyway," laughed Ted. "I don't mind being stung
for a cent."

He beckoned to a newsboy, bought a paper, and opened it.

"What's this?" he almost shouted.

Great black letters sprawled across the top of the page.

"Express Messenger Found Dead," was the first line, and below it was the
confirmation of Ted's belief that a great robbery had taken place. It
was "Forty Thousand Dollars Taken from the Safe."

"There's the owner of the abandoned automobile, the fellow who boarded
the train with the heavy grip," said Ted to Bud, who was staring over
his shoulder.

The article following the startling headlines told the circumstances of
the robbery.

The train that entered the Union Station at six o'clock that morning had
been robbed in some mysterious manner between a junction a short
distance out of St. Louis, where the express messenger had been seen
alive by a fellow messenger in another car. When the car was opened in
the station, after being