CHAPTER VI

WHO? AND WHY?

Half an hour later Johnny and Drew were back at the shack. The squad car with its load of burly policemen was gone.

For a long time nothing was said. Johnny's head hurt. It also ached in a most extraordinary manner. He felt sick at the stomach. Life for him had gone suddenly very strange.

"Drew," he said at last, "that man, whoever he was, didn't give me a chance, not a single fighting chance."

"Of course not. They never do, those gangsters."

"Drew," said Johnny, "I was hunting in the Arctic once, stalking a polar bear all alone; following his track. He turned the tables and started stalking me. But, Drew, before he struck at me with that great paw of his, he hissed like a goose."

"Gave you a warning," Drew said quietly. "Rattlesnake'd do that, too; but not a gangster.

"Johnny," he said, suddenly wheeling about, "you've been believing in that old saw, 'honor among thieves.' Forget it. There isn't any. Not a bit.

"I've known them to run over a little family car, smash it in bits with a powerful truck they were using to carry illicit goods. Did they stop? Not much. Fired shots in the air, and left little children to perish in the wreckage. Honor! Not a bit. I tell you it's war! Pitiless war waged by monsters. And this land will not be free until they are all safely lodged in jail."

Again for a time there was silence.

"Drew," Johnny spoke again, "I used to say that if a man picked my pockets or held me up and got my money, I'd say, 'You are a smart guy,' and let it go at that, but that if he hit me on the head I'd spend the rest of my life hunting him. And when I found him I'd kill him. That man hit me, Drew, hit almost hard enough to kill, and without warning!"

"He did," said Drew, "and we are going to get him, you and I. But after we get him, I guess we'd better let the courts deal with him. Justice, Johnny, is an arrow, a keen pointed arrow that goes straight and fair. Sometimes I think it is an arrow of fire that burns as it strikes."

Johnny thought that a strange expression. He was to learn more of it as the days passed.

"First thing we've got to do to-morrow," said Drew, "is to work out the probabilities?"

"The probabilities?"

"Sure. You've read detective stories?"

"Sometimes."

"Know how most of 'em go? A murder. One of six men may have done the killing. This one might have, or that one. This one probably did. And this one, well, you hardly consider him at all. But in the end, it's always the one you did not suspect. It's the bunk. Real life is not like that at all. You have to figure out what is probably true, and try to prove that it is true. It usually is.

"Take this case of yours. You are to be a kingpin witness in my case against two pickpockets. Your testimony will convict them. No doubt about it. Do they belong to a well organized gang? Did a member of the gang try to do away with you so you could not testify? It's been done many times.

"Another possibility. You were about to put through a squad call. What was that call? Was it important? Was a big burglary in progress? Was this man sent up to silence the radio and prevent the squad call? If that was the angle, was more than one major crime committed in that half hour? If so, which one was connected with the attack upon you?

"Once again; many a gang's activities have been interrupted, their purpose thwarted, by radio squad calls. The leader of one of these gangs may have decided to take revenge; hence the raid to-night.

"So you see," he said, rising, "there are several possibilities to work out. The probability must be reached. Herman McCarthey will have all the dope in the morning. He will help us work it out. He is a seasoned trooper and has a wise old head on his shoulders. Meantime, you must try to recall every incident connected with the affair."

"I remember one thing," said Johnny. "It came to me at this very instant. I didn't see the man's face, but I saw his hand, a large dark hand, and it was deeply scarred. It had a hole in the middle of the palm."

"Good!" exclaimed Drew. "Couldn't be better. Take us a long way, that will.

"And now we must catch three winks. To-morrow is a big day. To-morrow you are to be our star witness."