Chapter VI: Brady's Proposition

"How do you feel, Carl?" asked Matt, when the Hawk was safely clear of the ground and swinging easily along through the night.

"I feel like my headt vas as pig as a parrel," answered Carl. "Py shiminy, dot vas a svipe vat I got. I see pooty ret lights aroundt me, und I don'd know somet'ing ondil lader."

"It's a cinch, matey," spoke up Ferral, "that Brady laid that trap, and that we only got out of it by the skin of our teeth."

"What do you say to that, Brady?" asked Matt.

"It's mighty unfortunate--for me," replied Brady, from the bottom of the car. "I laid a trap, King, but not that kind. What I wanted, was to talk you into helping me rescue Helen. I don't know yet how Whipple and Pete managed to show up there when they did. They didn't see me, and they don't know now that you've captured me."

"As soon as we can get to South Chicago," said Matt, "we'll tell Harris those fellows are here. This is the first clue the police have had as to where they are."

"A good night's work, mate," said Ferral, "strike me lucky if it ain't. Harris will be all ahoo when we tell him that it was Brady who wrote that letter."

"Don't take me back to South Chicago just yet," pleaded Brady, struggling to a sitting posture and leaning against the rail at the side of the car. "If Pete and Whipple are away from that shanty in La Grange, this will be a good time to get Helen."

"He talks mit two tongues vorse as any feller vat I know," remarked Carl.

"He thinks he can keep on fooling us," scoffed Ferral.

"Listen to me, that's all I ask," pursued Brady, desperately earnest. "Pete and Whipple, helped by a man named Hooligan, got the girl away from her friends in Chicago, and----"

"How did they do it?" interrupted Matt.

"Hooligan met Helen on the street, and told her that her brother, Hector Brady, Jr., was sick and wanted her to come to him at once. Helen knew the police were looking for my son, just as they were for the other members of my gang who had escaped the officers, and she did not dare to go back to her friends and tell them where she was going. Hooligan told her it wouldn't be necessary for her to say anything, as she could get back to Archer Avenue in the afternoon. Hooligan took Helen by train to River Forest, a suburb of Chicago, and not far from La Grange. He's care-taker during the summer for a house in River Forest, Hooligan is, and he took the girl there. The moment the girl reached the house, Whipple and Pete made a prisoner of her, and turned her over to Mrs. Hooligan. When it became night, Helen was taken to a house owned by the Hooligans in La Grange--and Helen has been there ever since. Last night I was in La Grange and I spotted the house, but the gang were too many for me and I didn't dare try to rescue Helen alone. I had already thought of you and the Hawk, King, and I knew we could turn the trick if I could only get you to help."

The facts were surprising--providing they were the facts--and Brady's knowledge of them was equally mystifying.

"How did you learn all this, Brady?" demanded Matt.

"Grove got the news to me while I was in prison. Whipple and Pete tried to ring him in on the deal, but Grove wouldn't stand for it. A pretty decent sort of a grafter, Grove is, but he's done with crooked work and has gone to California to lead a different life. My son, at last accounts, was in New York. By this time he's off for foreign parts. It is due to you, King, that my gang has been scattered like this, and there was a time, not many days ago, when all I asked was to be free just long enough to settle my score with you. But this strange affair of Helen's has changed all that. I'm thinking more of getting even with Whipple and Pete than I am of getting even with you. As for Helen, I can see now that the girl meant well, although what she has done has made a convict of me."

The convict was always a well-spoken man, and plainly a man of education. This, perhaps, had made him a more dangerous criminal than he would otherwise have been.

Somehow, Matt was deeply impressed by his words. The young motorist's desire to help Helen Brady probably influenced him to pay some attention to his prisoner's words.

"You're right in saying this is a strange case, Brady," said Matt. "The strangest part of it is why Whipple and Pete should go to all this trouble. What are they trying to do?"

"I've made up my mind to tell you the whole of it, King," returned Brady. "During my thieving operations around South Chicago I picked up quite a lot of valuable property. You got some of it back, but not the biggest part. I hid that away, to a place known only to me, and wrote down instructions for finding the place, and stowed the memorandum under a loose brick in the house at Lake Station, where Helen stayed for awhile after you got the Hawk away from me in Willoughby's swamp. If anything happened to me, I intended to tell Hector, Jr., where the instructions were hidden, have him get the plunder, turn it into cash, and hire lawyers to get me out of trouble. While I was waiting for my trial, there in South Chicago, I sent the letter to Hector, Jr. He had left town and the letter fell into Helen's hands. She opened it, went to Lake Station and got the memorandum. In some way, Whipple and Pete found out about it, and they engineered the abduction before Helen could turn the paper over to the police--as I know she intended doing."

A great rage welled up in Brady as he went on.

"Those two treacherous hounds want to get the plunder, and they will keep Helen a prisoner until they can make her tell where the stuff is concealed, for I imagine she destroyed the paper after reading it. That's why I want to play even with them! It was for that alone that I struck down the prison guard, got into his uniform, and escaped from the 'pen.' If you'll help me, King, I've got a proposition to make to you--and you'll find that I stand by it."

"What's your proposition?" asked Matt.

Where Brady had put the spoil of his many robberies had long been a mystery to the authorities, and Brady's recital, although one of the strangest Matt had ever heard, was logical, and bore the stamp of truth.

"It's this," went on Brady, visibly gratified because the young motorist seemed inclined to fall in with his plans; "help me rescue Helen and place Whipple and Pete in the 'pen.' If you will do that, I will go back to Joliet and finish my term, and you can rely on Helen to tell where the plunder is cached. But if anything has happened to those written instructions, and Helen can't tell, I'll give the information to you and you can have the stuff dug up and returned to the people from whom it was taken. I can't say anything fairer than that."

This was queer talk for Hector Brady. Motor Matt could hardly believe his ears. And yet, he was offering little. He had already been recaptured, so his return to Joliet was a foregone conclusion; and Helen, it was almost certain, knew the location of the caché, and it might be considered that the stolen property would be returned without any of Brady's help. That Whipple and Pete could wrest the location of the caché from Helen, Matt could not believe. He knew the girl's determination too well.

"He iss trying to make some fools oudt oof us," remarked Carl. "Don'd listen to him, Matt."

"That's the sizing I give his talk, mate," seconded Ferral. "He's a bad one, and couldn't tell the truth on a bet."

"Haven't you any gratitude for what Helen did for you?" demanded Brady. "If it hadn't been for her, you would have lost this air ship."

"That's the least of it," said Matt gravely. "Miss Brady saved Ferral's life and mine, at the time of that balloon-house plot of yours, Brady. You want to take the Hawk to the place in La Grange where Hooligan and his wife live?"

"To the place where they live when they're at home," answered Brady. "They only stay there in the winter. During the summer they're taking care of that house in River Forest."

"They're making fine use of that River Forest house!" exclaimed Matt. "But they can't be there now, if they've got Helen at the place in La Grange."

"Mrs. Hooligan has charge of Helen, and Whipple and Pete are there with her. Hooligan himself is at River Forest."

"What sort of a two-faced scoundrel is this Hooligan, that he helps criminals in such work?"

"He happens to be Pete's brother."

"That doesn't excuse him."

"Probably he's figuring on getting a share of the stuff Pete and Whipple are hoping to find. There's enough of the loot to make them all pretty comfortable. If you hadn't butted into my affairs, King, I could have sailed away in the Hawk and taken life easy for the rest of my days."

"The proper way to work this," said Matt, after a moment's reflection, "is to take you to South Chicago, Brady, leave you there, and pick up Harris and two other officers. Then you can tell us where to go and we'll have Whipple, Pete and the two Hooligans behind the bars before daylight. And Miss Brady will be safely rescued."

"That won't do at all," protested Brady. "In the first place, that will make too much of a delay at a time when every moment may count; and, in the next place, I'll have to be along to tell you where to moor the air ship and point out the house."

"He has got somet'ing oop his sleeve more as he lets oudt," answered Carl. "Go shlow a leedle, Matt; dot's der vay vat I feel aboudt it."

"Right-o," agreed Ferral. "Even though there is a little delay, Matt, it's better to go to South Chicago and pick up Harris than to let Brady lead us into a mare's nest."

Brady showed signs of exasperation.

"I don't believe you want to do anything for Helen!" he growled.

"Yes, we do," said Matt, "and we're going to La Grange at once; but we're going to leave those ropes on you all the time, Brady, and I'll reconnoitre Hooligan's house and find out if your yarn is straight goods before we sail in there and get ourselves into possible trouble."

"That suits me," and Brady floundered to his knees and looked over the rail. For a long time he peered downward, evidently getting his bearings. "Make a half turn to the left," said he, "and speed up the engine. I'll stay right here and tell you exactly where to go. You'll never regret making this move, King. All I have to gain is the satisfaction of rescuing Helen Brady and getting the stripes on Whipple and Pete."

Matt, full of wonder at the way events were falling out, turned the air ship in the direction indicated by Brady and increased the speed of the propeller.