Three to Conquer Read Online Free PDF Page B

She arrived at her destination at the time she states, and can prove it."
     
                  "Those fellows took her a long way round?"
     
                  "Yes. They were feeling their oats."
     
                  "Nice way of accounting for lost time, such as that involved in stopping, shooting, starting and getting away."
     
                  "Look, Mr. Harper, it's almost twenty-four hours since Alderson was shot down. All we've got are you and this girl; all I know is that somebody used a gun and somebody's telling lies."
     
                  "If that girl is telling the truth, which I beg leave to doubt," ventured Harper, "there's only one solution. A third party is wandering loose, untraced, unsuspected and laughing up his sleeve."
     
                  "There's not the slightest evidence of it." Ledsom hesitated, then went on, "I wouldn' dream of chewing the fat with you in this manner if it wasn't that your home town law gave you a very big hand. That sort of thing counts with me."
     
                  "I suppose so."
     
                  'Therefore, I'll tell you something more. The three fellows don't tally with any trio released or escaped from prison this year."
     
                  "How about the military prisons? That old bird at the filling station thought they might be wearing altered uniforms."
     
                  "There is no military, naval or airforce uniform corresponding with that description."
     
                  "Not in this country. Maybe they were foreigners."
     
                  "The girl says not. They spoke the language as only we can speak it and knew the country like the backs of their hands."
     
                  "Have you asked the authorities whether they know of any uniform that does correspond?"
     
                  "No. The girl agrees that their clothes had a sort of official look, and thinks they were wearing army disposal stuff dyed green. If so, we've poor chance of tracing it. Ex-army jackets have been thrown on the market by the thousands."
     
                  "How about their car? You thought it might be stolen."
     
                  "To date, we've pulled in reports of ten missing in various parts of the country. Four of them are green. We have urgent calls out for those four numbers; no luck so far." He gazed morbidly through an adjacent window. "Anyway, they may have resprayed it and changed the tags. Or it may be legitimately owned. Or it may be a rented car. The Thunderbug is a popular make; it would take months to check all sales and rentals from coast to coast."
     
                  Harper thought it over and said, "Well, you'll know it if ever you lay hands on it. You have a tire-cast, and that's something."
     
                  "Doesn't follow it's one of theirs. Anybody could have gone up that lane anytime the same day. All we've discovered is that it doesn't belong to any logging vehicle. Neither do those three fellows answer the descriptions of any logging company's employees, past or present."
     
                  "No matter what that girl says, I still think they're the boys you want."
     
                  "The girl was an unwilling witness in that event. She wasn't a guilty party, so why should she cover up for a bunch of strangers?"
     
                  "Maybe they weren't strangers," Harper offered.
     
                  "What d'you mean?"
     
                  "It doesn't follow that because they gave her a lift they must have been unknown to her."
     
                  "She swears she didn't know them from Adam."
     
                  "You could bet on her saying that—if one of them happened to be a crazy boy friend, or a shiftless relative."
     
                  "H'm !" Ledsom