“A few days ago,” Ames said, “Tom’s car suddenly went out of control on this same road and overturned. It was put out of control by someone waiting in ambush. Tonight you two were following right behind him in your truck and the same thing happened. Right, Tom?”
“Right! That’s why I slammed on the brakes and jumped,” Tom replied.
Sergeant Camp turned to the policeman and said, “Frisk ‘em, Mike!”
The policeman searched the driver and found a .38 revolver slung in a shoulder holster under his jacket.
66 MEGASCOPE SPACE PROBER
“Got a permit for this?” The driver shook his head sullenly.
A search of the tall man disclosed a metal combination cigarette case and lighter in his inside coat pocket. The policeman put it back, then discovered a snub-nosed automatic in the man’s right-hand pocket.
“I suppose you’re carrying that gun as a good-luck charm,” Sergeant Camp said sarcastically. The tall man glared but said nothing. “Okay, Mike. Take a look in the truck.”
As the policeman went around to the back of the van, a faint suspicion stirred in Tom’s mind. “Mind if I take a look at that cigarette case?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do mind,” the owner said.
Sergeant Camp promptly plucked the case out and handed it over. Tom turned the case toward the tall man and pretended he was about to snap the lighter mechanism at the top.
“Hey! Watch where you’re aiming that!” the man yelped, growing pale.
Ames’s eyes flared with interest. “What is that gadget, skipper?”
Tom smiled wryly. “Some kind of ray machine, unless I miss my guess.”
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119