A streak of dust rose from the roadway and an automobile turned quickly in to the avenue.

"Here comes the doctor, Phil, to see daddy."

"I'll be off then, girlie! I'll 'phone later to find out how he is progressing."

CHAPTER XXV

The Bank Robbery

Phil was sound asleep in bed when a noise of some kind brought him partly back to sensibility. He turned uneasily. The noise came again.

Someone was throwing gravel up at his window. He jumped out of bed, pulled out the sliding screen-window and looked over.

A man on horseback was below.

"That you, Phil?"

"Yes!"

The horseman was Howden, the recently promoted Police Chief.

"Big things doing! If you're game for a night ride, wake Jim and both of you come down quick. We're shy of men and you two have a pair of good horses."

"What is it?"

"Tell you when you come. Bring a gun, and hurry, for every minute counts."

Phil went to Jim's room across the pa.s.sage. Jim, ever ready for an adventure, was on the floor in a second; and both were dressed and downstairs in five minutes.

"Won't a car take us quicker?"

"No!" replied Howden. "It is likely to be a chase over the ranges."

They saddled their horses and lined up on each side of the Police Chief, who immediately started off.

"Cattle thieves?" asked Jim.

"Worse'n that! The Commercial Bank's been broken into, the safe blowed up and every blamed bill in the inst.i.tootion pinched."

"Well, I'll be-darned!"

"Just our blasted luck, too!" said Howden quickly and in excitement as they trotted on, "Jamieson, my deputy, is in Vancouver, sick; Hardie went to Kamloops yesterday with a couple of prisoners. There is hardly a real policeman in town,--only me, Downie and McConnachie.

"The Mayor left on the train two days ago for the Coast.

"Downie, who for once wasn't boozed, noticed someone slip over the back window at the Bank. There were half a dozen of them in the lane, he says. He couldn't do a thing but watch. Three of them took off by the B.X. way on horseback; two of them made for the Coldcreek Road, and the other two made for the Okanagan Landing. Downie thinks there is another, but he isn't sure."

"Where are they all now?" asked Jim.

"Tell you later.

"We've to go up along the Kelowna Road, case any of them double back and try that way. They've got a h.e.l.l of a haul among them. We'll be coverin' nearly every road, for Downie has scared up a bunch and is off up the B.X. route. McConnachie got three with him on to the Landing. Thompson, the Government Agent, is away h.e.l.l-for-leather with Morrison on the Coldcreek Road.

"Gee!--but it'll be great dope if I land them."

"It will be further promotion and highly commended," remarked Phil.

Howden grinned, but the grin could only be surmised by the others, for it was dark just preceding the dawn. They cantered quickly up the hill and on to the level winding road cut along the side of the hills, with the endless ranges on the right and a sheer drop into the Kalamalka Lake on the immediate left.

"But how did they pull it off, Howden? Didn't the bank have a watchman on the premises?"

"Sure they had!--that greasy c.h.i.n.k, Ah Sing, and half a dozen black cats."

Jim laughed.

"We found Sing gagged and tied up to one of the big desks."

Jim whistled.

"Where is Sing now?"

"Where we can get him when we want him," answered Howden. "I put him under lock and key right away."

"The best place for him," remarked Jim.

"He's whimpering like a baby-monkey, too. We'll get all we want out of him before he's long there."

"Did you find out how they got into the bank?"

"That's the fishy bit! Sing says he opened the door and looked out for a breath of air, when someone hit him over the nut. The next he says he remembers was being tied up. His head is cut open all right, but all the same, I wouldn't wonder if the c.h.i.n.k's a liar."

"They say they have a reputation for that kind of thing," put in Phil.

Jim's brain was busy, but he remained silent.

They galloped hard along that part of the road which diverged from the Lake, keeping their eyes to the right in the direction of the old trail between the hills to the Landing, and straight ahead also where the road ran parallel again three hundred feet above the water.

There was no moon. The night was dark, but away over Blue Nose Mountain the grey of dawn was slowly creeping.

Like a writhing snake, the Kelowna Road turned and twisted round the hills which almost precipitated into the dark waters below.

The riders were now going Indian file owing to the darkness and the narrowness of the path. Phil, who was ahead--for he had a horse that refused to stay in the rear of any other horse--turned the first bend.

He reined back suddenly, causing the others to do the same. He held up a warning hand.

Cautiously they looked ahead round the crumbling rock.