Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/101

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THE HAND OF PERIL
93

"Provided that is their plan," agreed Wilsnach.

"That will give them nearly a week's start of us again!"

Kestner countered Wilsnach's haggard eye with the ghost of a grin. "And what's a week, Wilsnach, with men like us?"

He was reminding himself of the consolatory axiom that the Law never forgets—and he was on the side of the Law. It was equally self-evident that offenders against that Law could not and did not forever conceal themselves, even with a whole continent to wander about in. No matter how well under cover they might place themselves, there were times when they had to emerge into the open, as whales come up to breathe.

"If we could only be sure they were headed that way!" suggested the still lugubrious Wilsnach.

"Well, we'll do what we can to make sure," contended the unshaken Kestner as he felt tenderly along the bandaging over his collar-bone. "And since we're not exactly clairvoyants, we'll work that wireless until its aërials wear out!"