hill Bud went into the cluttered little general store and bought
a few blocks of slim, evil smelling matches and a couple of
pounds of sliced bacon, a loaf of stale bread, and two small cans
of baked beans. He stuffed them all into the pocket of his
overcoat, and went out and hunted up a long-distance telephone
sign. It had not taken him more than an hour to walk to the town,
for he had only to follow a country road that branched off that
way for a couple of miles down a valley. There was a post office
and the general store and a couple of saloons and a blacksmith
shop that was thinking of turning into a garage but had gone no
further than to hang out a sign that gasoline was for sale there.
It was all very sordid and very lifeless and altogether
discouraging in the drizzle of late afternoon. Bud did not see
half a dozen human beings on his way to the telephone office,
which he found was in the post office.

He called up San Francisco, and got the chief of police's
office on the wire, and told them where they would find the men
who had robbed that jewelry store of all its diamonds and some
other unset jewels. Also he mentioned the car that was stolen,
and that was now stalled and waiting for some kind soul to come
and give it a tow.

He speedily had all the attention of the chief, and having
thought out in advance his answers to certain pertinent
questions, he did not stutter when they were asked. Yes, he had
been hired to drive the ear south, and he had overheard enough to
make him suspicious on the way. He knew that they had stolen the
car. He was not absolutely sure that they were the diamond
thieves but it would be easy enough to find out, because officers