The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Incident on Route 12, by James H. Schmitz

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Title: An Incident on Route 12

Author: James H. Schmitz

Release Date: June 21, 2007 [eBook #21897]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN INCIDENT ON ROUTE 12***

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AN INCIDENT ON ROUTE 12

by

JAMES H. SCHMITZ

He was already a thief, prepared to steal again. He didn't know
that he himself was only booty!

Phil Garfield was thirty miles south of the little town of Redmon on
Route Twelve when he was startled by a series of sharp, clanking noises.
They came from under the Packard's hood.

The car immediately began to lose speed. Garfield jammed down the
accelerator, had a sense of sick helplessness at the complete lack of
response from the motor. The Packard rolled on, getting rid of its
momentum, and came to a stop.

Phil Garfield swore shakily. He checked his watch, switched off the
headlights and climbed out into the dark road. A delay of even half an
hour here might be disastrous. It was past midnight, and he had another
hundred and ten miles to cover to reach the small private airfield where
Madge waited for him and the thirty thousand dollars in the suitcase on
the Packard's front seat.

If he didn't make it before daylight....

He thought of the bank guard. The man had made a clumsy play at being a
hero, and that had set off the fool woman who'd run screaming into their
line of fire. One dead. Perhaps two. Garfield hadn't stopped to look at
an evening paper.

But he knew they were hunting for him.

He glanced up and down the road. No other headlights in sight at the
moment, no light from a building showing on the forested hills. He
reached back into the car and brought out the suitcase, his gun, a big
flashlight and the box of shells which had been standing beside the
suitcase. He broke the box open, shoved a handful of shells and the .38
into his coat pocket, then took suitcase and flashlight over to the
shoulder of th