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gang.”
    â€œSorry,” Chan apologized. “I was surrounded by superior forces. Car captured by Blitzkrieg. Now reinforcements have arrived — shall we throw them overboard, sir?”
    Mickey, the dark one this time as Woody found later, said, “But on the phone, Woody said you were going to a circus.”
    Pat added, “Fugitive from a chain gang? What do you mean?”
    The Horseshoe Kid said, “Oh-oh. Trouble. Now what?”
    He looked pleased.
    â€œMove over, Chan,” Diavolo ordered. “I’m driving.” Then rapidly he gave them an earful. But it only convinced the girls more than ever.
    â€œJust try to run out on us now,” Pat said. “You’ll need a whole detachment of assistant detectives. We could — well, we could vamp the Inspector, couldn’t we?”
    â€œHe’s married,” Don objected.
    â€œSo what?” Mickey shot back. “That’s a minor detail. Let’s go.”

    Woody hurried back just then and Don Diavolo threw in the clutch and stepped on the gas. “I haven’t got time to argue with you now,” he said. “But if you all spend the night in jail don’t say I didn’t warn you.” The big car roared up the ramp at 49th Street on to the elevated highway.
    Dubiously Woody said, “I don’t see how you can get away with it, Don. Church will be so close on your tail that—”
    He broke off.
    Diavolo gave the car more gas. “Maybe,” he said. “On the other hand he’s so sure I’m the guilty party he may not look for me where we’re going. He’ll watch the trains, boats and airports expecting me to flee the country — for a while at least. He’ll be busy for another hour or so searching the Emperor Theater Building. Then, when he finds I’m not there, he’ll rush around like mad putting out the dragnet. Finally, when he sits down and takes time to think he’ll begin to get wise. But that should give us a few hours.
    â€œAnd what you need,” Horseshoe added gloomily “is a couple of weeks.”
    â€œI know it,” Diavolo replied. “But with luck we might manage to make Church doubtful. I do have this.” The magician made the mystic gesture that usually produced a coin or lighted cigarette from midair. This time he got a folder of paper matches. He gave them to Horseshoe. “That’s the clue Church didn’t realize was one. It’s the match folder he found in the pockets of the second corpse. If it means what I think it does it may be a lead.”
    The Kid and Chan scowled at the still damp match folder. Woody and the girls leaned across from the back seat and did the same.
    â€œMr. X, our mystery corpse,” Woody hazarded, “might have been in Canada recently. That’s all I get. Does it tell you who he is?”
    â€œOh no,” Diavolo said. “I know who he is. The match folder doesn’t have anything to do with the unidentified body.”
    â€œBut what does it have something to do with?” Mickey asked. “I don’t see—”
    â€œYou wanted to be a detective,” Don told her. “Let’s see you detect.”
    She subsided.
    â€œOkay, mastermind,” Woody said. “But I certainly hope you’ve got something. I’d hate to be in your shoes when the Inspector catches up with you.”
    The magician grinned widely. “That,” he said in a tone that Woody wasn’t at all sure he liked, “ is an idea. It might work too.”
    â€œHey!” Woody demanded uneasily. “What do you mean?”
    But before Diavolo could answer, Chan exploded his bomb. Ever since Diavolo had told them about the bare footprint, the leopard and the scratches on the two bodies, Chan’s brown forehead had been creased in a scowl.
    Now he said, “I think I have a clue too. Billboard Magazine this week lists acts now working in