The Four of Hearts by Ellery Queen Page B

directions, through sparsely settled country. It would take days by experienced trackers to find his trail, and by that time it would be stone-cold.
    Ellery returned to the red-and-gold plane. The Lieutenant was there again. ‘It’s a hell of a mess. We’ve made three-way contact by radiophone with the authorities. There’s a mob of ’em on their way up.’
    â€˜What’s the trouble?’
    â€˜This end of the Chocolate Mountains just laps over into Riverside County – most of it lies in Imperial County to the south. The plane in coming here passed over Los Angeles County, of course, and probably the south-east tip of San Bernardino County. That makes three different counties in which these people may have died.’
    â€˜So the assorted gentlemen of the law are fighting,’ nodded Ellery grimly, ‘for the right to sink their teeth into this juicy case?’
    â€˜Well, it’s their oyster – let ‘em scramble for it. My responsibility ends when someone shows up to claim jurisdiction.’
    Butcher said curtly: ‘I don’t know about your legal responsibility, Lieutenant, but something’s got to be done about Miss Stuart. She’s in a bad way.’
    â€˜I suppose we could fly you folks back to the municipal airport, but –’
    â€˜What’s the trouble?’ asked Ty Royle in a high-pitched voice. Ellery felt uncomfortable at the sight of his haggard face. His lips were blue and he was shivering with a cold not caused by the wind.
    â€˜Bonnie’s collapsed, Ty. She’s got to have a doctor.’
    â€˜Well, sure,’ said Ty abstractedly. ‘Sure. I’ll fly her down myself. My plane –’ But then he stopped.
    â€˜Sorry,’ said the Lieutenant. ‘That’s the one thing that doesn’t leave this place till the police get here.’
    â€˜I suppose so,’ mumbled Ty. ‘I guess so.’ He yelled suddenly: ‘Damn it to hell!’
    â€˜Here,’ said Ellery, grabbing his arm. ‘You’re not far from collapse yourself. Lieutenant, have you any notion how far Tolland Stuart’s place is from here? It’s supposed to be on a butte in the Chocolate Mountains, somewhere below in Imperial County.’
    â€˜It’s only a few minutes south by air.’
    â€˜Then that’s where we’ll take her,’ rasped Butcher. ‘If you’ll be good enough to place a plane at our disposal –’
    â€˜But I don’t know if I ought to.’
    â€˜We’ll be at Tolland Stuart’s when they want us. You said yourself it’s only a few minutes’ hop from here.’
    The Lieutenant looked unhappy. Then he shrugged and shouted: ‘Garms! Turn ‘em over.’
    A pilot saluted and climbed into a big Army transport. The motors began to spit and snarl. They all broke into a run.
    â€˜Where’s Lew?’ shouted Ellery above the din.
    â€˜He couldn’t take it,’ Butcher shouted back. ‘Flew back to L.A. with one of the Army pilots.’
    A few minutes later they were in the air headed south-east.
    The brightness on the plateau dwindled to a pale blob, then to a pin-point, and finally blinked out altogether. Butcher held Bonnie, whose eyes were closed, tightly to his chest. Ty sat alone, forward, buried to the nose in his thin coat; he seemed to be dozing. But once Ellery caught the wild shine of his eyes.
    Ellery shivered and turned to peer down at the black wrinkled face of the mountain slipping by below.
    In less than ten minutes the transport was wheeling over a luminous rectangle lying flat among the crags. To Ellery it seemed no larger than a postage stamp, and he began uncomfortably to think of his own immortal soul.
    As he clutched the arms of his seat he saw dimly a massive pile of stone and wood beyond the lighted field. Then they were rushing down the little landing-place bound, he could swear, for a head-on collision