Ghost car

Bizarrely disappeared

　　There is a famous "S" -shaped one-way road in Yarborough County. The road surface is narrow, and there are tall stone walls on both sides, which can only accommodate one car. There is a special temptation for people who love to drive fast, so it is often called "trap". Baker and Bowman are the police officers who supervise the "trap" and are stationed at both ends of the road.

　　It was nearly midnight, and Baker was sitting on a stool, staring boredly at the road. Suddenly, something made him jump up. It was an oncoming car that was making a regular roar. Soon, two huge headlights rushed towards him without hesitation, and Baker immediately realized that the car was not just speeding, it was a blatant challenge to law enforcement! He stood up, lifted the oil lamp, walked to the shoulder of the road, shook the oil lamp up and down, and shouted, "Stop - stop!"

　　The car seemed to see his lights, but it did not slow down and continued to roar forward. Seeing that he was about to turn, Baker hurriedly looked back at the license plate, but the dust raised by the car was too large, and the body swayed violently, and he couldn't read the number smoothly. However, he saw four people sitting in the dimly lit car, but could not tell whether it was a man or a woman.

　　"Want to escape? No way!" Baker muttered, whistled, carried the oil lamp, slowly returned to the police post, and called Bowman to remind him. Baker's confidence is not unreasonable. The stone wall on the left side of the "trap" is as high as eight feet, which is the east wall of Phelps Manor; the stone wall on the right side is nine feet high, which is the west wall of Rogers Manor. The "trap" is between the two high walls, there is no fork in the road, no parking place, and the only entrance and exit are the north and south ends guarded by the police. Even if this crazy car escapes him, it cannot escape the level at the other end.

　　Unexpectedly, half an hour later, Bowman called and said in confusion, "Dude, no cars pass through here!" Baker was startled: "Impossible!"

　　There was no dispute, and the two police officers decided to search the entire road section carefully. They started from both ends, and when they met in the middle, they both looked dazed.

　　"Are you kidding me?" Bowman asked unhappily, "Did you really see a car?"

　　"Of course I saw it," Baker's voice indicated his unhappiness. "If you don't believe me, let's change the guard tomorrow night and see if it still comes?"

　　The two looked at each other for a while, nodded, picked up the oil lamp, and slowly returned to their respective warning points along the way. This night, they didn't sleep well.

　　At midnight the next day, Constable Bowman sat on Baker's wooden bench and waited. Sure enough, Baker was right, the ghostly car was really here again! Huge, bright headlights, roaring engines, and the speed at which they rushed past him almost terrified him. Bowman immediately called Baker, who waited at the other end for half an hour without seeing any cars.

　　Night tracking

　　Bowman finally believed that for several nights, a ghostly car rushed through the road, known as the "trap", and then mysteriously disappeared. Determined to solve the case, he and Baker focused on the stone walls on both sides, but after repeated searches, they found that the only gap in the stone walls on both sides was a narrow opening less than sixteen inches wide. It is impossible to accommodate a car passing by.

　　There were no bushes by the road, so the ghost cars had nowhere to hide, day or night, and they didn't find any potholes in the road enough to drive the cars underground.

　　"There's only one way to find out where the car went," Baker said. "It's to have a few more police posts around the middle of the road, whether the car is in the sky, in the ground, or out of thin air. Disappear, you can see it in those locations."

　　Bowman exclaimed, "Wouldn't that be a shock? By the way, do you know a long-distance cyclist?"

　　"Knowing is knowing," Beck went on quickly, "you mean, if we can find someone who rides a bike fast and can continue to ride a long distance -"

　　"Yes, I think we should be able to solve this ghost car mystery," Bowman said.

　　Two days later, they found Mr. Jimmy, a long-distance cyclist who holds multiple world records and is undoubtedly a master.

　　Baker asked, "Can you follow a car for a long distance, about thirty or forty miles?" Jimmy replied, "I can follow anything without wings, and I'm going so fast that I can't believe it myself."

　　"Our request is - you ride your bike, sneak behind a car, don't turn on the lights, and watch where it goes, and never let the people in the car know you're following," Bowman said.

　　"No problem!" The two sides reached an agreement.

　　It was late at night, and the surroundings were pitch black, and the slender road meandered forward under the pitch-black night sky. The shadows of the stone walls covered both sides of the road, and in the shadows, some people were whispering.

　　Suddenly, they heard the familiar roar of an engine, and then saw a car drive into a "trap," turn on its headlights, and then make a rumbling sound, speeding away.

As the car rushed past, a black figure by the stone wall lifted a pile of dry grass and began to move lightly. It was Jimmy, who was riding his bike, quietly following the car, and the speed was getting faster and faster. What followed was a long chase, mile after mile, as the car continued on, Jimmy stubbornly following closely behind the car, his mouth dry from time to time from the raised dust...

　　Perfect plan

　　The next evening, Baker and Bowman appeared in the office of the president of the National Bank. The president's name was Stan Wood, an elderly man, who was looking up and down at the two young men in front of him through thick lenses.

　　"Mr. Stanwood, we're here to tell you," Beck said, "that a safe in your bank has been stolen, and it's likely to contain U.S. Treasuries."

　　"What?" cried Mr. Stanwood, his face pale. "Stolen?"

　　"Your teller, Marsh, will take those bonds out of the vault tonight," Bowman said. "He and three others will take the safe and take it to a place."

　　Mr. Stanwood stared at them in disbelief. "Where?"

　　Bowman did not directly answer his question: "We also know that Marsh has taken these bonds out of the vault at midnight every day for the past week and returned them with a lot of money before dawn the next day. They're still coming tonight. Will come to collect the bonds, so I recommend that no action be taken until midnight."

　　Sure enough, after midnight that day, Marsh and his companions were brought before Mr. Stanwood.

　　Marsh was carrying the box of bonds when he was arrested. He confessed: He was playing a get-rich-quick trick, using speculation to collect large sums of money. For the past few days, four or five potential investors have been meeting every night at Marsh's villa. To win the trust of these investors, Marsh needs to show that he already has millions of dollars to cover costs. So he lends the bonds out every night to show.

　　The so-called ghost car was Marsh's vehicle for transporting bonds between the bank and the villa. When Baker first discovered the car, they were rushing to Marsh's villa with the bonds, and the most direct way from the bank to the Marsh family was through a "trap". If the car went halfway through the "trap" and crossed Rogers Manor to another road, it would save at least twenty miles.

　　"But how can a car pass through the stone walls of Rogers Manor?" Stanwood asked. "There is no road there."

　　"In the middle of the stone wall there is a small narrow gate for people to enter and exit, through which you can cross the manor to another road," Bowman explained. "The ghost car is not actually a car, but a pair of two motorcycles. It's lined up together, with seats and driving gear. Because the engines of the two cars are originally separate, it's easy to take the light seats apart, then go through the narrow doors separately, assemble them on the other side of the stone wall, and then drive again. The manor is unguarded throughout the summer and is an excellent shelter."

　　"Oh!" Stanwood breathed a sigh of relief, "I understand, due to regulations, motorcycles cannot be'trapped '. In order to save time and take the road smoothly, Marsh deliberately turned on the headlights in the dark night and drove too fast., just for fear of being recognized by you and disguised!"

　　Baker took over the conversation: "That's right! If it wasn't for serious speeding, he might have gotten away with it. Thanks to our bicycle genius Jimmy, it was he who witnessed the transformation process and driving path of the ghost car that solved the mystery."

　　Mr. Stanwood nodded approvingly and said, "You are really amazing young people!"