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diff --git a/33476.txt b/33476.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7eeb68 --- /dev/null +++ b/33476.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4882 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Auto Boys' Vacation, by James A. Braden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Auto Boys' Vacation + +Author: James A. Braden + +Illustrator: E. A. Furman + +Release Date: August 21, 2010 [EBook #33476] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTO BOYS' VACATION *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: "RAH! RAH! RAH! RAH!" SCREAMED PAUL JONES IN THE MOST +EXTRAVAGANT DELIGHT IMAGINABLE.] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + THE AUTO BOYS' VACATION + + By James A. Braden + + AUTHOR OF + "THE AUTO BOYS," "THE AUTO BOYS' OUTING," + "THE AUTO BOYS' QUEST," "FAR PAST THE FRONTIER," + "CONNECTICUT BOYS IN THE WESTERN RESERVE," ETC. + + ILLUSTRATED BY + E. A. FURMAN + + THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY + CHICAGO--AKRON, OHIO--NEW YORK + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + COPYRIGHT, 1913, + BY + THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I Again the Lonely South Fork Road 1 + II The Search Is Continued 13 + III Mr. Billy Worth Does Some Thinking 27 + IV Detective Bob Rack Has Something to Say 43 + V A Bit of Advice From a Stranger 59 + VI A Little Kindness and What Came of It 71 + VII A Swift Ride Through the Darkness 85 + VIII In Most Excellent Good Season 103 + IX The Detective's Strange Story 111 + X Eastward Ho! 127 + XI Passing the Load of Hay 143 + XII Nan and the Jersey Bull 163 + XIII The Kidnapers 183 + XIV Under the Car 199 + XV At the Old Tavern 219 + XVI Conclusion 239 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE AUTO BOYS' VACATION + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AGAIN THE LONELY SOUTH FORK ROAD + + +"You can't hide anything from the chief," observed Willie Creek, when +Chief Fobes had left his garage, the scene of the mystery related in +_The Auto Boys' Big Six_. + +"Well, he didn't seem to be a whole lot interested to find out who broke +in here--who killed our dog," replied Billy Worth, severely. + +"You don't _know_ him," returned Mr. Creek. "You just show him the +fellow that done the deed and he'll arrest him mighty quick." + +"Maybe if we'd see a man robbing a bank here, then called Fobes so he +could see, too, that the man _was_ robbing the bank, he'd do something," +remarked Billy, as the lads returned to the hotel. + +"I'll tell you what _he'd_ do," growled Paul Jones. "He'd say--'now from +the standpoint of the law, maybe that man is going to commit a crime. +From the standpoint of the law, he better go a little careful or I'll +tell his mother on him.'" + +All of which might be taken to indicate that Chief Fobes was not as +great a man in the minds of the four boys as he was in his own. Still, +something might be said on both sides of this subject, quite as Phil Way +now remarked, but the conversation was abruptly dropped. + +"No news yet?" asked Mr. Wagg. The lads had just reached the hotel +again. + +"None of the car, but--" and then they told the landlord of the killing +of Scottie. Confidentially they intimated their belief that John Smith +or "Pickem" might know something of the affair. + +"Very strange," mused Mr. Wagg. "He checked out--paid his bill and +left--last night. He said he was leaving on the ten o'clock train east. +Seemed put out because the party he had been expecting in to see him had +not come. But he left no word--no address for mail, or anything." + +The hotel proprietor was not at all pleased with the indifference of +Chief Fobes. The boys had told him of all that took place at the garage. +"Yet of course," said he, "it might make a difference if you lived here. +There'd be quite a little expense to find out who killed the dog and, +besides, the thieves, if it was thieves who did it, didn't get anything. +It doesn't seem to me, now really, that this new trouble has anything to +do with your lost automobile, and I take it that that's the main thing, +after all." + +To this the boys agreed and, eager to put into execution Phil's plan to +telephone to all the larger cities east and west, to get some trace of +the Big Six, if possible, they started for the telephone office. + +"But we can't all telephone," said Phil. "Who will look after burying +Scottie? And who will go to Ferndale in the Torpedo and take back the +pick and shovel to the blacksmith? Even if he did say we might have them +as long as we liked, they should be toted home to-day." + +Billy and Paul volunteered for the work mentioned. With the cold, stiff +body of poor Scottie covered over with muslin in the tonneau, they +started the stray automobile again toward the lonely South Fork and +Ferndale. Where the dog's burial place should be had been a problem. +Willie Creek suggested a wooded knoll where some evergreens grew, not +far beyond the branching of the road. This place the two boys reached in +due time. It seemed to be quite what they sought. + +Overhead the always green branches would sing a gentle requiem in the +breeze the whole year through. The thick, emerald foliage would protect +the little grave below, both from the violence of winter's storms and +the heat of the summer sun. + +The solemn task was not a pleasant one. They wrapped the clean, new +muslin around the body that in life had been so lithe, so strong, so +active and so handsome, and gently placed it in the soft, cool ground. +After the beautiful custom of the Grand Army of the Republic they put +bits of evergreen in the grave, in token of unceasing remembrance of +their dead comrade. Slowly they filled in the earth. + +"We'll come back some day--some day when we've at last got out of this +awful ocean of bad luck we seem to be in, and we'll put up a little +stone to mark the grave," said Billy. "If ever a dog deserved it, +Scottie does. I only wish we knew to whom he rightly belonged before Mr. +Knight ever saw him. They'd like to hear, I think, that he was a hero, +whether they cast him off or not, or even if he was a runaway." + +Going on toward Ferndale, the little town two or three miles beyond +where the Big Six was ditched, Billy and Paul again deeply felt the +lonely influence of the unfrequented road. Even in the bright sunshine +the old mill-pond, the mill, the big, empty icehouse, the weeping +willows near them--all seemed to tell of that dreadful tragedy of many +years ago. The boys both noticed as they passed how the road's bank +sloped down, and their active imaginations plainly pictured the +frightened horses, the overturned carriage and the flood of the great, +dark pond closing over the young man and his mother, whose sad story +Willie Creek had told them. + +Farther on, at the spot where all their own troubles had had their +beginning, the two lads stopped. Filled with vain regrets they looked +again all about the place where the Six went down. But if they expected +to make any new discovery, they were disappointed. The road was dry now. +The broken fence rails still lay at the foot of the embankment. The +trampled grass and weeds still told of what had happened, but no one had +been near; no human creature, it was to be believed, had visited the +scene since the boys last saw it. + +Returning to their car, the friends soon reached the house where they +had stopped to make inquiry that first day of their trouble--the house +where lived the lonely, old man, all his thoughts in the days of long +ago. They now knew the story of the faded dwelling, the crumbling +condition of every structure. Curiously they glanced about, thinking +they might see the lonely, old gentleman and give him a friendly +salute--just a hand thrown up for an instant--as they passed. + +Ah, there he was! Seated in the kitchen doorway, he saw the machine even +before Paul and Billy saw him. Their wave of a hand seemed to please +him, and he waved a beckoning signal in return. Billy jumped down and +walked up to see if something was wanted. + +"No, no!" the old man replied, far more pleasantly than at that former +time. He meant only to acknowledge their greeting, he said. Then he +asked if the owner of the runaway car had been found. + +This led Billy to tell all about the misfortune that had followed the +picking up of the strange automobile. The farmer ruefully shook his +head. There were many days together that no vehicle went along this +road, in these latter years, he said. He could hardly understand how so +strange a thing should happen almost at his door. And he had been +disturbed in other ways. Only last night, as he sat in the kitchen door, +he had seen a crouching figure in the moonlight slip from one tree to +another. It was after midnight. Visitors he little expected to have at +any time, much less at such an hour. So he called out, "Hello, there!" +The figure hastened away and he saw it no more. + +"It fretted me some," said the old gentleman slowly, "but I didn't see +anything more, clean to daylight." + +Somehow the picture of the aged, unhappy man sitting all night in the +kitchen door, as his imagination presented it, touched Billy's +sympathies deeply. He asked if Mr. Peek would not like to take a little +ride in the car to Ferndale. They were coming back at once. It would +take but a little while, he urged. + +With something more like a smile than had been seen on his face for many +a year, the old man said he never had ridden in an automobile, and would +be glad to go. He climbed up to the front seat beside Paul. Billy told +him it was the more comfortable place to ride. And plainly Mr. Peek +enjoyed the trip. He was quite silent but his deep, pain-marked eyes +lighted up noticeably. + +"It's a grand thing to be young," said he, at last. + +Neither blacksmith nor storekeeper at Ferndale had heard the slightest +inquiry for the runaway automobile, which was not a runaway at all at +the time it passed through that village the previous Friday. Nor had +they heard anything which might cast light upon the theft of the Big +Six. + +"You'll find that whoever had this Torpedo car is the same party that +hooked your machine," said the blacksmith. "Stands to reason. Wherever +could he have disappeared to, if it ain't so?" + +"I'm afraid you're on the wrong track," smiled Billy, a little sadly. +"Chief Fobes, at Griffin, says positively that the two things--this lost +machine on the one hand, and the stealing of our car on the other--have +no connection with each other." + +"Matter of opinion!" spoke the blacksmith warmly. And then as if he +scarcely endorsed Willie Creek's high opinion of Mr. Fobes' ability, he +added: "And I'll put my judgment against his'n any day." + +Arranging with their friends to telephone them at the American House +immediately should there be any development at Ferndale concerning +either car, the two boys turned toward Griffin. They stopped at his +lonely, cheerless home to leave Mr. Peek. His thankful appreciation of +the ride made them glad of the little kindness they had been able to +show him. Neither lad thought to attach importance to the old man's +account of his being disturbed by prowlers. It was Phil who saw +significance in this story as, at dinner, Billy and Paul told all that +had taken place with them. + +"It's a mighty mysterious business," declared Way. "Don't you see it? +Here's an automobile,--quite likely a stolen automobile, at +that--abandoned and left to run itself on a lonely road. No one can +discover what became of the driver of that car. He was certainly driving +when the machine left Ferndale. Three miles further on, and near the old +Peek place, he is missing. Now isn't it likely that the same man is +still sneaking around in that neighborhood?" + +"Well, anyhow, we're getting off the main track again," Billy returned. +"We'd like to know where the Torpedo belongs, but it's a heap more +important that we keep on the trail of our own machine." + +"Yes, that's so," Phil soberly assented. "It's certainly strange that +all my telephoning went for nothing. The police and all the big garages +from Albany to Buffalo, I should say, have a description of our car, and +yet not a sign of her has been discovered any place." + +"There's a long distance telephone call for Mr. Way," announced the +voice of Mr. Wagg, the landlord. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SEARCH IS CONTINUED + + +It is much to be feared that three certain young gentlemen finished +their dinner with unbecoming haste in order to join more quickly the +fourth young gentleman summoned to the long distance telephone. + +"Why, it was dad! Called up clear from Lannington!" announced Phil, +coming from the telephone booth, perspiring but pleased. "They all got +our letters, just a little while ago, and there must have been a general +powwow all about us and the car right away. They fixed it up that dad +should call us. And they're mighty interested. Think we haven't acted +fast enough, and all that. Want us to offer a reward--get busy--travel +around--not lose so much time just staying here. And if we can't get +some news by Wednesday, they'll either come on here or send a detective +from Chicago or somewhere." + +"It'll cost a raft of money," murmured MacLester. + +"But we've been too afraid of spending a little," Billy answered. + +"Over four dollars' worth of telephoning in one morning!" ejaculated +Paul, forcibly. He did not like criticism. + +"Just the same, it feels good to know there's somebody back of us. Of +course we knew there was, anyway, but to have them get together and then +telephone clear here--it's mighty encouraging," spoke Phil. "Now we +can't let them think we aren't capable of getting out of this pickle by +ourselves, and we don't want them to hold a convention here. The answer +is, get busy! So what are we going to do?" + +"Well, what _are_ we going to do?" This from Paul, as if he would say +that everything possible to do had been done. + +"Why, there's one thing that seemed like a good suggestion," said Phil, +"and that is that we look in other places--get on the train, get in +touch with the police and the auto clubs and garages in different likely +places, personally." + +"It's reasonable, and the thing to do," declared Worth with emphasis. +"Phil, why can't you and Dave go to Albany or Rochester this very day? +Stop off at Syracuse. Go up to Pittsfield, too? Paul and I can watch and +hunt around here and follow up what poor little clues we've got." + +"Clues? _We_ have no clues!" spoke MacLester, moodily, "unless Hipp and +Earnest are the ones. I've come to the conclusion that those fellows +lied about seeing a man in a raincoat. Who else saw him? Don't we know +that young Earnest can lie like a beggar? Is Hipp any better?" + +"But there's the raincoat! Saw it ourselves!" Billy argued. + +"Oh, that might belong to anybody! Plenty of old raincoats lying +around," persisted David. + +"I'm afraid you're on the wrong track, Mack," Phil Way urged quietly. +Then immediately he added: "We must look up trains at once. Billy's plan +may not be very promising but, goodness, we can't sit around and wait +for the car to come to us!" + +So the agreement was made, quite as Worth proposed. Dave and Phil had +just time to catch the 1:24 train--one of the few fast trains that +stopped at Griffin--and they promised to telegraph from Albany the same +night, if they found anything worth reporting. + +"I am glad we are making a start toward something, anyway," Worth +remarked, when he and Paul had waved good-bye to the two on the train, +and turned toward the hotel again. + +"Tell you what, though, Bill! Let's just keep right on the job every +minute, ourselves, and maybe we can surprise the fellows--get hold of +something awfully important." Paul was pretty serious. + +"Sure!" said Billy. + +Then came the stumbling block. It was all very well to say "keep on the +job," but just what to do that might be worth while was another problem. + +"Funny we never heard a word from that 'A. W. Kull, Harkville, New +York,' if our telegram was ever delivered there," said Worth, thinking +aloud, somewhat later. "Let's ask the office here to find out what +became of our message. It won't cost anything." + +"Oh, gravy! That has nothing to do with us! It's the Six we're after, +Bill!" But notwithstanding this objection, the Griffin telegraph office +was asked for the information. + +The operator kindly offered to send a service message, as it is called, +desiring the Harkville office to report on the matter. Harkville replied +in due time. The message to "A. W. Kull" was delivered at his residence. +Why it was not answered the telegraph people did not know, of course. + +During the afternoon the boys also met Chief Fobes. With his stick under +his arm, he leaned against a railing at the Bank building, eating +peanuts. + +"Nothin' doin'," was his reply to their inquiry. "Ain't likely to be," +he added, discouragingly. "It ain't our luck, somehow. It may be here or +any place around here that something will happen, but of course the +gentry don't stay in these smaller places, and it's always in the bigger +towns that they're nabbed if they don't get away altogether." + +"Oh, yes, I see," said Billy Worth, but when he and Paul had walked on, +he remarked: "No, it is not Mr. Fobes' luck to catch anything. I reckon +he banks more on luck than he does on work, though." + +"'From the standpoint of the law,'" grinned Jones. But then lest he and +Worth should fall into the same error, he said briskly, "But come on, +Bill, we'll have to hustle if we're going to find anything." + +Meanwhile Dave and Phil were approaching Albany. On the train they +mapped out their general plan of work. Phil was to interview the police +officials while Dave made inquiries at the headquarters of the +automobile club. Then, together, they would visit the central garages. +The outlying establishments they would call up by telephone, they +decided. Surely, every automobile, stolen or otherwise, must have +gasoline. Somewhere, then, it might be reasonably expected, trace of the +Big Six would surely be discovered. + +It seems likely, and probably is true, that the boys failed to +appreciate the great number of cars constantly going and coming through +all such large cities as Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland and the like. Living +in a much smaller place, where tourists from a distance, especially +those with licenses from other states, were quickly noticed, they did +not understand that machines from far and near are so numerous upon the +great motor thoroughfares that they attract scarcely passing notice. + +Disappointment followed disappointment as Phil and Dave pursued their +task. The fact that the police department had a perfect description of +their car and the assurance of the lieutenant, with whom Phil talked, +that every patrolman had the number of the stolen machine, were the only +bits of encouragement they found. + +"Didn't ye have insurance against theft?" asked a pleasant young fellow +at a new garage not far from the capitol. "Ought to have a fire and +theft insurance policy," he declared, "then you let someone else do the +worrying." + +"Too late to think of it now, I'm afraid," said Phil with a forlorn +smile. + +"That's true enough," said the other, "but I was just thinking how lucky +a fellow considers himself when he does have insurance in a case of this +kind. There was an illustration of it up state just this spring. Man had +a new car. Used it just a little, over winter. In April it was stolen +and it never was found. He got a check for pretty nearly all he paid for +it because he had insurance. He didn't have to lose any sleep, you see." + +"Also, you may be able to sell him another car, because he has the money +to pay for one," suggested Dave, his eyes twinkling. + +"Now you're trying to jolly me," returned the young man good-humoredly. +"But I didn't mean it that way. Fact is, the man was away up at +Harkville--'way out of our territory for Torpedoes." + +"Hello, now!" exclaimed Way, eagerly. "Was there a Torpedo stolen in +Harkville, recently?" + +"Not lately. Two months ago," the other answered. + +"Who lost it?" And again Way glanced sharply at Dave. The latter was +listening to every word but taking care to betray no unusual interest. + +"H--m--m--Hull, Kull--why, that's it! Kull was his name. But _your_ car +was not a Torpedo, was it?" + +If the young man thought that in this question he guessed the reason for +Phil's wish to know more of the incident mentioned, he guessed wrong, of +course. But unwilling to tell just why he was interested, until he +should have had time to think, Phil gave him no enlightenment. + +"No," answered Way, "the Torpedo people don't build a six-cylinder car, +do they?" + +"That's right, yours was a six," said the other. "Makes you so much the +greater loser, with no insurance." + +"What luck did the Harkville man have finding his car? Someone must have +looked for it even if he did have insurance." + +"Guess they _did_ look for it," said the garage man forcibly. "First +Kull and the police, then the insurance people and detectives, and +believe _me_, insurance companies don't care how much it costs to find a +stolen car if they've had to pay for it. They do get stung though, and +last I heard, Kull had his money, for his car was never found, high or +low. Strange case! Never a clue to go by. A padlock pried off Kull's +little garage and the machine gone and--there you are." + +"Strange!" muttered Phil, but he was thinking too, that, though this was +exceedingly interesting information, he must not allow it to take his +thoughts from the loss that meant so much more to himself and friends, +personally. So, thanking the young man, he and Dave left the garage. + +"Why didn't you tell him about the Torpedo? She's the Harkville car as +sure as you're born!" spoke MacLester, immediately the two were beyond +hearing. + +"It might have done no harm, and again--there's the trouble! I wanted to +talk it over with you. It seems small and mean, but still we didn't pay +out railroad fare and all that to help find the owner of that Torpedo. +We wired Kull and did our part. He may be in Griffin right now to claim +the property." + +"More likely he doesn't care. He got insurance money, so why bother any +more about it? That would explain the whole thing--the whole reason why +our telegram was never answered," Dave reasoned. + +"It looks that way," Phil replied. "And our chasing the Torpedo is +chasing right away from the car we want to find. Blame it all! We don't +seem to get anywhere. Here we go stumbling into things about the Torpedo +but no clues at all to the Six!" All of which, and the disgruntled tone, +were both unusual words and manner in young Mr. Way. + +The day had long since closed. The boys found a comfortable hotel and +went to bed, leaving a call for half-past five as the train for +Pittsfield left Albany at six-thirty. The distance was not great and as +several important automobile routes branched out from the Massachusetts +town, it was considered a likely source of information. + +Tired as they were, Phil and Dave must and did discuss at length the +day's developments before they fell asleep. A sense of duty that they +should report at once the apparent fact that they had found the stolen +Harkville car, weighed somewhat upon their minds. + +"But what if we do? What happens?" they reasoned. "We are put out just +that much in hunting for the Six. We lose time being called as +witnesses, and a lot of botheration, just when we need every minute, and +nothing much is gained. A few days will make no difference with regard +to the Torpedo, long ago given up as beyond recovery." + +And so resolving to stick to the more important business first, but to +report the finding of the stolen Harkville car just so soon as details +of identification and the law's red tape would not be so inconvenient, +they put the subject aside. + +Thanks to Chief Fobes, in part, and also thanks to their own error, in +part, the boys were making a costly mistake by believing the trail of +the Torpedo had no connection with the theft of their own car. Or so it +would seem, would it not? And yet, even if the thieves who first stole +the Harkville car were the same who, later on, made off with the Big +Six, what could be gained by going back along the route to deliver the +one recovered machine instead of pursuing diligently the more recently +stolen property? + +"We'll never see our car again; that I know," said Dave MacLester, glum +and despondent. He pulled on his shoes in the stuffy little hotel room +next morning, as if life were to him a barren, barren waste. + +"It's mostly the time of day, Mack," said Way good-humoredly. "Half-past +five has a mighty blue appearance after you've been eating strange grub, +and staying up till midnight the day before. You'll brighten up like the +shining sun if we can only get out where there is such a thing--that and +get hold of a little news to-day." + +"We haven't got hold of any _yet_," asserted MacLester, not a bit more +cheerfully. + +And his words were the truth, cold and harsh, as the truth may sometimes +be, beyond a doubt. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MR. BILLY WORTH DOES SOME THINKING + + +"Hello! What's all the feverish bustle about? Good news, I hope!" + +This from Mr. Wagg as Billy and Paul, very warm and very red, hustled +into that gentleman's hotel and suddenly stopped, as if they had at that +moment forgotten what they came for. + +"No,--not exactly," said Billy. "Fact is, we have no news at all and it +just makes us feel that we've got to get busy; and that's what we've +been doing--hustling up here as hard as ever we could." + +"What for? What scent are you on now?" asked the landlord, peering over +his glasses as he leaned upon the register counter. There was a trace of +amusement in his voice. + +"That's just it," put in Paul. "We don't know just what scent we _are_ +on but, by thunder! we've _got_ to get some news of that car!" + +"Well, I suppose that nothing succeeds like determination," observed Mr. +Wagg kindly. "Still, there's a lot o' misdirected energy in the world." +With a sigh he sat down and resumed the afternoon nap which the swift +entrance of the boys had broken in upon. + +A large part of Griffin seemed to be occupied quite as was Landlord +Wagg. How very quiet the little town was this tranquil June afternoon! + +"Ginger! I'd just like to take a nap myself; but we've got to keep +busy," mused Billy. The two were seated in big armchairs of the hotel +office. + +"Our basket, Willie Creek's lamp and that old raincoat are in our room. +Mr. Hipp brought them and the porter carried them up. Told me so just +after dinner," suggested Paul. "We might tote Willie's lamp over to the +garage." + +Straightway up the stairs dashed the two boys. Yes, there at the foot of +the bed the articles in question were deposited. Again the boys examined +the lunch hamper inside and out. Again they searched pockets, lining, +every shred of the muddy, dirty, wrinkled coat. + +How freshly the garment, splashed with the rain and the thick pools of +the road, brought back to Billy's mind the dismal afternoon when first +they ventured upon the lonely South Fork! Again, in mental vision, he +saw the Torpedo come over the hill, saw the impossibility of passing the +machine if it did not quickly turn out! Then he recalled--how +vividly!--the dreadful scene, the Big Six ditched, the rain, the heavy, +mist-laden air, the gloom, of approaching darkness. + +And in the same train of thought, as he went forward, he seemed to see +the man Hipp and Earnest had told of seeing, marching stolidly along the +wet road, carrying the basket stolen from the Six, wearing this very +raincoat and on his head a low, soft cap, his top boots or leggins +splashed with mud, the rain pelting him till he stumbled as he walked. +How easily the lad's imagination drew for him the picture Alfred Earnest +and his friend Hipp described! Then suddenly---- + +"For the love of cats, Paul Jones, I am one large punkin head! And so +are _you!_ And so are _all_ of us!" + +Quite naturally young Mr. Jones looked up suddenly, startled not a +little by the extraordinary accusation. + +"Wh----" + +Paul's intended response was violently interrupted. Knocking his own +head with one pair of knuckles, Billy brought those of his other hand +down forcibly on his friend's tawny hair, at the same time and not once, +but repeatedly. + +Not until Jones escaped beyond reach, which he did by tumbling +ungracefully backward over a chair, as he retreated from the mysterious +attack, did Worth explain himself. + +"That man--the drunken fellow we saw Fobes arrest on Saturday night--you +remember? He's the fellow who wore this raincoat, stole our basket +and--who knows?--maybe the car! Plain as daylight! Why didn't we see it +before? The cap, the leather leggins all caked with mud--I couldn't see +it all plainer if he stood in this very room!" + +For a few seconds Paul was lost in a confusion of thoughts, but he +extricated himself at last, saying: + +"Thunder! I do remember that that fellow Fobes got wore leggins--yes, +and the cap! But--why, a lot of people wear 'em for fishing trips +and----" + +"Yes, and chauffeurs wear 'em," put in Billy, heatedly. "I say, come on! +We'll have a look and we'll get something out of this, you bet!" + +Whether Paul would or would not wager, however, he did not say. What he +did reply was: "Honest, Bill, I hope there's something to it, +but--anyhow, let's not be too sure!" + +Chief Fobes, dozing the early afternoon away in his dingy office, +sleepily called to the boys, "Come in!" + +They entered. Needless to say, also, the haste and earnestness in +Billy's manner fully awakened the officer of the law rather more +abruptly than often happened. + +"We want to find out about a fellow you arrested Saturday evening. Wore +a cap and high boots or leggins," spoke young Mr. Worth in a single +breath. + +"Soaked for ten days in the cooler," said Mr. Fobes, indifferently. By +which it will be understood that the village magistrate had imposed upon +the man a fine of ten days in jail. + +"Well, who is he? Can we see him?" Worth continued rapidly. + +"He's just a bum, I guess. I don't know him and--well, you can ask +Willie Creek whether I know everybody around here or whether I don't. He +was hanging around all Saturday afternoon and drinking. By night I had +to pinch him." + +With a show of real interest Chief Fobes now heard the story Billy told +and the belief that the man in the lockup could throw light on the +disappearance of the Big Six. Slowly, very slowly, nevertheless, the +officer rose, yawned and led the way to the corridor below, so +conducting the boys to a group of steel cells in a basement at the rear +of the building. The man they sought was lying on an iron bunk. He +stepped forward when Mr. Fobes called sharply, "Here, you! Step up!" +quite as if the unfortunate were a refractory horse. + +"Might I ask you a question?" began Billy. He and Paul were both keeping +pretty close to Mr. Fobes as the prisoner, still in the mud-stained +boots and garments, approached the bars. + +"I'll do the talkin'," put in the officer bluntly. Then to the man who +peered out from the gloomy cell, "What was you doing on the South Fork +road last--last Friday?" + +"I don't know anything about any South Fork road. What ye givin' us? I +come in here from Rochester, hittin' the road an' lookin' fer a job in +the country, an' I told the judge the same thing, didn't I?" + +"It don't go, Billy. You can't throw any bluff here," said Fobes with an +air of familiarity, but shaking his head coldly, too. "You was seen on +the South Fork road an' there's an automobile man lookin' for you. Guess +he wants to give you a raincoat you lost somewhere." + +This, of course, was just the kind of talk that Mr. Fobes himself had +termed a "bluff" and, in the vernacular, nothing else. Whether the +prisoner thought so or otherwise, for a few seconds he made no reply. +Then as if feeling his way carefully, he said: "Somebody lookin' for me, +eh? Tell 'im where I am. Or mebbe he knows it." + +"It ain't no go, I tell you," said Fobes sharply. "There's a little +matter of a patent dinner basket on you straight. Swipin' grub from +boys, too! Ain't you ashamed of yourself? You don't happen to remember +what you left in the raincoat, do ye?" + +Billy and Paul were far from approving this kind of questioning. Yet +they could see the object of Chief Fobes, which was to frighten and +confuse the prisoner by making him believe a great deal was known about +him, thereby leading him into admissions that would pave the way toward +gaining a complete confession from him. + +"I don't know nothin' about a coat, boss; but who's lookin' fer me?" +called the one behind the bars as the officer and the boys started to +move away. + +"You'll find that out quick enough," said Fobes with a harsh laugh. But +he did not pause and led the way to his own office again. + +"Now," said he, "you have seen how we go about it. We've set the yeast +to workin'. He'll be more ready to let out a little by the time I take +his supper in to him." + +Chief Fobes was evidently much pleased with himself but he was not +prepared for the rather unusual incident that followed. + +"Where's the kid that said might he ask me a question?" inquired the +prisoner when the officer visited his cell again. "I want to see 'im if +I can, boss!" + +Billy was called only after Mr. Fobes had failed to extract from the man +any information whatever. Cautioning the lad to tell the prisoner little +or nothing, the policeman, who was also turnkey, it will have been +noticed, took Worth into the lockup and left him. + +"What was yer question, bub! Mebbe I might answer it," said the fellow. +He held a bar of the cell in each hand and leaned forward on his elbows. +His face, pressed between the steel rods, had a really hideous look. + +"Where's the Big Six automobile that dinner basket came from? Now you +tell me that and you'll make a friend. You seem to need one all right." + +Billy was surprised by his own boldness in this speech. The fact was the +man's manner had quite startled him. + +The prisoner laughed in a coarse guffaw. Abruptly checking himself, he +said in a whisper: "You get me out o' here. Swipe the keys--any old way! +Pass me in a saw--just so's I get out to-night, an' I'll show you where +you can find that automobile, good as ever she was. And--" the fellow +swore venomously and wickedly--"you blab this an' I'll get ye fer it if +I go to the chair!" + +"Might as well be reasonable," spoke the boy, frightened by the very +nature of the proposal, but scarcely showing it. "I'll help you get out +if it means just paying a fine for you, if you can do all you say, +but----" + +"Do all I _say?_ Don't you think I couldn't?" + +Billy hardly knew what to say. For a few seconds he made no answer. + +"Aw, I was just a kiddin' ye," the fellow said with a coarse laugh +again, as if he had quite suddenly changed his mind. + +"Oh! All right!" the boy replied indifferently. And then, moved by a +sudden impulse, whose origin he could never have explained, he stepped +close to the cell, "Mr. Smith, of Buffalo, has been staying at our +hotel. Maybe you'd like to see _him_," he said in a low tone. "He was +looking for someone and I shouldn't be surprised from what I saw of him +that you are the man." + +In general it was a chance shot--a random word without particular aim, +such as Fobes had used in his questioning, but Billy fully believed that +the remark struck home. + +"Say, kid, say, on the level is he the party His Nibbs was talkin' +about? Look 'e here, bub, you play fair with the old man that's down an' +out. You won't lose nothin' by it. They's none of 'em plays fair any +more or I wouldn't be here. You slip them very words to Smith fer me, +and don't ye breathe it to His Nibbs." + +"Where's our machine?" persisted Worth soberly. + +Again a vile oath came from the dirty lips pressed between the bars. The +prisoner's pleading manner had changed to anger. "Jest like 'em all, +ain't ye?" he said with a vicious sneer in his tone. Then he walked +away. Nothing Billy could say served to draw another word from him and +that young gentleman could only take his leave. This he did with the +words: "We are over at the American hotel. You may want to send for us +when you get a little sense." + +"How was I to know what to say to him? Wish Phil had been there," said +Billy earnestly, telling Paul all about the interview later. + +"Gee whizz! We're getting warm, though, I'll bet!" cried Jones with +enthusiasm. + +"If it wasn't just guesswork that Pickem or Smith--whatever his real +name is--knows something about this man in the lockup, who in turn knows +something about our car! Pickem certainly does know something about the +Torpedo, but he's gone. Even if he might help us, it's too late." + +The boys spent the evening trying to realize, with Willie Creek's help, +some value from the day's developments. They were late getting to bed +and still sleeping soundly when Phil and Dave, the following morning, +were well on the road to Pittsfield. And now to return to the latter +pair of eager searchers, it may be briefly stated that their day's work +was without results. Except that they had made the theft of the Big Six +the more widely known, they felt their efforts in Pittsfield to have +been a total failure. At nine o'clock on Tuesday night they were on a +Pullman, their tickets reading "Syracuse." + +There is in the city named, as everyone knows, an automobile club of +more than usual excellence. Whether it be in helping a pair of boys +toward the recovery of a lost car, or the more general work of erecting +road signs, mapping off the best detours around road construction work +and informing the public of the same, nothing is too small or too large +a task to receive intelligent attention. And it was a fortunate chance, +therefore, that Phil and Dave chose Syracuse to be the scene of their +next endeavors. + +Very early Wednesday morning the two boys began their inquiries--began a +day of work and developments, following rapidly one upon another, and +more startling at their close than the strangest dreams may often be. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +DETECTIVE BOB RACK HAS SOMETHING TO SAY + + +To the police officials of Syracuse, Phil and Dave first directed their +steps in that city. The result was as usual. The department had a report +that such-and-such a car was stolen. The officers would be pretty likely +to discover it if the machine should appear in the town. + +"But you better see the Automobile club. They are a big help in +everything where autos are concerned," advised the police captain. + +At a centrally located garage the boys stopped to repeat the same +questions they had asked so many times before. The man in charge had +heard the story of a car mysteriously disappearing from the South Fork +road beyond Port Greeley, but that was all. "You can't do better than +see the Automobile club," he added, however. "They are the ones to get +you the right dope if there's any way to get it." + +Although it was still too early to expect to find a secretary or other +officer present, the boys decided to visit the club headquarters at +once. A pleasant-faced man was reading a motor journal as they entered. +To him they stated the purpose of their call. + +"By George, that's interesting!" said the stranger thoughtfully. "Wait a +minute!" Reaching for a desk phone, the pleasant-faced man was soon in +touch with the person he desired. Briefly he told of the two young +callers and their errand. "All right, that's the ticket!" he said, after +some conversation over the wire, and hung up the receiver. + +Asking the boys to accompany him, the agreeable stranger piloted them to +an office in a large brick building where he introduced them to a +gentleman who seemed hardly more than a boy in appearance, though his +age was probably twenty-five. His name was Freeland Cape. ("A regular +Cape of Good Hope to us," Phil said afterward.) + +"Sit down," said Mr. Cape to the young strangers, as their escort left +them. Thanking him, Phil and Dave accepted the proffered chairs. Without +ado Mr. Cape was informed of the loss of the Six and the search thus far +so unsuccessful. + +"Queerest affair I ever heard of," was the young man's comment. "But +tell me more of this Torpedo car. There was a Torpedo stolen in +Harkville--(Phil and Dave exchanged glances)--an extraordinary case. And +of course it is evident that the parties who, for some reason, abandoned +the machine you found, grabbed your car directly afterward." + +"It would seem so, but it is hardly the case," put in Phil quickly. "We +have had that notion pretty well pounded out of us by different people, +especially by Mr. Fobes, the policeman at Griffin. 'Two separate +transactions,' were his words and he made it pretty plain. And of course +we were, and are, more anxious to locate our own car than anything else. +So all along, 'two separate transactions' we have had right in mind." + +Young Mr. Cape scratched the crown of his head with one forefinger while +he thought for a few seconds. "There never is a theory so exclusively +inclusive but some other theory can be suggested," said he. "I may be +wrong. Without knowing anything about the Torpedo you found, I'd say the +two separate facts constitute a plausible supposition. But I _do_ know +and _you_ know now, that the machine you found was probably the one +stolen from Harkville. Who stole it? We do not know, but it is pretty +plain that no one other than the original thieves had the car on that +South Fork road, wherever they may have been with it since first it +disappeared. Now that lands in the very vicinity of your car, at the +time of your loss, the fellows who stole one automobile. And, having +stolen one, no doubt they would just as lief take another and better +one. The man who was seen with your basket may have been only a tramp. +If your suitcases were left behind, the basket was thrown out, as well, +at the same place or near by." + +"Any way you put it, though," suggested MacLester, his brow puckered in +thought, "we are left right in the middle of it all, again. Go one way, +and we might find who owned the Torpedo. Go the other way--and we stand +a better chance, I should think, of finding our own Six and the thieves. +Whether they stole both cars, or simply ours, isn't a question in the +case at all just yet." + +"Yes," assented Mr. Cape, "but you must go back along the road, or +wherever you may have to go, for the things you need to aid your search. +You can't unsnarl a fish line, or anything else, without you have one +free end with which to make a start." + +Phil became nervous and uneasy as so much time was being consumed in +discussion, interesting to him though the talk was. "Tell us just what +_you'd_ do, Mr. Cape," he said earnestly. + +"Advice is dangerous in a case like this. You may do as I would do and +lose by it. Still, I'll venture a suggestion. You have gotten together, +bit by bit, a lot of valuable facts. Right here in this building is a +detective. He works for big people. Why not talk with him? If that +Torpedo is the stolen Harkville machine you will win the help of one of +the largest insurance companies in the job of capturing the thieves and +at the same time, it is quite certain, recovering your own car." + +"That's the plan!" exclaimed Phil eagerly. + +"The very thing!" said Dave. + +In a moment Mr. Cape had the telephone in his hand. Within five minutes +the boys were in the office of Detective Robert Rack, or plain "Bob" +Rack, as his name so often appears in the newspapers. + +Mr. Rack was a ready listener to the whole story in detail as the boys +told it. Quietly he referred to a card index a stenographer brought him. +"I don't think this work need cost you young men a copper," said he. His +voice was soft as a June zephyr. His neat business suit, calm, gray eyes +and hair just tinged with gray, made him appear a great deal more like a +successful salesman of some kind than a detective--than such ideas of +detectives as the boys had hitherto had, at least. + +"Not a copper cent," said Bob Rack, looking up from the card index. "And +how would you like to be reimbursed for your trouble and expense?" + +These were quite the most pleasant words that had fallen upon David's or +Philip's ears for some time. In substance they said as much. + +"I do not doubt the Torpedo you picked up is one we have long wanted to +get trace of. The insurance people offer four hundred dollars for the +recovery of the car. For the arrest and conviction of the thieves they +will give five hundred dollars more. So then, if your party--four of you +in all, are there?--wish simply to turn over the Torpedo you may do so. +I'll tell you who is to be notified. There's one hundred dollars each +for you. Or if you'd like my office to help you, both with the Torpedo +and your own car, I'll make this proposition: to go myself, or send a +good man with you on this case, and whatever the expenses and whatever +the receipts may amount to they all shall be shared equally." + +"Bob, you're a brick!" cried Mr. Cape, who had been an interested +listener. Then he said good-bye, assuring the boys that their problem +was in the best of hands. Heartily they thanked him. + +"But there's some doubt about that car in Griffin being the one stolen +at Harkville, isn't there?" reasoned Phil Way as the facts in hand were +further discussed with Mr. Rack. "Why did that man Kull never answer our +telegram?" + +"Ah, that is a thing to remember! I asked myself the same question the +moment you said the telegram was not answered, a little time ago," +smiled the detective. "It would be a dreadful thing, I am sure, for a +man to show no interest in the recovery of his stolen car, simply +because he had received the price of it in insurance." The boys could +see Mr. Rack meant something more than he said. They thought they knew +the thought he entertained. But he went on at once, more seriously: +"There is a great deal more to this matter than simply getting your +machine for you or restoring the Torpedo, or I am badly mistaken." + +Phil's eyes glistened. Davy sat very still and I am afraid his mouth was +open without reason other than for his wonder and interest. + +"So," concluded Mr. Robert Rack, very calmly and gently, as he had +spoken all along, "suppose you leave the whole matter with me for the +present. You better stay in town until to-night or maybe to-morrow, in +case I should want you. Just now I wish you to do only one other thing, +but that is very important. Telegraph or telephone your friends in +Griffin to hold the Torpedo. Don't let it get out of their hands under +any circumstances. If they ride out in it, they should not leave the car +unattended anywhere for one moment." + +As if treading on air, such was their elation, the two boys were leaving +the office. "Oh, just a moment!" called Mr. Rack quietly. "Was the name +'Fielderson Brothers' on the cans of paint found in the car you picked +up, do you remember?" + +"Yes, but they are the manufacturers. Their paint can be bought +anywhere," Phil replied. + +"Yes," the detective answered, apparently the least bit amused. + +With eager interest and pleasure Phil and Dave composed a telegram to +Billy and Paul. After many efforts the following is the message they +completed and sent: + + "Don't let Torpedo leave Creek's garage for any purpose. Expect + to find Six soon. Must stay here until to-morrow. Wire care of + Auto club." + +With the telegram safely dispatched, the boys found a pleasant, +inexpensive hotel where they engaged a room. They went to a restaurant +for dinner, then resolved to write some letters, first to the folks at +home, assuring them of the hopeful outlook, then to Billy and Paul who +would be keen to learn all that had taken place. A letter would reach +them the following morning. + +"I would rather have telephoned," said Phil. "They'll be wild for more +news after getting our telegram, but we've spent so much money on long +distance calls and railroad fare, to boot, the last two days!" + +And in addition to Phil's remark I am able to state, in confidence, that +the funds of the Auto Boys would soon need replenishing if many more +railroad tickets must be bought or other considerable bills paid. + +For it will be remembered there were four lusty appetites to be provided +for, to say nothing of the extra expenses they were meeting. The +possessors of two of the "vast voids" (one of Paul's names for the four +appetites) found meal-time less pleasant now, however, than when Phil +and Dave were with them. Indeed, Paul accused Worth of being absolutely +"grumpy," whatever that may be, as they sat at breakfast in the American +House on Tuesday morning. + +This was the day Phil and Dave were in Pittsfield, it will be recalled. +"And I'll bet we've done more than they have," said Paul, referring to +the absent ones. He was thinking of the man in the town jail and of +Billy's talk with that untractable person. + +"I did think we had made quite a start," said Billy, droopingly. "But +what's come of it? Nothing!" + +"Cheer up, cheer up!" chirped Jones blithely. "We'll get busy again +to-day. Hurry up, too! These pancakes are made out of old burlap. I know +they are! I used to think it was perfectly grand to eat in hotels and so +forth but, golly! wouldn't some fodder from home taste good right now? +Honestly, I'm getting tired of burlap pancakes, puree of shavin' soap, +pincushions a la hay, fried towels and all the other strange things you +get under strange names in these places. I----" + +But Billy said, "If we're going to get busy, let's do it," and promptly +he led the way out to the office. "Better see Mr. Fobes, hadn't we?" he +suggested. + +Just why Worth wanted to see the police officer he possibly did not +know, beyond the slight chance that the man in the lockup may have had +something to say to him. Yet it did happen that while the two sought +Chief Fobes, the latter was seeking them. They met in front of the bank. + +"Our fellow in the cooler has been asking for you. He may let go of +something yet if you go at him easy." These words, addressed +particularly to Billy, took the pair to the jail quite bubbling with +expectancy. They fully believed the prisoner knew something of their +car--believed it regardless of Willie Creek's mild protest that the man +was fooling them. + +Again Chief Fobes escorted Worth through the dim corridor to the +somewhat lighter basement cells. A window in the rear of the building +was open, looking out upon a yard with trees and shrubbery. The prisoner +was apparently enjoying the breeze that drifted in. + +"Can't I talk to the kid a second, boss?" + +The one behind the bars having spoken thus, though he still turned his +face toward the corridor window, Chief Fobes motioned Billy forward +while he stepped back a few paces. + +"Say, bub, did ye see that guy? Did ye tell 'im?" + +For a fraction of time Worth did not understand. Then recalling more +clearly the chance remark about "Smith" at the hotel, he answered, "No." + +"Didn't, eh? Why didn't ye?" + +"You got mad yesterday and wouldn't talk sense or anything else. Why +should I pay any more attention to you? Tell me what you know about the +car you took that motor basket from and I'll do anything you ask that's +reasonable." + +"Ye was just lyin' to me about that man Smith, now wasn't ye?" the man +returned in a low, earnest voice, ignoring Billy's request. And then he +added as the boy hesitated, and swearing as he had done the previous +day, "Aw, I was just a-kiddin' ye--just a-kiddin' ye to pass the time +away." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A BIT OF ADVICE FROM A STRANGER + + +"Is there no way you can _make_ that man talk?" Billy Worth asked Chief +Fobes. The boys and the officer were again in the latter's office. + +"I suppose I can if you leave it to me, but I can't if you don't," Mr. +Fobes answered. "Look 'e here now. That fellow's in here for ten days. +Plenty of time yet to make him loosen up, but it ain't goin' to do no +good. What could he have had to do with swipin' your car? Nothin', +that's all. Might as well think he picked it up and shoved it in his +pocket! There's nothin' to it. He's a bum, that's all, an' is havin' +some fun tryin' to make us believe he does know something about your +automobile." + +The two boys looked downcast. "Says his name is Coster," the officer +went on. "Belongs nowhere in particular. So much he told me when he +first was in here. Yer basket he picked up in the road, he now says, an' +he don't deny eatin' yer lunch an' sleepin' in the preacher's barn. An' +that's all he does know about your automobile. What's more, it stands to +reason, too. From any standpoint of the law ye can pick or choose, if he +took your auto, what could he have did with it?" + +"Why has he been so interested, part of the time, anyway, in finding out +if there's a man named Smith, or anybody, looking for him?" Billy asked. + +"They all act that way, pretty much. It's only once in a while that they +give up anything by makin' 'em believe as there's a party lookin' for +'em; and of course every tramp knows other tramps." + +"Maybe so," replied Worth, thoughtfully, "but I do believe your Mr. +Coster is not what exactly you call a 'bum.' Even if he doesn't know +anything about our car, there's some other matter on his mind and he is +a lot more worried about it than he wants us to guess. What he has been +trying to do was to pump me, without saying anything that would give me +his reasons for doing it, and without telling me anything of any +consequence. Why, he's an _awful liar!_" + +Billy's show of wrath in his closing sentence made Chief Fobes laugh +boisterously. "Liar?" said he when he could catch his breath. "Did you +expect he'd be anything else? I tell ye both," and his eye took in both +Billy and Paul, "you might just as well forget this man. We'll have most +ten days yet to make a charge of larceny against him for stealin' the +basket. If there's anything to be had out of him we'll get it. All's you +can do is have them East Side fellers (Hipp and Earnest) come around +here sometime and see if they can identify this Coster as the man they +seen on the South Fork." + +"We might run out and see him right now," Paul suggested. + +Billy agreed and the two were soon at Creek's garage. It was a +delightful day for driving. The car's motion was cool and pleasant +though the sun beat down with unusual warmth even for June. + +At the home of Alexander Hipp it was learned that he and Alfred Earnest +were picking cherries at a farm three miles beyond the Forks, on the +main road. Without trouble Billy and Paul found them. The work with the +cherries was nearly over for the day and the Auto Boys gave a hand that +it might be finished quickly. Glad of a chance for an automobile ride, +Hipp and Earnest had readily agreed to visit the Griffin lockup. + +Alfred had the seat beside Billy, who was driving. "My brother," said +he, "thought you fellows made a mistake when two of you went away to +Albany to look for your machine. I told him about your plan, last night. +He wished he had seen you to talk it over because he figures you ought +to have gone toward Buffalo." + +"That so? Why?" Billy asked. + +"Because he says it's fairly certain the people who had this Torpedo +just switched to your car. They came from the east and was headed west +to begin with. Naturally they wouldn't go back the way they had just +come from." + +"We thought of that, but our car didn't go through Griffin," Billy +answered. "Willie Creek is sure of that. It must have turned back east +again at the Forks." + +Earnest argued to the contrary but, seeing there was nothing to be +gained by the discussion, Worth simply let him talk. It was strange how +many people had advanced theories regarding the car's disappearance. +Indeed so much discussion and gossip had come to the ears of the boys, +and so little real help had been given them, save by Mr. Creek, that it +is little wonder mere talk was becoming annoying. + +Coster, the only occupant of the village prison, was not a little +surprised when he once more answered Chief Fobes' "Here, you! Step up!" +upon seeing four boys confronting him. He leaned with hands upon the +steel bars as he had done the day before. + +"Good, honest automobile grease on your hands, mister," remarked Billy +Worth, noticing the fellow's fingers and especially his black nails. + +Coster quickly put his hands down but volunteered no remark. Then, as if +he feared being suspected of a desire to conceal something, he seized +the bars again as before. + +"He's the man we saw," said Alex Hipp, when with Chief Fobes they all +had reached the refreshing outer air. "At least I think so." + +"Thinkin' don't go much from the standpoint of the law," the officer +answered. Neither Hipp nor Alfred Earnest could state positively that +Coster was the person they had seen on the lonely road that rainy +afternoon. Billy and Paul drove them to their respective homes in the +Torpedo. + +"So we are knocked out of all we thought we had found yesterday," +observed Jones, droopingly, on the homeward way. + +"Maybe not," Worth returned, deep in thought. "Do you see how the clutch +pedal of the car has pressed against the side of the sole on my shoe +till the leather is curved in half an inch or more?" + +Paul said he did. Looking at Worth's shoes, then his own, he added: +"That's nothing new. Mine is the same way." + +"I know it is," said Billy. "And the sole of Coster's left boot is +marked in the same way, too." + +Paul saw at once the significance of this fact, the evidence that Chief +Fobes' prisoner was an automobile man. "Billy," he said earnestly, "we +are gettin' some warm!" + +Try as they would to "get busy," Worth and Jones found themselves +accomplishing nothing as the afternoon wore away. Mr. Fobes was becoming +quite impatient over their inquiries and they thought best not to visit +him. Willie Creek was busy with some urgent repair work. There appeared +no course to pursue--nothing to do--but wait. Impatient for word from +Phil or Dave, restless in their inactivity, the two boys sat for a long +time at the large open window of the hotel. A stranger entered. + +As the young man--he seemed to be twenty-one or two, perhaps--sat down +near the boys, he remarked that he was waiting while his car was +undergoing some repairs at the garage. A conversation concerning +automobiles was the most natural result imaginable. Put two or more +motor enthusiasts together and invariably they will soon be talking. + +The newcomer was from Texas, he said, touring through to New York. His +brother was with him but had remained at the garage. The substance of +the Auto Boys' story was told the stranger as the conversation +progressed. + +"Look here," said the young man in his flippant, breezy fashion, "you +fellows are too easy by half. You've let that garage keeper and his +friend, the town policeman, pull you all around. The garage man--Creek, +you call him--sends you on a wild goose chase here and there. The +village cop steers you off with no help worth speaking of. Seems mighty +suspicious, don't it? I just might mention that there was a garage in a +town near us that made a business of changing over stolen cars. Would +switch 'em all around, in an old barn behind their shop, change wheel +sizes, change engines, fix 'em up so no man could tell his own car if he +saw it. Then they slipped 'em off to the big cities and sold 'em. Now, +right there, you've got a real tip, you take it from me!" + +It is the meanest kind of wickedness to direct suspicion against any +person without good cause. Also it is criminal. Paul Jones and Billy +Worth realized this. Yet was it not true, as the stranger said, that +Willie Creek and Chief Fobes were great friends? And had not Mr. Creek +more than once suggested that it would be much cheaper for the boys to +take a train home and conduct their search from there, paying no hotel +bills while awaiting developments? + +"I've always thought Willie was our friend," muttered Worth when he and +Paul were alone again, "and I shall think so; but one thing is sure, +we've got to keep our eyes open." + +Mr. P. Jones, Esquire, as Paul sometimes referred to himself, was of the +same opinion. Also he added: "It looked mighty funny to me the way old +Fobes paid so little attention when Scottie was shot. Willie Creek +didn't seem to mind it, either, so much as I'd think he would." + +Oh, it is a sad, bad business to sow seeds of suspicion! It is but all +too likely they will grow! Always there is something which seems to +confirm the suspicious thought. And yet, on the other hand, it must be +admitted that dishonesty and falsehood are not infrequently concealed by +an appearance of friendliness on part of those who practice them. + +And now, whether Willie Creek was a true friend or a false friend, we +soon shall see for another night has passed and another day has come--a +day to test the endurance and the courage of the Auto Boys almost to the +breaking point. And even while Phil and Dave were making themselves +known in the Automobile club of Syracuse, Billy and Paul were planning a +careful inspection of Mr. Creek's garage and its surroundings, as they +sat at breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A LITTLE KINDNESS AND WHAT CAME OF IT + + +Paul and Billy received letters from home in the morning mail. They were +glad to have them,--would have been sorry indeed had their respective +households neglected for one day to send solicitous inquiries--but they +were so very "busy," they assured themselves, that--well, if they could +just get the time, they'd write in return that afternoon. Whereupon they +set forth for Willie Creek's establishment. + +Mr. Creek was looking over a newspaper. He said he was waiting for a +possible customer for a car whom he was to take out for a demonstration. + +The boys said they were going to take the Torpedo out for a little good +fresh air. Mr. Creek said, "Sure! She's your car, so far as I can see, +though you are out some on the trade you made." This with a friendly +smile. + +"We'll just drive back when Willie has had time to get away and we will +look his place over. Not that I think we will find anything, but--" +Billy paused. + +"Dandy good scheme," Paul assented. "That boy of his--we don't need mind +him at all." + +"Better not go far. Let's just wait at the hotel," Worth suggested. They +halted the Torpedo in front of the American House accordingly. + +From their favorite chairs at the large, screened windows the two lads +watched the occasional passerby, also the clock. + +"He'll be miles away by this time. We better hike over to the garage," +proposed Paul when half an hour had passed. + +"Well, _sir!_" exclaimed Billy, at the same moment. "There's Mr. Peek. +Let's say how do you do!" + +Even as he was speaking, Worth hastened out to the sidewalk. The old +gentleman, the tragic story of whose life was written in his stooping +figure and melancholy face, recognized the boy at once. He was pleased +to be so cordially greeted. + +"It's the first time I've been to town for 'most a year," said he, as he +also shook hands with Paul. "I don't seem to know any of the young +folks, any more, and not many of the older ones I meet." + +As Mr. Peek said he was just starting for home and that he was on foot, +Billy spoke up: "Our car's right here. We will take you home, Mr. Peek." + +"We have something on hand, you know. Shall we let it go?" Paul +whispered. + +Worth nodded and the visible pleasure of the aged farmer as he climbed +awkwardly up to a front seat could not but give his young friends +pleasure also. + +"You must have been up pretty early if you walked to town this morning," +observed Worth to the old gentleman at his side. + +"Y-a-a-a-s," Mr. Peek replied, drawing the word out to great length, as +if he were really thinking of something else. And after a long pause he +said, "Did I tell you t'other day about someone bein' around my house in +the night?" + +Yes, he had told them, the boys answered, and he went on: "It has +fretted me every day. An' last evenin' I got to feelin' so down in the +mouth and glum I just concluded I'd get some cartridges for my old +rifle. It'd make me feel safer to know I had a loaded gun right handy. +So I went to town first thing this mornin'. I might 'a' drove, but my +old horse is 'bout the same as I be,--almost ready to say good-bye." + +Mr. Peek was lost for a time in his own meditations. The Torpedo whirred +along at an easy speed and he seemed to enjoy greatly the pleasant +motion of the car and gentle sweep of the wind. "'Tain't much like water +power, is it?" he remarked, as if he had been contrasting in his mind +the machinery and appliances of _his_ young manhood with the automobiles +and electric motors of the present day. "I suspect you boys never saw a +water wheel," he said musingly. + +No, they had not, said Billy, and in answer to a question whether they +would like to see one, both he and Paul were quite sure they would. + +The car was rumbling along the lonely South Fork now. The old mill, the +gray, old house of the miller, empty and cheerless, the pond and the +icehouse were but a little way forward. + +"If you'd like to stop at the mill, I'll show you a water wheel," said +Mr. Peek. "And it'd have been runnin' yet, but--" Not finishing this +sentence, the possible conclusion of which the boys could easily guess, +the old gentleman after a little hesitation continued: "I can't get +around like I used to and not as much as I ought to. I ain't been in the +mill for nigh onto two years." + +Billy halted the car before the weather-worn buildings. He glanced +toward Paul as if he felt some misgiving in entering the ruins of the +once busy place in company with the ruin of him whose wrecked hopes were +responsible for all the gloom and decay in this otherwise charming +valley. + +But if Jones was in any degree apprehensive, he did not show it. Truly, +too, it was interesting and surely there was nothing to fear, unless it +were from loose or rotting boards beneath their feet. Mr. Peek explained +briefly the operation of the long-silent water wheel. There was a choke +in his voice, and in one way the lads felt relief when they all were in +the outer air again. + +"It wa'n't a right convenient place to have a mill, but we had to take +our work to where our power was. Couldn't hitch power up an' make it +carry us anywhere, in my time, as you do with your automobile," observed +Mr. Peek. + +Paul said he would like to take a walk around the old pond. Billy said, +"Yes, let's do it, if Mr. Peek doesn't care." + +"Just do whatever pleases ye," said the old gentleman kindly. "I'll sit +here on the old platform a spell." So he seated himself at the entrance +where, in the long ago, grain for the mill was unloaded and the two boys +sauntered along the one-time race. + +They strolled partly around the pond, speaking of the chances of good +fishing and the probable depth of the water, and wondering that the +ancient dam had not given way long ago. They drew near and walked +alongside of the icehouse between the building and the water. + +They saw the black, decaying sawdust oozing from cracks where the siding +had decayed. They passed around to the east side where were the great +doors, still hanging loosely on rusty hinges. The lowest one was but a +few feet above the ground. It was unlatched and stood ajar an inch or +two. + +"Let's look in," Billy suggested. + +A runway of heavy planks, seamy and gray, built wide enough to have +driven a team of horses upon, led up to the lowest door. The two boys +walked easily up the incline. They drew the great door open a foot or +two. The place seemed very dark after the bright sunlight without. The +dead, heavy odor of the sawdust slowly being consumed by damp rot below +and by dry rot higher up, was strong to their nostrils. + +"If there's such a thing as spooks, they'd like to live here, I'll bet," +said Paul Jones. + +The dense gloom within was slowly giving way to a heavy, blue-black +light as the boys' eyes became accustomed to the dark interior. They saw +that the sawdust filled the lower part of the building up to within a +few inches of the incline they stood upon, so they stepped down upon it, +and to give more light as they casually looked about, Paul pushed the +great door wide open. + +And there before the astonished eyes of the two young gentlemen stood an +automobile--the Big Six of the Auto Boys, apparently sound and whole. + +"Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!" screamed Paul Jones in the most extravagant +delight imaginable. "What d'ye _know_ about it? What d'ye know about it? +What d'ye KNOW about it?" he cried, adding emphasis each time. + +But if Mr. Billy Worth was answering the question, his manner of +imparting information was somewhat strange, to say the least. For after +his first astonished, "What in the world!" he simply seized a rear +fender, as if the car might take fright and escape immediately, and +there he stood, saying: "Oh, my! I'm so glad! Oh, I am thankful for this +day!" For while Paul's emotion found vent in an ecstacy of joy Billy, +really more deeply moved, scarcely knew what he did or said. The prayer +of thanksgiving in his heart was very earnest and sincere--so much of +both that words entirely failed to give his feelings expression. + +The first sharp edge of their surprise, excitement and delight was gone +in a minute or two and the boys began a rapid inspection of the Six and +its contents. Even as they did so Mr. Peek, attracted by Paul's +delighted yells, came slowly up the incline. His surprise was very +manifest, though of a decidedly less demonstrative character than +Paul's, for instance. + +While Worth and Jones inspected the car, Mr. Peek was making a study of +the manner in which the machine had been gotten down from the road and +into the icehouse. + +"Except for being so muddy inside as well as outside, she's just as we +left her," announced Billy Worth presently. At the same instant Paul, +who had been looking at the engine, switched on the spark, touched the +starter, and lo! the motor hummed as sweetly and powerfully as anyone +could possibly desire. + +"But how in time did they put it in here and who in thunder done +it?"--Jones was apt to lose accuracy and gain a certain inelegance in +his speech as his force of expression increased. + +As if answering Paul's question, Mr. Peek called from outside: "Sure +enough, they knew the place!" And he pointed out to the two boys as they +ran out to him how the automobile had been brought down the steep bank +from the road above by means of heavy planks. There were four of the +thick, unplaned boards. + +"How'd they ever get here, do you suppose?" asked Mr. Peek. "For more'n +twenty year, I tell ye, them plank has laid in a pile way over on yon +side of the hill. Somebody must 'a' knowed where to lay hands on 'em." + +"Do you mean that somebody must have expected to steal our car and +brought the boards to be ready?" asked Billy. + +"Not exactly that," said Mr. Peek, "but them plank was carried way down +here for the purpose. No stranger would 'a' known where to look for +'em." + +Instantly Billy remembered that Alfred Earnest and Alex Hipp were +familiar with all this neighborhood. He started to speak but a quick +second thought bade him refrain. + +"Gosh! We've got the car and we're mighty glad of the planks to help her +up to the road again!" cried Paul. He did not grasp the significance of +Mr. Peek's words as Billy did. "We're going to take her right to +Griffin, ain't we? We'll telegraph Phil and Dave in a hurry if we can +only find where they're at." + +It was agreed that the Big Six should be gotten out of the old icehouse +and in readiness to go to Griffin, even before Mr. Peek had been taken +home. The old gentleman was eager to help, but his services were hardly +needed. With the same heavy boards the thieves had used, a runway was +made out from the sawdust to the outside incline. Carefully the machine +was backed up. All went well and in three minutes the mud-stained but +still handsome automobile stood in the sunshine again. + +By a similar process the planks bridged the way up the steep embankment +of the road, running directly over the low rail fence. The ascent was +steep but with a quick start Billy made the upward run nicely. The +machine's long body swung prettily around at the top, once more on the +open highway. + +Finding his services were of no value in the moving of the car, Mr. Peek +had been making further search inside and outside the icehouse. Now +Billy and Paul joined him. But all their eager scrutiny was without +reward. No sign was discovered which might show who had stolen the Big +Six or what the purpose of the thieves may have been in concealing the +car where it was found. + +"This little trip has done me a world of good. I do believe I could be +right spry again if I had some spry young fellows to help me get +started, as you have done," said Mr. Peek. The boys were just leaving +him at his home. "It's a pretty mysterious business about them planks," +he remarked a moment later. "Don't you let that automobile out o' your +hands again." + +There was little danger that the boys would do so, it is needless to +say. Paul had driven the large car right behind Billy and Mr. Peek in +the Torpedo, and similarly, each driving a machine, they returned +triumphantly to Griffin and to Willie Creek's garage. + +To say that Mr. Creek was surprised would be but a part of the truth. He +was literally dumfounded. The story of where and how the stolen car was +found seemed to surprise him still more. + +"Better hike over to the American pretty quick," said he a little later. +"There's a telegram for you." + +So did Billy and Paul receive the message from Phil and Dave. + +"Who cares for that Torpedo thing? We've got the _Six_," said Jones, +reading the telegram over Worth's shoulder. + +"We'll wire 'em! Wow! but won't they be some surprised?" Billy returned. +And forthwith the two rushed to the telegraph office. + + "We have found her. Pretty muddy inside but not hurt." + +And such was the message received by Way and MacLester in Syracuse. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A SWIFT RIDE THROUGH THE DARKNESS + + +With what glorious good feeling Paul and Billy sat down to their late +dinner at the American House! Paul was a little ashamed of the slighting +remarks he had lately made about the hotel fare. He said as much. + +"Gee! I should think you would be, to see you diving into it all right +now!" Billy laughed. Ah, what a difference in _his_ spirits, also, the +recovery of the car had made! + +It seems strange to me that, considering the imperative nature of the +telegram from Phil and Dave, Worth and Jones were not more deeply +impressed by it. No doubt the finding of their own car had made them +quite indifferent to all else. At any rate, they hardly more than +mentioned the message from Syracuse, when they met Mr. Creek at his +garage in the afternoon. Thither they had gone, eager to give the Six +such a gentle but thorough washing and oiling, and the brass such a +complete polishing, as they felt no one else to be capable of doing. + +The work progressed most favorably. By supper time the beloved machine +stood dry, clean and shining. A truly beautiful car, it never looked +more lovely to Paul and to Billy than at this moment, with the sinking +sun lighting up its radiance through the big front window of Creek's +garage. The Torpedo, though a first-class car, appeared dingy and +commonplace beside it. + +After bathing and dressing in clean, dry clothes, following their +labors, the two boys were passing through the hotel office toward the +dining-room. Mr. Wagg stopped them. + +"'Nother telegram," said he, peering over his glasses, as usual. "You +two are getting to be about the most important citizens of this +village." + +Eagerly the yellow envelope was opened. "Yours received. Hurrah. Meet us +with car eleven o'clock train. Phil." + +"Hully gee! I'll bet _they're_ glad!" chirped Paul. But had he known all +that Dave and Phil now knew, he would have been even more elated and +excited than he was. + +After supper the boys stepped around to the garage. Willie Creek had +just left in his own car for Port Greeley, said his boy of all work, +half asleep on the cot in the office. "Somebody telephoned him he could +sell a car, if he could get over there and give a demonstration right +off," the lad explained. "He won't be home till toward mornin', maybe." + +"We were only going for a ride, anyway," said Billy. + +The facts were that he and Paul had decided to drive out to see Alfred +Earnest and his friend Hipp. They believed they could tell from the +manner of these young gentlemen whether they had not known all along +where the Six was hidden. + +"For an entire stranger would never have found those planks _away over +beyond that hill_," declared Worth with confident emphasis. + +If Earnest or Hipp had had any knowledge of the stealing of the Auto +Boys' car, however, they concealed the fact amazingly well. They +appeared most hearty in their congratulations upon the machine's +recovery, as Billy and Paul told the story to them and to Rev. and Mrs. +Earnest at the latter's home. Later the cordial young minister and his +wife were taken for a ten-mile spin. Then Mrs. Earnest insisted that all +the boys come in for a little lunch. Worth and Jones had abundant time +at their disposal as they must remain up to meet Phil and Dave, and +cordially accepted the invitation. It was just after ten o'clock when +they at last drove back to Griffin and to the American House, there to +wait until train time. + +"Hello, here! Fobes has been looking for you boys high and low!" said +Mr. Wagg, severely, hastening out to meet them. "That man he has had in +the lockup has escaped. Sawed the bars of a cell and went out through a +corridor window. It is bad luck, I'm afraid. Fobes says the man made an +offer to tell you where your car was if you'd pass some saws in to him." + +"But I never _did_ it!" cried Billy Worth, indignantly. Quickly he had +seen the likelihood that suspicion might point toward him in the +remarkable coincidence that, directly the stolen car was found, Coster +had been enabled to break jail. + +The hotel telephone rang long and loudly. The very tone of haste and +impatience was in its harsh clang and clamor. + +"Well!" shouted Mr. Wagg, answering, and his voice was neither soft nor +pleasant. Then in milder tones, "You're wanted, Worth." + +Billy stepped to the phone. "No, certainly not," Paul heard him say. And +then, "It can't be!" A pause, then further, "Oh, that's awful! We'll be +over there right off!" + +With frightened, staring eyes Worth turned to Paul. "The Torpedo is +gone," he said. + +Grievous anxiety and alarm filled the hearts of the two boys. Quickly +they drove the Six to Creek's garage. Chief Fobes and the youth who +assisted in the establishment both ran out as the car stopped at the +door. + +It had been long since anyone had seen Mr. Fobes so wide awake, and so +keen to do his duty as he was now. He was frightened, too, lest his +prisoner's escape might cost him his position. And he was so perplexed +and so confused by his excitement that, as he mentioned suspiciously the +circumstance that Coster "got his saws and you fellows got your car," +Worth really feared the officer would be for clapping him into jail +immediately. + +The Torpedo was as completely missing as if it had never been. Creek's +boy had not the shadow of an idea concerning the machine. He knew only +that he fell asleep in the office and was awakened by someone who wanted +gasoline. Not until this customer was gone did he discover the absence +of the Torpedo. He at once telephoned to the hotel, thinking Worth or +Jones had taken the car out, perhaps. + +"Don't let Torpedo leave Creek's garage for any purpose." This sentence +in Phil's telegram rang in Billy's ears. What did it all mean? He looked +at his watch. Ten-forty. Way and MacLester would arrive at eleven, he +thought. Then, "Have you telephoned Port Greeley and other places to be +on the lookout for Coster and the car?" The question was addressed to +Fobes, pacing excitedly about, accomplishing nothing. + +No, he had had no time, the policeman answered. Coster's escape was not +discovered until long after nine. There had been scarcely a chance to +turn around before the theft of the Torpedo was also reported. + +"You better be telephoning, perhaps," Worth suggested. "We will meet +that eleven o'clock train and, with the car to go in, maybe we can all +help you some." + + * * * * * + +Phil Way's eyes glistened and he smiled with a delight so inexpressible +he made no effort to put his thoughts into words. He had just read the +telegram from Billy and Paul, handed him at the Syracuse Automobile +club's downtown quarters. + +"Can it be true?" asked Dave in wonder. "Why don't they--where was the +car and--" + +"Course it's true!" cried Phil joyously. "But I do think they might have +spent four or six cents more to tell us something about it. They kept +right down to ten words all right!" + +MacLester was for starting to Griffin at once. "But we can't," Way +remonstrated. "We've got to stay by Mr. Rack and don't you +remember--half that reward?" + +However, the two boys did hurry away immediately to Mr. Bob Rack's +office. He was out. The stenographer said he would return soon and the +lads waited. + +Detective Rack appeared greatly pleased with the telegram from Billy and +Paul. "A little more information might have helped us; still, perhaps, +we do not need it," said he. "We will all go to Griffin this evening. +Would you wire your friends there to meet us at--" he paused and glanced +into a book of time-tables--"to meet us at the train due there at eleven +o'clock?" + +With so much to occupy their thoughts and tongues, Dave and Phil found +train time and their meeting with the detective at the station at hand +without one dull minute having passed. And though they had discussed the +evident ability and the possible plans of Robert Rack from all angles, +they were no nearer a conclusion as to what he meant to do than they +were to guessing how Jones and Worth had recovered the Big Six--a +question they were pleasantly impatient to have answered. + +Not by word or look did Bob Rack reveal one whit of what he had found +during the day to the pair of his youthful admirers, who had a seat +opposite him, while the train bore rapidly on toward Griffin. When he +talked about the case at all it was only to ask a few questions--some of +them far removed from the problem in hand, the boys thought. For +instance when he desired to know whether there was plenty of lighting +gas in the tank of the Torpedo, both were puzzled, though they answered +that there was. + +"We were extremely fortunate in getting away to-night. Every hour counts +now," said Mr. Rack, "but as I have some papers to look over I'll get at +them." + +Swiftly through the summer night the train sped on. The detective seemed +to be occupied with nothing more important than some road maps, but his +companions did not venture to interrupt him and in their own +conversation spoke in low tones. The distance seemed very great, +somehow, to the impatient boys. But at last---- + +"Here we are!" said Robert Rack, even before Phil or Dave were aware of +it, and a moment later the lights of Griffin came into view. + +I shall not undertake to tell in detail of the conflicting emotions with +which Billy and Paul greeted their friends and with which they all, Mr. +Rack included, gathered beside the Big Six while Worth quickly told of +the escape of Coster and the Torpedo's disappearance. + +"A little faster than I expected," mused the detective, in that same +easy, gentle tone. Apparently _he_ was no more disturbed than if Billy +had said it looked like rain, which, in fact, was the case. + +"But this man in jail--_we_ didn't tell you anything about him, Mr. +Rack. We didn't know it ourselves," Phil spoke up anxiously. For it will +be remembered that Chief Fobes' prisoner had not appeared in the +situation at all at the time Way and MacLester left Griffin. "Or did you +know without our _telling_ you?" Phil added, his own mind in a whirl of +confused thoughts. + +"Oh, I have not been idle to-day," smiled Detective Bob. Then more +seriously, but still in his affable, pleasing way, quite as though he +were planning a little outing, he continued, "Now I'll need some help. +The best driver take the wheel. I'll sit beside him. The rest of you +ride behind and if I may ask so much, no one will leave the car except +as I may request it." + +Immediately Phil nodded to Dave to take the driver's place. In an +instant Bob Rack was in the seat beside him, the others in the tonneau. + +"Just as fast as is consistent with a reasonable degree of safety now," +Mr. Rack said, placidly. "First, to Creek's garage." + +The Big Six moved swiftly away, throwing always a flood of light ahead, +its gleaming oil lamps seeming to be but a streak of white to those who +watched it pass. + +In a minute's time the detective apparently had seen all he wished to +see at the small garage. While he looked the place over Way, at his +request, was locating Chief Fobes by phone. The policeman came from the +hotel on the run when told that Mr. Bob Rack wanted him. For perhaps +five minutes he and the detective talked in Willie Creek's office. + +"That fellow Coster got out about nine o'clock. He must have got off +with the Torpedo about half-past nine. About a two hours' start of us," +said Billy Worth to his friends in the tonneau. There was no doubt in +his mind, whatever, that the jail-bird had flown in the stolen machine. + +"Funny that the only thing Mr. Rack 'specially noticed in all we could +tell him, Bill, was about the planks that had been carried from over the +hill to run the Six down the bank on," observed Paul Jones, +thoughtfully. + +"Looks a lot like Hipp and Earnest, so far as the hiding of our car +goes, Mack," Billy added to Paul's idea, for Dave was an interested +listener. + +"In with you! Speed now, David, if there's such a thing!" This from +Detective Bob, the first words to Phil standing beside the car, the +second order to MacLester at the wheel. And as the Six instantly +responded,--"Out to the right-hand fork, and not a minute to lose!" he +said. + +There was unmistakable authority and command in his manner. One could +have thought of nothing but instant obedience. Yet from his smile and +gentle tone it seemed that he might have said, "I declare, it's a very +pleasant evening." + +Their hearts beating hard with the excitement of adventure and the rapid +ride, the Auto Boys vainly speculated, each in his own thoughts, upon +the unknown plans and intentions of the detective. + +"Turn right! We're doing famously, but--" Without a sign of question, or +any movement save a quick, short nod to say that he heard, MacLester +obeyed Bob Rack's order. Like a flying specter, the Big Six shot down +the little grade where the lonely Right Fork branched off, and on and +on. + +Not a word was spoken. Scurrying masses of cloud swept the sky above and +only at intervals did rifts appear where the moon shone through, +relieving for the moment the heavy darkness. Over to the south and back +to the west the inky clouds were rolling up like wind-tossed mountains. +Flashes of lightning came more and more often, and after each the +thunder crashed or rumbled in the distance. The lonely woodlands, and +the wildness of the unused, brush-grown fields were almost terrifying as +each sharp and sudden glare fell for an instant on them. + +All within a second the flying car drew near and passed the darker +shadows that marked the miller's grim old house, the mill, the pond, the +icehouse. Over the bridge and up the grade--a stretch of level road, +then down the slope to the swampy spot where the Six was ditched that +other time, then up again and on! + +"Stop here, David." Always that same easy, gentle tone, but Mack obeyed +the order instantly. + +"You know this road. Could you go forward without lights?" And without +waiting for an answer, "Will you put them out, Way?" + +Every light was extinguished. The car stood in total darkness, but stood +for a second only. "Just as quietly as you can," requested Mr. Rack, as +MacLester slipped the clutch to place again. + +"Now," said the detective, "I am going to tell you that this may be a +wild goose chase, though I think not. I don't believe any of you will +need leave the car, but, Phil, you take this revolver. If you hear me +shout, 'close in,' come to me instantly. The rest of you stand ready for +any instructions that may be necessary." + +Almost noiselessly the big machine purred forward, more slowly now but +still at good speed. In wonder and excitement the Auto Boys sat silent +as the darkness round them. And while _they_ were at tension that +strained every nerve, the calm tranquillity of Mr. Bob Rack was, by +contrast, the more amazing. + +"I suppose," said he, softly, quite as if he might have been gently +musing before a pleasant fireplace in the quiet of home, "I suppose the +truest words ever put in verse are those which say---- + + "'Truth crushed to earth will rise again. + "But error, wounded, writhes in pain + "And dies amidst her worshipers.' + +"And there," he said as if he were but speaking to himself, "there is +the whole ground work, the unfailing foundation that we must work upon, +whether we are detectives or doctors or anything else. There is no such +thing as successful deception. This case is an excellent illustration, +and I must tell you about it later. It is an old, old error, a monstrous +lie that has reached its end to-night, I firmly believe." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN MOST EXCELLENT GOOD SEASON + + +Almost as he ceased speaking the detective, peering forward, as if not +quite certain of the road, it was so dark, placed a detaining hand on +Davy's arm. "Right to one side here and stop," he said. + +Without jar or sound, save the slight squeak of a brake, the Big Six +came to a halt. The wonder of the Auto Boys was doubled, if such a thing +were possible. Another hundred yards would have placed them directly in +front of the dwelling of Mr. Peek. + +"_He_ had nothing to do with stealing that car, or ours," Paul Jones +could not refrain from whispering to Billy, at his side. + +Lost in his own questioning thoughts, Worth did not answer. + +"Keep right behind me, Philip, the gun in your right hand and pointed to +the ground." Mr. Rack was out of the car now, and taking Phil by the +sleeve as he spoke, that young gentleman also stepped softly down. "If +you boys are as quiet as mice," said the detective to the others, "you +will hear me call instructions, should I do so. We may be gone for some +time." + +In silent wonder the three in the car obeyed the order so gently given, +but so imperatively attuned. Without misgiving, but trembling from the +multitude of questions rushing to his mind, Way followed Mr. Rack. +Walking upright, but without noise, the two approached the dark and +lonely farmhouse. + +Stationing Way behind the trunk of an old apple tree, Mr. Rack left him. +For a quarter of an hour he was absent. Vastly to Phil's surprise he +came creeping on hands and knees and was fairly beside the boy ere the +latter discovered him. + +"We are too late, or too early. It will take some time----" + +A terrific scream burst suddenly on the air. Coming in unexpected +violence, and from within the old house, the sound was terrifying beyond +description. + +"Don't forget the signal!" said Robert Rack calmly. + +"Close in," Phil whispered, to show he remembered, but the detective was +gone. + +The seconds seemed like hours to Philip Way and no less so to the three +in the car who had heard the frightful scream. + +Suddenly there came a wild cry, like violent, threatening anger, like +the howl of a wolf at bay. And then---- + +"Close in!" It was the voice of Bob Rack, and what a contrast with the +other! It might have been a father calling a son to breakfast, so cool, +collected, calm it was. + +Instantly Way rushed forward through the dark. _Close in!_ Yes, but +where? How? Soon he found himself groping for the door at the side +porch. A feeble light shone from the kitchen. With a crash the door was +suddenly flung open. A heavy figure leaped forth. Phil threw himself +forward, arms outstretched, just as many a time he had tackled on the +gridiron, and the heavy body went tumbling to the ground beside the +doorstep, Way with it, but keeping the uppermost position. + +"Nicely done, Philip, nicely!" No disturbed note, no ruffled sound, no +excitement whatever,--just Bob Rack saying a word or two in his calm and +tranquil way, both then and an instant later: "Sit up, Adam! Let him +rise, Phil. I think we were here just in good season. You see how Mr. +Peek is, Phil,--back there in the front room. You'll find another lamp +in the kitchen, no doubt." + +Nothing surprised Phil more, perhaps, than the effect of the detective's +low and even tones upon himself. Though panting for breath, after the +recent struggle and his exertion, he noticed that he experienced no +sense of fear or apprehension. He found a lamp on a low mantel and +lighted it. As he went toward the room adjoining, he heard Mr. Rack call +cheerily, "Light up the car, boys! Drive up to the yard here, if you +will." + +The scene Phil discovered in the front room would have been horrifying +but for the calm upon him, to which allusion has just been made. Mr. +Peek, dressed as if for work, sat on the edge of the bed, his face +covered by his hands while blood stained his fingers and dripped, like +the dropping of water, upon the oil-cloth covering the floor. + +Hastily Way helped the old man to rise. He wanted the outer air he +said--his chair near the kitchen door. The lad led him as he wished, +then brought water and a towel. Helping himself, then, Mr. Peek bathed +an ugly wound above and to the left of his left eyebrow. A revolver in +his hand, Mr. Rack sat on the lower steps of the porch. His prisoner sat +on the ground before him and the detective had taken the precaution of +slipping handcuffs upon him. + +Billy, Paul and Dave had now arrived upon the scene, but not one +ventured a word. + +"Are you able to ride to town, Mr. Peek?" asked Mr. Rack. "You'll be so +much better there than here." + +But no, the old gentleman would not go. He was not much hurt, he said, +and would feel perfectly safe to remain alone. "Safer than I have really +been for many a day, I don't doubt," he added. "But if he had struck the +temple, as he surely tried to, he would have killed me," shuddered the +aged farmer. "Lord, I have suffered as I have deserved!" + +The latter words were low, as if spoken in prayer. Then quite aloud +again, "Take him with you. You might drop in to-morrow. Maybe my boys +will be out this way." The latter words were accompanied by a smile. +"You and your automobile did good work to-night, boys! However you +happened along, I can't think! And this gentleman with you?" + +"It's quite a story, Mr. Peek. I'll tell you all about it when you've +rested some," said Way, holding a lamp, while Billy tied a soft, clean +handkerchief over the wound. Worth was gentle and clever as a woman at +such things. + +"Thunder and lightning! It's _Pickem!_ I thought----" + +Paul's violent exclamation caused all the boys to look at once to the +man on the ground. The dull glow of the lamp had suddenly fallen upon +the fellow's face. + +"So did I! I thought----" + +"That it was Coster," broke in Bob Rack gently. "But it is neither he +nor any other than Mr. Adam W. Kull, of Harkville, New York." + +"By thunder! _We_ called him Pickem!" cried Paul, in amazement. "How did +_he_ get here?" + +"I think he ran out in his Torpedo. The car stands by the roadside, just +above," said Mr. Rack, pleasantly. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE DETECTIVE'S STRANGE STORY + + +Detective Bob Rack and his prisoner, with Phil to drive, went to Griffin +in the Torpedo while Paul, Billy, Dave and Mr. Peek rode in the Six. For +Mr. Rack would hardly consent to the old gentleman spending the +remainder of the night alone. So, in due time, was he given a room at +the American House. Mr. Pickem, otherwise Smith, otherwise Kull, was +assigned to very narrow and also strong, quarters in the village prison +with Chief Fobes personally mounting guard over both him and Coster. Two +big revolvers the officer had and there was no sign of sleep in his +usually languid eyes. + +The capture of the chief's prisoner was, vastly to his satisfaction, +effected by himself and the village night watchman. On the advice of Bob +Rack they had watched the railroad yards closely. Coster was seized just +as he darted from some hiding-place and tried to board an out-bound +freight. + +Deeply interested in the exciting occurrences of the evening, Landlord +Wagg had not gone to bed, as proved quite fortunate for the Auto Boys +and the detective. When Mr. Peek had been given every attention, he +announced that a little supper for five was ready to serve whenever +wanted. + +"I rarely venture an opinion without having facts to support it," said +Mr. Rack, smiling, "but on this occasion I will say that I think all of +us are ready to show our appreciation of such an invitation in a very +thorough manner, provided you will join us, Mr. Wagg. Also I've promised +the boys a little history of the case that brought us together. Perhaps +you may be interested." + +A large part of the story told by Mr. Bob Rack as the party sat long +over a supper of cold meats, bread and butter, coffee and fruit, is +familiar to the reader. Without quoting his language then,--and the +pleasing modulations of his voice could not be shown in print, in any +event,--the narrative was substantially as follows: + +When the theft of Adam Kull's car, at Harkville, was reported to the +authorities two months earlier, Mr. Rack had been asked by the insurance +company, in which a policy covering theft was held, to assist in the +search. + +Not a trace of the car was found. There seemed to be no clue to go upon. +An odd circumstance which, though it apparently had no connection with +the case, yet which Mr. Rack was unwilling to dismiss wholly from his +mind, was the fact that a few days earlier Mr. Kull had purchased from a +neighbor and shipped to a middle western city a fine Scotch collie. The +dog was greatly attached to the automobile, and had sometimes been +allowed to ride. This simple fact in itself was not important; but the +purchase of the dog, apparently for the mere purpose of giving the +animal away, was not in keeping with Mr. Kull's usual disposition. + +From so trifling a cause for suspicion the detective was unwilling to +make even a hint as to what was in his mind. All he could do, and the +thing he did do, was to place a watch upon Adam Kull while secretly he +made a thorough search of the man's record. + +Among other things it was found that, as a young man, Kull had been a +party to a transaction by which he and his mother obtained a strange +hold upon a wealthy farmer near Griffin, Henry Peek by name. The woman +married Mr. Peek but they soon separated. To be free of the woman and +her son, Mr. Peek had entered into a written contract involving the +payment of a large sum of money at once, and the further stipulation +that, should the wife survive the husband, she should receive the entire +Peek estate. If, on the other hand, Mr. Peek survived his one-time wife, +the estate should ultimately go to his heirs alone, and no heir of hers +should be considered as having any claim whatever upon the property. The +bargain seemed a very good one for the woman as she was much younger +than Mr. Peek. + +Years passed. Mrs. Peek, who had resumed her former name, Kull, lived +with her only son and they had eventually settled in Harkville. Here the +man was engaged in real estate, a number of shady deals being credited +to him in that connection. + +Within a few months of the present time, the mother, though but little +past middle age, had been stricken by an incurable disease. The son +could not have failed to remember that, unless she survived his former +step-father, the rich Peek estate would not descend to him. + +Matters were at this pass when Detective Rack obtained his first +extended knowledge of Kull, following his investigation of the +disappearance of the automobile the latter had owned. Several weeks +slipped by and, as the man under scrutiny had made no movement which +would in any way strengthen suspicion against him, the watching of his +going and his coming was relaxed. + +One day, nearly two months after the theft of Kull's car, a strange man +called on the real estate dealer, later left his office, and was not +seen afterward. Mr. Rack's men discovered the fellow to be a worthless, +discharged employe of a motor concern in Rochester. His name was Coster. + +It was but a day or two later that Kull suddenly left home. Later it was +learned he was in Griffin, registered at the American hotel under an +assumed name. + +"And it was at that time, undoubtedly," said Mr. Rack, "that, having +taken the Torpedo from wherever it was concealed, Coster was on the way +west with it. Kull was in Griffin to meet him. He visited the old farm +where he had once lived for a short time. He carried the planks over the +hill to the icehouse, that his friend might readily run the Torpedo down +the embankment and so into that building. There are some links missing +as to this assertion but it will be found substantially correct when the +details are known. For it was certainly the intention that the Torpedo +should be placed in this new and more distant hiding-place. Kull had +purchased a supply of Fielderson's automobile and carriage paint. He +mentioned to a clerk in the store that he was going to use the material +on an old surrey he had. He owned no such vehicle. Hence my conclusion, +at this time, that the paint was to be used in a further concealment of +the identity of the Torpedo. + +"Again I heard from Harkville that Kull, after a brief stay at home, +following his having been in Griffin, was once more out of town. I was +busy with other matters and did not immediately take up the threads of +the case again. I was about to do so yesterday," and here Mr. Rack +smiled toward Mr. Wagg, who sat with eyes and mouth open, his glasses +perched on the very top of his bald head,--"when Mr. Phil and Mr. David, +here, came in upon me, introduced by one of our best young lawyers. They +were in possession of so much information that, dovetailing their +statements with my own previous knowledge, I had a fairly perfect fabric +of fact. From this it was simply a little study to deduce practically +certain probabilities. However, I spent a few hours piecing out and +verifying my threads of information. I found that Kull's poor mother +could probably live but a few days or weeks, at most. I found a man +named Coster had been locked up for intoxication here in Griffin, that +he was first seen in town on Saturday and his clothing was splashed with +mud. Friday was a rainy day, you will remember. By the merest chance my +Harkville representative also learned yesterday that Kull had purchased +some saws for cutting steel before leaving town on Tuesday. He had +bought a ticket for Batavia, but that was no certain sign that he would +not stop off in Griffin. + +"To see through the man's entire plan now is, of course, like reading it +in print. All that we do not know is just how Coster happened to lose +the Torpedo, then pick up the car of our friends here, which certainly +he did. That we will learn later. The point I would bring to your notice +now is that Kull, whatever his first plan may have been, changed +somewhat his course of action as he found circumstances favoring him. He +had learned of Coster reaching Griffin in an intoxicated condition and +being locked up. He enabled him to escape by passing saws in to him by +means of a long stick put between the bars of the rear corridor window, +which was open. This he did last night, Mr. Fobes believes, and he +probably is correct. + +"It is an interesting fact, but not a strange one, for usually it is the +small thing that trips the criminal up,--an interesting fact, observe, +that the dog Kull had been at such pains to be rid of in Harkville, lest +it innocently betray the spot where his car had been concealed, had +appeared here in Griffin to trouble him. To regain possession of the +Torpedo (after having failed to get it placed in a barn where he could +more easily get at it) Kull found it necessary to kill the Scotch +collie. This he did on Sunday night. It was also desirable that Mr. +Creek be placed beyond power to hinder. An anonymous telephone call from +Port Greeley, summoning him there, did the work nicely. + +"Now we come to the circumstance that Kull believed so especially +favored him--Coster breaking jail, the Torpedo disappearing, poor old +Mr. Peek assaulted and killed--all this in one night. Where would +suspicion naturally point? To Coster, certainly." + +Mr. Rack smiled and paused. + +"Wonderful!" exclaimed Mr. Wagg. + +"Not at all. The boys deserve more credit than I. And we found so much +additional information the moment we reached Griffin to-night, that the +veriest novice could hardly go wrong. Billy had Coster's measure from +boots up. Fobes knew nothing except that he was able to tell me that +Creek telephoned to him from Port Greeley, stating that there was +deception in his being summoned to that town, and asking him to watch +the garage, which, by the way, he did not do. The time was short and the +only particle of credit we deserve is for having moved at once and +quickly. + +"The time was short for Kull to act if he was to take advantage of +favoring circumstances,--that is apparent now and it was before. It +required no great mental power to see that at a glance. Where Kull would +be found was thus easily determined. And, fortunately, we arrived in +time. On my first survey of the Peek place I found nothing but the +Torpedo, partially concealed behind some trees by the roadside and every +light extinguished. Kull could not be far away but I hesitated lest it +should prove that, having not yet entered the house, he should discover +that he was watched. The facts were, he was in the house when we reached +the place. He was waiting to be sure his victim slept. I flashed a light +upon him as he was in the act of striking his first blow and possibly +that was why he struck to one side of the temple and only a flesh wound +resulted. I seized his arms but he escaped me. I fear I might have been +obliged to shoot to frighten him, if nothing more, but for Phil's very +able and timely help." + +"But what is _your_ idea as to the reason this fellow Coster left one +car in the road and hid another in the icehouse in place of it?" Mr. +Wagg inquired. + +"One of two things--Coster left the car to look about the Peek place, +either knowing or suspecting Kull's ultimate plan of making away with +the old gentleman, and in his absence the machine was in some manner +started forward. Or, and I think more probably, Coster was drunk and +fell from the Torpedo as he saw another car approaching on that +unfrequented road where he did not expect to see, and had no wish to +see, any other traveler. And now, perhaps, we would better bid one +another goodnight," Mr. Rack concluded. + +"Might as well make it good-morning," grinned Paul Jones, stepping to a +window, "it's nearly daylight." + +The following day Coster made a complete confession to Mr. Rack. The +latter's idea of the entire plans of Kull were substantially correct. +About the abandonment of the Torpedo, Coster said he had been drinking a +great deal and, contrary to his usual experience, the more he drank the +more he feared for his own safety in the car he knew police and +detectives had made prolonged search to find. Seeing a large, +six-cylinder machine come rapidly over a hill toward him, and on that +lonely road where he had been assured he would see no one whomsoever, he +suddenly lost his head. He leaped headlong from the Torpedo into the +bushes at the roadside. Later he had crept forward and, from the +hillside, watched all that the Auto Boys did until they went away in the +empty car. Then he put their machine in the icehouse, guided no doubt by +the drunken notion that he was very considerably the gainer. But instead +of sobering up and meeting Kull at the American House, as had been +agreed he should do, he spent the night in a barn and proceeded to get +drunk again the moment he reached the town in the morning. + +"It appears," said Bob Rack, telling the boys, Chief Fobes (who was +still in a perfect fever of wonder and excitement) and Willie Creek the +substance of Coster's confession, the day following Kull's capture,--"It +appears that our Harkville friend concealed his car several days before +he pried the padlock off his garage and reported the machine to have +been stolen. He had hidden the machine in an unused garage attached to a +summer hotel a few miles from the town. Coster obtained it there. +Knowing the case as I do now, I would venture to believe that it was the +apparent success of his first crime, in defrauding the insurance people, +that nerved Kull to carry out his plan further, and so led to the +attempt on the life of old Mr. Peek. His plans were clever, after a +crude fashion, but he made the mistake every criminal makes sooner or +later, in the belief he apparently entertained that deception could be +covered up. In the long run there is no such thing. Even Coster may be +truthful when he declares he did not know Kull had defrauded the +insurance company." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EASTWARD HO! + + +After all this had come to pass, the Auto Boys found that if they so +desired there was nothing to hinder carrying out in full all that they +had purposed to do when the original plan of their eastern vacation tour +had been so amply discussed by the snug fire in Dr. Way's library. + +"I propose that we go ahead with the old program," said P. Jones, Esq., +as he occasionally dubbed himself. "We've got back our Big Six. She's +all right. Nearly all our luggage and other outfitting stuff is all +right. As for gasoline, grub and so on--what's the odds? We're not broke +yet." + +"Guess you're right, Jonesy," put in Worth. "For once in your life, +you've about stated the case correctly." + +"If the luck keeps up, all right." This from Dave, who could not let go +all his mental bearings without some pessimistic afterthoughts. "But +who's to say it will hold out? One thing I rather insist on, Phil, since +you make a sort of bluff at being our leader. Let's stick to the guide +book route, whether we go through Albany to Boston or whether we +short-cut through the Catskills and down the Hudson to New York. That's +my opinion." + +They argued it out that last night at Griffin, which they were to leave +in the morning for the east. + +"Somehow I'd like to see New York more'n Boston, I think," remarked Way. +"It would shorten the time of our vacation, and give us more time for +side trips, say to Niagara Falls or, if we went down the Hudson, to West +Point." + +"Geewhillikins! Stop it, Phil!" cried Paul, making a grimace. "I tell +you what, boys! After all our troubles we're going to take in the real +country from here on. If I don't see the Falls, 'twill be because you +vote against the Big Six going there." + +"And West Point!" This from MacLester, no longer gloomy-viewed. "I've +wanted to see that place ever so long." + +"Tell you what we can do," chimed in Billy, who had been listening +intently. "Let's have a sort of elastic program, a go-as-you-please +route, governed each day by taking a vote as to how we'll go from then +on, subject always to approval of a majority of the voters." + +"Will that do?" queried Phil humorously. "There are only four votes. +Suppose it's a tie, what then?" + +"Aw, Phil!" from the irrepressible Paul. "If it comes to a tie, we'll +keep talking and voting until it's unanimous or three to one. I guess +we've all got some horse sense!" + +Without too much stickling for unanimity, it was finally agreed that +while the general plan of the eastern trip should remain the same, +whenever advisable there would also be discussions of the next move +which would require at least a three-to-one vote in order to decide. + +"We may all be fools some of the time," voiced Dave sagely, paraphrasing +Lincoln's noteworthy pronouncement, "but we won't all of us be fools all +the time." This while shaking his head dubiously at Jones, Esq., who +sniffed scornfully. + +Accordingly, the following morning when the Big Six left Griffin its +course was eastward over the big highway prescribed in the guide book. + +Phil, Dave and Paul took turns at the wheel, and when night was again +upon them they were nearing a small town where, according to the guide +book, one might turn to the left and before the day was over be fairly +within an hour or so of Niagara Falls. They put up at a modest hotel, +stored the auto in a convenient garage, took supper and, after a short +stroll along an uninteresting main street, retired for the night to a +large bedroom with two double beds. + +Some debate ensued as to whether they should turn off and visit the big +falls, during which Worth dropped off asleep while MacLester nearly +jerked his head loose as he nodded from the depths of an ancient +armchair. + +"Aw, what's the use?" grumbled Paul. "_They_ don't care _where_ we go!" +He pointed at Billy snug in bed, while Dave nodded the sleeper's +approval of whatever course might be taken on the morrow. "They don't +care, I say." + +"Well, what do you say, Paul?" Phil regarded the boy quizzically. "Have +you ever seen the Falls?" + +"No, nor I don't care if I _never_ see 'em. Nothing but a roar of water +and a cloud of wet spray if you go near 'em below." Paul's grammar was +humorously absurd at times. + +"How do you know, if you've never been there?" + +"Haven't I read and heard about 'em ever since I was knee high to a +duck?" + +"Well then, let's vote. You wake Billy up." + +While Paul was shaking and struggling with Worth, now angry over being +thus disturbed, Phil gently tweaked Dave's nose until he staggered to +his feet, making half-blind passes at his disturber as he mumbled: + +"G'way, you! I--I'll punch your head, you--you--you--" And that was as +far as he ever got. + +"We're voting to know if we go to the Falls or keep straight on," urged +Phil loudly. "What is it to be?" + +Paul just then relinquishing his clutch on Billy's nightshirt, the +latter flopped back on his pillow, jerked the quilt over his head and +was buried to the outer world. Phil pinched Dave's ear until the nodding +one hauled back and struck out feebly, hitting nothing and throwing +himself back into the big chair's embracing arms. + +This being the dumb reply of both, Phil grinned at Paul as he half +whispered: + +"What do you vote, Paul? Is it straight on, leaving the Falls for +another time?" + +"Bet your life--that's me! Say, Phil, I'll tell you what I'd really like +to do." As he said this Paul drew from his pocket a crumpled, soiled bit +of paper. "Here's something I got hold of at Griffin." + +"Right here's where we turn off to the right, according to this paper. +Got it from Fobes. The Chief said he took it from Coster, who was +tearing mad because Fobes got it away from him. Somewhere beyond +here--don't say where--there's a one-horse tavern--old place, pretty +well off the main track. But it's mighty nigh one of the main railroad +lines." + +While Paul was talking Phil was examining the paper, growing more +interested as he went on. Now he looked up, saying: + +"It looks like a queer game. It may be worth a gambling chance." + +"Think of the boodle! That express car was looted near there some years +ago. Another tramp was riding the brake beams and saw the robbers make +off in the nearby woods with their boodle. Papers were full of the +amount taken." Paul smacked his lips as if he tasted in anticipation +what the money would do. "Then this tramp jumped off and followed them. +See? It says so here." Paul pointed to a paragraph in the ragged +clipping. Phil, having already deciphered this, was reading further. +Then he said: + +"That tramp was blind in one eye. Do you reckon he could tell and mark +what those robbers did with their boodle?" + +"Sure, if he says so. I can see most as well with my hand over one eye +as with my two eyes." Paul in pantomime covered one eye and winked at +Phil, who was obliged to laugh. "Well, what does this tramp do? Why, he +waits round in hiding until them galoots go off after burying their +loot. Then he, like a fool, goes off to sleep. When he woke up his good +eye pained him so that he only marked the spot as best he could and +struck for the nearest house, which happened to be this old tavern." + +"I see," remarked Phil ruminatively. "From this it appears he got better +and stayed, making himself so useful, choring about, that they kept him +on. Of course it was the boodle that kept him at work, doubtless meaning +to leave when he got better. Once he sneaked over to this big hemlock +and tried to dig for the money, but owing to the great rock they had +piled over it, and being weak from his sickness, he had to let it go, +meaning, of course, to come back when he was strong again. But he didn't +get strong. His other eye became more affected and in time he went +blind. After that the tavern folks sent him to the county almshouse, and +there he finally died." + +"Right-o, Phil!" exclaimed Paul, unable longer to keep silence. "Just +before he pegged out, along came this same Coster's brother, also a +tramp. Tramp number one wouldn't tell the tavern folks because they put +him in the almshouse; but he did tell tramp number two, Coster's +brother, just because he was a tramp like himself, I guess. Coster's +brother belonged somewhere around here and loafed his time away, always +intending to visit the spot. But he, too, got sick and before he died +passed the secret along to Coster. The original thieves never came back +because they were later arrested for another crime, that of killing one +of themselves in a row, and the survivor or survivors were sent up for +life or hanged, I reckon. Anyway, they never bothered any one any more." + +"But this old printed paper doesn't tell exactly where the boodle was +hid, except that it was close to a big hemlock and under a big rock." +Phil was shaking his head doubtfully. "Where would that hemlock be? +There are hemlocks scattered in the woods all around here." + +"Here's something that Coster gave me while he was in jail, towards the +last. You see, I'd been sort of kind to him, or he took it that way. I +carried him some tobacco. When he found that he was in for a serious +time, he handed out to me not only this paper but a scrawl he'd made on +the back of an old envelope with a bit of pencil I'd given him some days +before. At the time I couldn't make much of what he was up to. But I +guess his bad luck in general was too much for him. After Rack landed +him he seemed to give up. Anyway he gave me both these," meaning the +printed bit of crumpled paper and the old envelope which Paul now passed +to Phil. + +"Why didn't you tell us before, eh?" asked Phil sharply. "Aren't we all +comrades together?" + +"Yep! But I knew you'd laugh at me for being so simple as to believe +anything Coster said. But since we've reached this place where we are +now, the thing came back to me so strong that I fished out these papers +and looked 'em over again. By jimmineddy! I can't help but think there's +something in all this rigmarole after all." + +Phil, after some cogitation, gave back the papers to Paul, saying: + +"Let's sleep on it, Paul. You can't get anything out of them now. In the +morning we will go into it again." + +In the early morning Billy, who had some advantage over the rest in +point of sleep, was up first, and was presently whanging the others with +his pillow in a way that bade little for further slumbers on their part. + +"G'way! get out!" cried Paul, feeling less interest just then in +treasure hunting than in securing a few more winks before the inevitable +bell for breakfast rang forth. "Remember how you acted last night when +we wanted you to sit up and talk!" + +As for Dave, the last to be thus treated by the now wakeful Worth, he +grunted, groaned, finally heaving his own pillow at Billy who, dodging +the same, renewed his offensive tactics to such effect that MacLester +presently sprang forth from beside the now dozing Paul and grumblingly +proceeded to dress. + +"Dave," began Phil, "I got something to tell you and Billy that I want +you to listen to until you get the thing firmly inside your thinkers. +Then, if you are interested, we'll wake up Paul for good and you can +look at what he's got to show you. He showed it to me last night, after +we tried to get you two to wake up enough to get the facts fairly +through your noddles." + +"'Things' and 'noddles'!" This from Billy, tossing his much abused +pillow on the bed. "Why don't you get busy and talk sense? What you got +to show us anyhow? As for Paul, he--he's a--" + +"He is, is he?" Paul, thus exclaiming, suddenly sat up and discharged +his own pillow at Billy, but only managed to hit Phil. "I didn't mean +you, Phil. I've been awake for about half a minute, and I know what +you're up to, Phil. Go for 'em, while I dig up the documents." + +While Phil was relating the substance of what Paul told him and what the +two papers revealed, MacLester sniffed suspiciously and gradually +assumed his customary expression when doubtful opinions were being +aired, apparently for his own benefit. While Phil was talking, Paul had +extracted the crumpled printed scrap, evidently clipped from some long +forgotten town weekly, and the mysterious pencillings on the mussed +envelope. + +One after the other Dave and Billy examined both the printed clipping +and the soiled, misused envelope on which were sundry drawings in +pencil. Finally Dave sniffed suspiciously. + +"S'pose we _do_ turn off here and do as Paul wants us to? S'pose we +spend a day or two enlarging our hotel bill, and don't find anything +after all? Besides, who would believe anything Coster says? +Nobody"--here a skeptical look at P. Jones, Esq., now dressing in some +haste--"nobody, I say, but him." Dave jerked a finger at Paul, who was +pulling his shirt on over his head. + +"I hear you," came Paul's voice, half smothered as he struggled up +through the shirt and, his head popping into view, he eyed MacLester in +disdain. + +"Oh, I don't know!" remarked Worth, nodding at Phil. "What do you think +of it, boss?" meaning Way. + +"I think just what I said to Paul last night. It's a gambling chance. +Shall we take it? Is it up to a vote?" + +"You bet!" shouted Paul, greatly enthused. "In the first place it will +be lots of fun. No one seems to know anything about this secret place of +hiding or what may possibly be hidden there but us. Do they now?" + +"N-no." This from Worth, who was evidently much impressed. "We may be +fooled, but who shall say that Coster wasn't acting on the square? I saw +Paul going out of his way to make Coster a mite more comfortable, +especially after he was caught with the goods on him, so to speak. Bad +as he is, he may have had some notion of doing Paul the only good turn +he alone could do, by putting him wise to this thing. Anyhow, it's fun +and fun is one thing we're after." + +"Well, then," remarked Phil, "shall we put it to a vote?" + +"Yep--let's vot'er now, right off the bat." So added Jones, by now +fairly in his trousers and reaching for his footgear. "I vote yes--yes, +siree!" + +"So do I," said Billy, glancing quizzically at Dave. "Me for treasure +hunting! Gee! Wouldn't I like to feel my shovel scrape something hard, +and see my hand pull out a wad of bank notes all caked with woods dirt?" + +"What do you say, Mac?" Phil was looking at MacLester, who colored +slightly. + +"I--I'll vote last. You say what you'll do, Phil." + +"Oh, well, if you want my decision, I'll say yes." Phil here grinned +openly at Paul. "I'm fond of our youngest comrade and I want to please +him whether we find anything or not." + +All looked at Dave, who at first looked foolish, but straightway an open +smile wreathed his ruddy Scotch face as he said: + +"I'm with you, Phil! Paul sometimes acts the fool, but he means well all +the same. Here's for the treasure! If we don't get it, maybe we'll have +some fun out of it after all." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PASSING THE LOAD OF HAY + + +Later that morning the Big Six was spinning over the road eastward from +the small village where the preceding debate had occurred. Before +starting Phil had asked their host if he knew of an old inn some miles +ahead that had formerly been prosperous during the old stage-coaching +days, before the advent of the railroads. The tavern keeper scratched +his head as he reflected. Finally he said: + +"Can't think of nary place onless it's what they used to call the Ghost +Tavern, but--law me! That place must 'a' rotted down before now." + +Phil intimated that this might be what he was after, asking how far the +inn with the foreboding name might be. + +"Might be thirty mile or it might be fifty or more, I can't say. You +might pass it not knowing where it is, and yet be within a few rods of +where it is--or was. It's a woodsy neighborhood, and seems to me that I +heard it had burned down but I won't be sure. Anyhow, that's the only +place I've learned of beyond here, eastward, that in the least is like +what you been asking about. What might you kids be wanting such a place +for? Looks like I'd ruther pass it not knowing there was such a thing +near as a ghost tavern." + +Phil replied evasively, for it was decided to say nothing at present as +to what the boys were up to. At least to say nothing that might make +others think that anything out of the common was embodied in their +present purposes. + +Before the car started, however, the innkeeper, still scratching his +grizzled head, looked up again, saying: + +"Seems like I heard 'way back yonder that there was a tavern near where +a big railroad robbery took place. But I ain't sure. Old folks like me +find that we forgit easier than we remember. However, I wish ye all good +luck. Keep your eyes open, boys, and don't go it blind--at least no +blinder 'n you can help. So long!" + +All this strengthened their confidence in the sincerity of Coster's last +bequest to P. Jones, Esq., who plumed himself accordingly, after his +customary manner. He pinched Dave's arm as he said: + +"Bet your life, Dave, there was more in what Coster gave me than you +thought! You're driving. You watch the road. Me and Phil and Billy will +keep up a lookout that will not miss that old tavern, ghost or no +ghost." + +"S'pose the old rookery has been burned or made way with?" Dave +propounded this while curving his course round a steep embankment that +made the roadway barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. Before +Paul had time to retort a rumble ahead broke in on their ears. Dave +instantly turned towards the bluff on his right, for the shelving +embankment sloped steeply to the left. + +"That's right, Mac!" interposed Paul, his attention being thus diverted +from a witticism at MacLester's expense. "Jam her close to the bluff and +let the other fellow do the worrying." + +Just then, round the further end of the curve came a farm wagon loaded +with hay, one man driving as he sat cramped against the dashboard, while +on the load behind was a boy and a girl, both somewhere along their +teens in age. When the farm team saw the purring car they balked, tried +to shy dangerously towards the slope, but the man behind reined them up +so sharply that they were halted midway of the road and about twenty +feet from the car. Dave at once shut off the power and the purring +ceased. + +"Say, mister!" called the man anxiously. "How we goin' to pass ye?" + +"We've tried to give you all the room we could, don't you see?" This +from MacLester as he leaned coolly back in his seat. "You'll have to +slow up, then go at a walk to the right, won't you?" + +"My team's sorter skeery along here. They ain't used to you autermobile +fellers. Whoa thar! What ye up to now?" + +The team was trying to shy again as they eyed the strange monster just +ahead that was as terrifying to them as when some unsuspecting hunter +suddenly sees just ahead of him a dangerous beast of prey. Meantime +Phil, noting the alarm of the girl on the hay and similar symptoms in +the younger boy, was taking in the possibilities of the situation. He +signalled to the others to keep silent, then sprang out of the tonneau +and made cautiously towards the team, speaking soothingly the while as +the man held them in tightly. + +"Let me get hold of their headstalls," he called, raising his voice +slightly. "I think we can manage it. We'll pass each other all right." + +By cautious management, speaking calmly to the horses, Phil managed at +last to seize first one bridle, then the other, rubbing his hand +propitiatingly over their noses, while securing a good grip on the +startled animals, and began leading them to the left, towards the bluff. +At the same time he called to Dave, in a low but distinct tone: + +"Loose the brake! Get out, two of you, and back the car gently. Keep her +headed towards the middle of the road. Don't release your clutch, Dave." + +With some difficulty Phil's directions were implicitly followed by the +boys, all of whom had learned in the past to defer to Phil's judgment +when sudden decisions were required. When the Big Six was squarely +midway of the road and pointed slightly outward towards the dangerous +slope, the car was halted, and Paul and Billy clambered back into the +machine. + +"Now, my friend," said Phil, "if I lead them, can you turn in close to +the bluff, right where we were when we first saw you?" + +"I'll try mighty hard. Whoa, Jack! Easy now, Jill!" + +With Way still at their heads, the wagon and its cumbrous load were +safely jammed against the side of the bluff. + +"Perhaps the young lady and the boy better get off on the upper side. +We'll try to pass you, but your team may not like the situation." Phil +smiled. "It may cause trouble, but we will be as careful as we can." + +"Well, boss," said the man, "you sure are good boys. My team--well, I +don't know what they might have done if I'd tried to pass you on the +outside." + +He turned back to the couple on the hay. "Say, Danny, you slide off and +then help Nan down. Be keerful! Remember she's your sister, and if she +gets a fall you'll have to settle with me later." + +Danny, a straw-hatted, barefooted lad with a freckled face and dangling +legs, managed to slide himself down against the bluff and also managed +to assist the girl in following him to a spot where they could uneasily +await further developments. + +"Better not start your car until I git by," remarked the farmer, while +Phil, still holding the bridles, aided the loaded wagon to slip by the +red monster, now quiet enough on the dangerous side of the road. Once +their backs were towards the machine the team quieted down quickly +enough. + +"Let me help you down, miss," said Phil, who never forgot his manners, +springing back towards the young couple climbing down to the roadway. + +Danny, like many brothers, having scrambled down unaided, went to his +father's aid, though aid was now unnecessary. Phil soon helped Nan down, +the weight of her plump young body convincing him that she must be +several years older than Dan. + +"I'm mightily obliged, sir," she lisped, with an upward glance at the +boy as he landed her squarely on her feet, not bare like her brother's +but clad in fairly dainty footwear. "I don't know what we'd 'a' done but +for you." + +"Pshaw, that's nothing! I'm sure glad we were on hand, Miss--" He +hesitated. "Is there anything more we can do?" + +Nothing, apparently; but before starting the car again, Paul called out: + +"Say, Mister! How far is it to the nearest town on this road?" + +"Ten mile, I reckon. We live three miles beyond." + +As the car started Phil waved a hand from the auto, whereat a white +handkerchief fluttered back an answering signal. + +Dave turned back to Way, saying: + +"Blame if I don't believe you've made a regular mash on that girl--hey, +Paul?" Paul, now at the wheel, was too busy to reply. + +"Wonder what they were doing so far from home with a load of hay?" said +Dave. + +"It's past haying time now," was Worth's comment. "Must be taking it off +somewhere to sell. If so, that explains why the girl was dressed so +nicely." + +"How about the man and boy?" asked Paul. "They looked like real +hayseeds." + +"How'd you want 'em to look?" This from Dave. "When you're selling hay +you can't load or unload in your Sunday go-to-meeting clothes." + +"Well," remarked Phil, "whoever and whatever they are, we tried to be +decent to them. I reckon they're all right." + +"Especially the girl, eh?" laughed Paul. "Oh, you Nan! Wasn't that her +name, Phil? You ought to know." + +Phil passed this by without reply, as he talked about other matters. +Little did any of them then think that they had not seen the last of +those three whom they had saved from possible accident and bodily danger +by giving them the safest side of the road. + +From then on for half an hour the car glided smoothly through a rich +farming section where the houses and barns looked prosperous and the +numerous stacks of grain and hay and the sleek herds of cattle betokened +that the owners or tenants were by no means on the wrong side of +prosperity. Then the timbered tracts increased, and a series of low, +rugged hillsides opened up until at a sudden bend they saw the town +whose smoke had been for some time indicative of this break in the +hitherto uninterrupted rural expanse of their morning's ride. + +It was not a big town, being off the railroad lines, which were a mile +or so to one side, but it looked prosperous and was doubtless the center +of the rural trade activities for some miles around. It being now about +the noon hour, the car stopped before a modest hotel for a noonday +lunch. There were two larger hostelries on the main street, but from +motives of prudent economy the boys preferred the less expensive +taverns. + +"Yes, we will have dinner ready in a few minutes," remarked a +comfortable looking woman who seemed to be in charge of the tiny office. +"Make yourselves at home. Why, are you lads from Lannington?" This after +reading the register. + +"That is our home town, madam," replied Phil. "Do you know the place?" + +"Well, I should say I did!" The woman smiled. "I was raised there. Been +off here ever since I married." + +"Lannington is where we live," remarked Worth, after inscribing his name +on the register with a flourish. "We're on a vacation trip, ma'am." + +"It might be that you knew our folks when you lived there," was Dave's +contributing remark, for he saw that she was reading their names and +smiling more broadly than before. + +"Why, yes, I do know some of them. I knew Dr. Way, and there was his +friend Lawyer Dilworth, and the MacLesters. I feel as if I knew you all +right now." + +And she offered her plump hand, which was cordially shaken as the boys +explained more about their folks, then added: + +"My name now is Ewing. I'm known as the Widow Ewing round here. My +husband has been dead three years or so. Before that, in Lannington, I +was a McKnight. One of my brothers runs a garage there. Know him?" + +"Well, rather! Hey, Phil? We got this car mainly through his aid. +McKnight & Wilder--they're some punkins when it comes to automobiles!" + +After this all was plain sailing for the boys. Mrs. Ewing insisted that +they should remain until the morrow. + +"Won't cost you much. We'll cut the regular bill in half, for you're +home folks, aren't you?" + +And it may be said that she had her way. The Big Six was put in the +hotel garage and the boys were made comfortable in two adjoining rooms; +and in the morning even Phil was astonished at the exceedingly small +bill which they had to pay. He could only thank the comely widow, who +laughed it off with: + +"If you boys are simply on a vacation trip, you're bound to spend more +than you think you will. I'd gladly keep you for nothing, but times are +hard and I have to make some charge." + +Cautious inquiries by Phil resulted in learning that there had been, and +still might be further on an old inn of the pre-railroad days. But it +was off the main road, in the roughest, heaviest wooded section, +somewhere about eight or ten miles off to the east. That region, it +appeared, was poor, swampy, and so inferior to other land lying all +about that hardly anyone lived there, even though in the midst of a +thickly settled country. + +In the privacy of their rooms the four lads concluded that they would +say nothing directly referring to the railroad robbery or the hiding of +supposed treasure. They were so near the scene that any revival of that +now old-time tragedy might cause annoying inquisitiveness even if +nothing more resulted. + +After breakfast, while the boys were making a few purchases and taking +on a generous supply of gasoline, they learned from Mrs. Ewing that "Dan +and Nan, with their Daddy, old Pat Feeney," had just gone by. + +"And who are they?" queried Phil carelessly, though with a shrewd +suspicion in his mind at the time. + +"Oh, he's an Irishman and lives three or four miles from here on the +edge of some marshland where he pretends to farm. But I guess the most +of his farming consists in cutting the marsh-grass during the summer and +selling it for hay to those who don't know what good hay really is." + +"I guess we must have met him some ten or twelve miles back. We had +quite a time passing him, for it was where the road runs along a side +hill, with the bluff on one side and a steep embankment on the other. We +stopped our car for his team was scared and after some delay they +passed. They seemed to appreciate what we did, instead of rushing by and +probably scaring the whole outfit into the ditch. The girl was rather +pretty." + +"Ah, you boys!" The widow smiled shrewdly. "Always an eye out for the +girls! But don't you allow yourselves to think that what a girl looks, +so she always is underneath the surface." + +"Are you coming back this way?" the widow finally asked, as the car was +about to start. "If you don't stop, I--I will feel hurt. I'm homesick at +times for the town where I was raised." + +"Tell you what," said Billy after the car had left the small but busy +town a mile or two in their rear, "Mrs. Ewing treated us bang up, but +she's a keen one, after all. I'm glad we saw her. It will be something +to tell McKnight when we get home. Do you reckon those Feeneys are the +ones we passed?" + +"What if they are or if they ain't?" demanded Paul. "We won't be likely +to meet 'em again, will we?" + +"Oh, you shut up, Jonesy. There's no one interested in 'em but Phil, and +the best way to define that is by a lesson in spelling." Here Billy made +a comical face as he began: "N-a-n, Nan. That, translated into plain +lingo, means pretty girl--ouch! Quit, Phil!" For Phil, seated in the +tonneau with Worth, had administered a decided pinch. + +On sped the Big Six, easily showing what she could do along an +increasingly rough road that might once have been a much traveled +highway but now showed ample signs of the neglect of later years. The +wooded tracts increased, growing larger in area; the half cultivated +fields evinced even more of the neglect and shagginess that wait on +lands wholly or in part abandoned by man. Sundry denizens of the woods +such as rabbits, squirrels, even a stray fox, together with many birds, +and upflying broods of quail, also indicated that nature was gradually +replacing human inactivity in her own way. + +"By the way," remarked Worth, "didn't that man with the hay say he lived +some three miles from that town we stopped in--what's the confounded +name?" + +"Midlandville, stupid!" This from P. Jones, Esq., with a superior air. +"That was one of the first things I heard." + +"Coster's paper didn't mention that burg, did it?" asked Dave. + +"Reckon not. But on this envelope," here Phil took out the pencilled +scrap, "there's a dot with the word 'town' beside it that I take to mean +the same thing. Here runs the railroad, going east and west. Look at +this line running due southeast. Somewhere along that line I figure +there ought to be signs of the old tavern. I guess we've left that town +at least six or eight miles behind." + +Where they were now much of the timber appeared to be second growth, and +such hemlocks as they saw were small. + +In a shaded spot to the right of the ill-kept highway they stopped at a +small rivulet for the noonday lunch. This was eaten rather silently. In +fact, so gloomy were their surroundings that after eating Phil Way +proposed that they should divide themselves, two in each party, and +explore to the north and south of the highway for a mile or so, making a +detour into the forest as they went. + +"I'm with you," said Paul briskly. "I'm getting tired of all this +guessing. Let's start from here, Phil, and take a half circle northwest, +then west, then south, crossing the highway. After another mile, we'll +turn east, then northeast, then north until we strike the road again. +Dave, you and Billy do the same thing, only turn northeast, east, then +south and so on so as to bring you back to the road not far from where +we all are now." + +But before any comment could be made on this plan there came a sudden +interruption. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +NAN AND THE JERSEY BULL + + +There came a soft clatter of feet on the shaded greensward, and into +view came the flying form of a girl, barefooted, sunbonneted, with a +cheap calico gown showing a pair of graceful ankles, her touzled but +abundant hair hardly half held by the pins. A second glance assured the +boys that they knew that reddish coiffure, though now in disarray, and +that supple form. It was undoubtedly the girl of the hay wagon, her +finery laid away, and now chastely clad in the dangerously skimpy home +attire, wherever that still mysterious home of hers might be. + +Seeing the boys, their car, and the remains of the noonday meal, she +paused, hesitated, then burst forward, exclaiming: + +"Oh, oh! It's you, is it?" She gave a frightened glance behind her, and +at the same time the boys thought they detected a low but growing rumble +indicative of a coming bellow. "I'm so glad--ah-h! Listen at him!" + +"What is it, Miss Nan?" queried Phil, at once alert. + +"It's Dad's Jersey bull," she said. "He's got loose somehow." + +Just then the rumble rose into an unmistakable bellow, and a yellowish, +bovine form hove into sight from the timber, halted and stared wildly +about. First he saw the boys and the barefooted girl. Then, lashing his +tail, he came on at a galloping run, uttering angry snorts at every +step. + +Realizing before the others that here might be actual danger, Phil again +rose to the emergency. He pulled out a flaming scarlet bandana +handkerchief, which Paul had more than once made fun of, and which Phil +seldom was caught using. Happening to have it with him now, Phil pointed +at the Big Six standing near, bright colored and easily attractive to a +mad bull. + +He darted toward the oncoming Jersey, crying: + +"All of you get in the car--quick! I'll draw the bull! When he takes +after me start her up! Then I'll take a chance and jump in, if you'll +swing round near me. Hump yourselves!" + +Dave at once saw what Phil was up to. He wanted to save the car from the +bull's attack, for the animal was in a mood to attack anything bright +enough, gay enough. Before Phil had finished, Dave sprang into the +driver's seat, while Paul and Billy, both assisting the girl, jumped +into the tonneau. Dave released the clutch and off they went, the bull +missing the rear end by hardly a yard. + +Daunted by the fierce snorts emitted by the car the bull halted, +roaring. Then his eye caught the flare of a brilliant red something that +Phil was waving to and fro under his inflamed nostrils. The sight of +scarlet always went to his bullish head, and now made him more mad. With +another louder roar his bullship turned furiously on this new tormentor. + +For several moments it was nip and tuck between the Jersey and his foe, +who always was just behind that flaring expanse of scarlet. Only a brief +spell of such hairbreadth maneuvering was sufficient to produce +shortness of breath on Phil's part, at least. + +Would that car never wheel in his direction? Fearing exhaustion, but +flirting the bandana behind him, Phil made straight for the shady copse +under which they had dined. Then he vanished so quickly that Mr. Bull, +scenting mystery, halted and lashed his flanks with his tail. Dave saw +the trick Phil was playing. His car veered round the other side of the +copse, whirling up to within ten feet of where Phil stood panting, while +the Jersey plunged round the far side. Paul flung open the door of the +tonneau. + +"In with you, Phil! Lively now!" came the command. + +Phil made the first leap, then the second. His face was red with +exertion, his legs wabbly under the strain they had been under, and at +the third and final plunge they threatened to give way under him. With a +half cry, half scream, Nan pushed herself through the door Paul was +holding wide open, as the car veered close under Dave's dexterous hand. + +"Ketch my hand, mister!" she cried and managed to clutch Phil's fingers +in a grip surprisingly strong for a girl. With his free hand Paul +clutched Phil's other hand and the two managed to half drag, half pull +Phil inside, where he fell panting to the floor of the tonneau. + +Meantime Dave, far from idle, saw that Phil was making the connection. +He also saw that Mr. Bull was dangerously near making another kind of +connection with the near wheel's guard with one of those sharp pointed +horns. + +"Here we go!" he shouted, and the Big Six made a powerful spring +forward, beyond the reach of this four-footed terror that bawled, glared +and snorted in a now vain pursuit. + +Both Paul and Nan helped Phil up and, with a gasp or two he sank back on +the seat, still flourishing the kerchief. + +"Well, what d'you think of that!" cried Paul, after assuring himself +that Phil was all right. "Did you ever see a madder bull?" + +Meanwhile Dave, taking to the road again, soon placed distance and some +timber growth between themselves in the Big Six and the bull. + +"Well, Miss Nan," said Phil, who had recovered, "that was what you were +scared at and I don't wonder. Does he often do that way?" + +"Not often." The girl was trying to hide her feet, somehow feeling that +she was now where clothes assume greater importance than they do at home +on the farm. "I was out after blueberries. Sam--that's what we call +him--had got out of the pasture, and when he saw me I think a bee or +something had stung him. Anyway, he blamed it on me. He took after me +full tilt and I had to run. I don't know what I'd done but for you all." + +"I'm sure we were glad to be where we could help," encouraged Phil, +"though I feel sure I don't long for another such narrow escape. I must +thank you, too, Miss Nan, for helping Paul drag me aboard, for I was +about all in." + +"Don't you worry, Nan," broke in Paul, who had been taking in the girl's +embarrassment. "I lived on a farm when I was smaller, and we didn't +bother much about how we dressed. I'm sure you look well, no matter what +clothes you wear." + +Nan blushed while Paul, feeling that he had done well, turned to Dave. + +"Where you going now, Mac?" + +"Just jogging along. But perhaps we better stop and find out what we're +going to do next. What you think, Phil?" + +"Oh, there's my berry pail!" said the girl, pointing at an overturned +tin bucket near the roadside. "If you will let me out I'll be going on." + +"Do you live near? But of course you do, or you wouldn't have run across +your bull. Could we take you home?" This from Phil. + +"I--I wouldn't mind," she rather hesitatingly said. "But I must get the +pail." And out she jumped, running to the overturned bucket, scooping up +most of the berries that had been spilled, then hurrying back, saying as +she got in: + +"I wouldn't bother you but there's an old tumble-down house that folks +say has a ghost or something near here. It used to be a tavern 'way back +years ago. Somehow I always dread to go near it alone, and I always go +round it when I'm out after blueberries, but this road goes right near +it." + +"Why, I don't see any sign of a house round here," remarked Dave. "I've +stuck to this old road because I supposed it would lead somewhere." + +"I know," she returned. "The woods, so plentiful about here, are +thicker'n ever where the ruins be. We're about two miles from my house. +It's more open there; fields and so on. Sam must 'a' strayed a good +bit." + +"We'll take you home, Nan," quoth Paul, and Billy nodded in assent. "But +maybe you could tell us more about that house. When we get close, you +know." + +Here Phil gave both the other boys a warning look as he inquired if they +must turn round in order to go where her home lay. Nan nodded, pointing +eastward as she replied: + +"Just follow the road the way I'm pointing now. I'll tell you when we +get nearest to that old place. It's about two miles to our house from +there." + +Congratulating himself that they were so easily put in the way of +finding what they had come so far to see, Phil passed the signal round +for the others to keep still and let him do the talking. + +By this time Nan was much more at her ease with the boys. She told them +of the extent of the woods and how she lived on a small farm at one edge +of the great second-growth timber which was the predominating feature of +this half swampy section. Moreover Phil, too, noted that here and there +were larger hemlock trees, though none of very great size or ancient +appearance. + +"Has anyone seen the ghost lately?" queried Phil. "Is it a real ghost, +or merely the echo of tales that have been current around here for +years?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," said Nan. "Once, not long ago, father and I +were riding by after dark. I'm sure I saw a kind of brightness in the +thick woods where we knew that old tavern was. It was brighter, yet +somehow pale; made me think of ghosts right away." + +"What did your father think of it?" + +"He never said, but when I spoke of it he drove along faster; but all +he'd say was, 'Shucks!' I guess he don't more'n half believe in them +ghosts nohow." + +They laughed at this, but they noted that the timber grew thicker as the +car glided at slow speed along the little used road. Finally Nan began +pointing in a certain direction as the road curved, and a thicker growth +of cedar, pine and other evergreens began not far away. + +"It's somewhere in there," she said. "We'll glimpse some of the roof and +walls presently." + +Sure enough, as the car hummed along, through the thick foliage they +glimpsed weather beaten walls and parts of a roof covered by roughly +rived boards, with gaps here and there, and all brown with age. It +looked as if it might be eighty to a hundred yards back from the mere +wagon trail the road had now become. + +"Shall we stop and take a look?" asked MacLester, gradually slowing up. +"It's bright, noonday sunshine and if there are any haants about, I +reckon now's the time of day when they take a rest." + +But as the car slowed down Nan's alarm began to increase. Phil watched +her curiously. She did not look like a girl unduly afraid of ghosts, at +midday especially. Yet it was plain enough to see that she was vaguely +uneasy. After all, why stop now? They knew where the old tavern was and +could begin their investigations later. Besides, they did not want +outside witnesses. + +"Better drive on, Davy," said Phil. "We must take Miss Nan home." + +The girl's relief was evident at once when Dave increased the speed. In +another minute or so the house was no longer visible. Paul, looking +back, said half to himself: + +"It's a cinch, Phil! By Ned! I'm going to see more of it before night, +or bust a trace!" + +"Ugh!" shuddered Nan. "You can't mean that you want to go back there, do +you?" + +"Why not? We're strangers round here and when we find something curious +yet unknown, that scares off the folks that have lived by it for years, +it's only natural to get our curiosity up to a point that we've just +_got_ to do something." + +The car sped on through the woods, then past open fields and soon they +came up to a rather battered farmhouse with sundry outbuildings near it +and stacks of hay which had been cut evidently from the neighboring +marshes that jutted in and out of the timbered lands. At the gate Nan +sprang down, and at the same time out came the farmer, followed by the +same boy they had before seen on the hay-load. + +Being invited inside, the boys entered the sitting-room, where two other +men, garbed more like town dwellers, were seated. The farmer greeted the +boys warmly, recalling to them their kindly behavior along the side-hill +road a day or so before. At the same time the two men got up to leave, +giving the farmer a modest price for their dinners and remarking that +they might be back again shortly. + +"Keep a bright lookout, Mr. Feeney. No knowing what you might run up +against," one said and they were gone. After this the boys had a +sociable chat with Feeney, who pressed them to stay all night. + +"Shan't cost you a cent, boys, for you were good to us when Jack and +Jill might have balked and dumped us over that bluff." + +"Well, it is possible we may come back. But in the meantime we want to +have a look round at the timber." + +"Int'rested in timber, are ye? How'd ye come to meet up with Nan?" + +The incidents connected with the Jersey bull were briefly related, Nan +emphasizing how Phil had risked himself in her behalf and that they had +kindly brought her home. This too pleased Feeney, who insisted more than +before that they should stop with him while they were in the +neighborhood. + +"This is, in the main, a thick settled country, lads," said Feeney. "But +right about here for a few miles there's hardly anybody but us really +livin' here." + +"It may be that we will take up your offer," remarked Phil. "But you +must not let us stop here unless we pay you a fair price. If those men +come back you'll hardly have room for more." + +"Don't worry about that. We'll make room. Them men, I don't know what +they be up to. They won't be back from Midlandville for a day or two, I +guess." + +With no definite promise to return the boys left, going along the road +they had come with Nan, and on the way Phil busied himself in studying +the pencilled map on the old envelope which had been given to Paul by +Coster. + +There was a square in the center marked "Tavern," doubtless the place +the boys had seen that day through the thick timber growth. A straight +line ran off in one direction to a point marked on the border of the map +"south," followed by the note: "From Tavern half a mile." Close to this +was a rude skeleton, with a black spot close by marked "treasure rock." +The skeleton of a tree had a huge split through the trunk, in which were +the words "big split hemlock." + +On the opposite edge of the map marked "north" was added "to railroad, +half-mile." East and west through the center, lengthwise of the +envelope, ran an irregular line close by the tavern, which was indicated +by the word "highway." + +The whole thing was simple and seemingly plain, and all they apparently +had to do was to take a due south course from this building shown as the +ghost tavern, for half a mile. Right near where they had paused when Nan +was showing glimpses of the old building, they turned the car into a +grove of young second-growth spruces and halted. They were now hidden +from view from the road, that was clear. + +"Can we leave this car here safely?" queried Billy dubiously. + +"I doubt if it is safe," replied Dave, naturally cautious where the Big +Six was concerned. "Billy, let's you and me flip a nickel to see who +stays with the car. I ain't anxious to go that half mile; I _am_ anxious +to know the car'll be here when we come back." + +After some discussion there was a toss up and Dave won. Billy looked +vexed. + +"Aw, what's the use of anyone staying?" he growled. "The car's safe +enough." + +"What is the use of running risks?" rebuked Phil. "After what we went +through back at Griffin we must take no more chances." + +Worth resigned himself to the inevitable, but it was evident that he +would much rather have gone with the others. + +As the three boys disappeared Billy blinked a while, finally stretching +out in the tonneau, pulling over himself Paul's big rug and--though he +did not mean to--he soon fell asleep. The woods were unusually quiet; no +wind, much shade, with a soothing buzz and hum of insects that was in +itself conducive to drowsiness. + +The other three, not deeming it necessary to actually visit the old +tavern just then, took the compass with which Paul had provided himself +and struck out due south. + +"How will we know when we have gone half a mile?" suddenly questioned +Paul. "It's too thick with underbrush to pace off so many yards. Say, +how many yards in half a mile? Anyone know?" + +"Seventeen-sixty in a mile," said Dave, drawing from his pocket one of +those circular shielded tape measures. "Figure it out for yourselves." + +"Eight hundred and eighty, you gander!" This from Paul, looking after +Phil, who had gone on ahead with the compass. "Gimme hold of one end! +How long is the thing, anyhow?" + +Stretched out, it seemed that the tape was ten yards long. With Paul +linking a finger in the ring and Dave holding the circular shield, the +boys began their march after Phil. Paul, breaking a twig when he came to +a stopping place, would forge on again with Dave carefully following, +keeping the line taut until Paul, stumbling, jerked the reel from Dave's +hand and thereby created some confusion. Both had been keeping count of +each ten yards, but there was a difference of one length of the tape +between. + +"Aw--why didn't you hold to your end? I tell you my count is right!" + +"No, it ain't," was MacLester's reply. "What I know, I _know!_" + +This difficulty finally adjusted, the pair resumed their march in Phil's +wake, who had taken particular pains to leave a trail of broken branches +so that the rest could follow. Going thus, they diligently but slowly +kept on until Dave suddenly looked up, shouting: + +"Eighty-eight lengths! We're there--eight hundred and eighty yards. +Hullo! What's become of Phil?" + +No Phil was in sight. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE KIDNAPERS + + +Phil, it appeared, was the only one to think out two reasons why there +was little necessity for being exact about measurements. Coster had +drawn his rough diagram on the envelope probably from memory. It was, +according to Coster, somewhere near a half mile from the tavern to the +split hemlock. The main thing was to keep the proper direction, if +anything like strict obedience was due to the pencilled chart. Therefore +he took upon himself the sole task of going south, and when he had +convinced himself that he was somewhere in the neighborhood of that half +mile, he began to look about for the big split hemlock. + +None could he then see. There were other hemlocks, but all of a younger, +second-growth variety. So he ranged to and fro, but no such tree could +he find. The undergrowth was not thick, yet it prevented clear vision of +anything more than a few yards away. He was about to give up, feeling a +first sense of coming despair, when he caught sight of a high bulge +upward through the tops of some clumps of bushes. He sprang on a nearby +log and his pulse thrilled a bit when he saw that what was in view was +the rounded top of a big rock. + +Impetuously he leaped on through the bushes, but when nearly there he +stumbled and fell over a tree root. Following the fallen trunk he noted +an enormous split, extending from where the trunk divided halfway down +towards the upturned root. + +"By hokey! Can this be it?" + +Plunging through the thick bushes, he reached the place where the +branches spread out over the ground, first noticing that the withered +leaves, like needles, still sharp and pointed, were undoubtedly of the +hemlock variety. Moreover, the big rock which had first caught his +attention seemed to be about the proper distance from where the roots +showed the hemlock must have stood before the storm, or whatever caused +it to fall, had done its work. + +About this time he heard calls from his partners, for Phil was yet +hidden from them by intervening bushes. Moreover, he was some distance +away, which confirmed one of two facts. Either the two lads had measured +or counted wrong in their advance with the tapeline or, as Phil +concluded, the distance was only approximate. A prisoner, trusting +largely to memory, Coster could not be exact, unless by sheer accident. + +"Hullo! Here I am, boys! Come this way!" + +They came, Phil assisting their progress by calling out now and then. +When they arrived, no hemlock being in sight, the boys stared first at +Phil seated on the trunk of an upturned tree, then at the boulder close +by. + +"How'd you get way out here?" demanded Paul. + +"Followed my nose! How would you think?" Phil looked amused. "What's +that you got--a tapeline?" + +"Yep," replied Dave. "Wanted to be exact as possible." + +Phil laughed. Said he: + +"Do you reckon Coster was very exact when he drew that map--from +memory?" + +"Oh--stuff! I don't see any big split hemlock." + +"You're looking at it, stupid! I'm sitting on the butt of it, and right +there is the rock, I think." + +At first inclined to scoff, both lads now saw Phil's side of it at once. +Dave looked about again. + +"It's a thick place here," he ventured. "You were lucky to stumble on it +this way, Phil." + +"Didn't stumble on it. I was particular about keeping my compass right. +When I got where I thought I might have gone half a mile or so I began +to look round a bit. I couldn't see any big split hemlock, but I did +manage to find this big rock. After that it was easy to find the tree, +even though it had been blown down." + +After some further talk it was agreed that the first step would be to +return to the car. Then they would decide upon what to do next. + +"I think we should visit that old tavern while we are here," remarked +Paul. "No knowing what we might find there. If there's an old shovel or +anything, we might come back and dig under that rock for a starter." + +Phil and Dave also had their theories as to what should next be in +order, but nothing conclusive was determined on. Meanwhile the three, +threading the trail Phil had first followed and which Dave and Paul had +made more distinct, they finally reached the clump of shade trees where +they had left Billy on guard over the Big Six. + +But in the place of the glistening car with Billy Worth still on guard +there was only a vacant place. No glimpse of either was anywhere to be +seen. + +"Look here--on the ground," exclaimed Paul, pointing here and there. +"Somebody else has been here! Looks as if there had been a scuffle!" + +Where Paul was pointing there were signs of many footsteps, inextricably +intermingled, with sundry deep gouges in the loose soil as if those who +made them were in a struggle of some kind. + +"Look here, boys!" Dave was holding up a soiled handkerchief that he had +found underneath a jumble of twigs and leaves evidently kicked together +by those engaged in the scuffling, signs of which were more than +plentiful. "By jimminy! That's Billy's handkerchief or I'm blind!" + +Sure enough, it was Billy's, for in one corner were his initials which +the boys had often seen on many of his belongings. + +Phil meanwhile had been taking a comprehensive survey of the whole +scene. Presently he noted that while the struggles had gone on mostly in +one spot, there were, at one side, clear markings of the car wheels as +it was steered in a semicircle towards the very road along which the +boys had traveled not more than an hour or so before. + +"Boys," said he, "I hate to acknowledge it, but Billy must have been +surprised by somebody. Probably outnumbered, too. These tracks show that +Billy must have put up a good fight; but they were too many for him, +whoever they were. Come on! We've no time to lose!" And straightway he +began following the tracks through the straggly undergrowth until he +reached the road. + +The others, catching the significance of Phil's suspicions, plodded +after, taking in as they went where the car, avoiding the more open +spaces, had plunged through the thicker growth. Evidently those on board +were bent on gaining the road by the nearest route, and at a point +somewhat beyond where the car had turned off when the boys first reached +that place. + +To the right was the old tavern, and at one spot the car had stopped +where there were signs that a path had been crushed out in traveling +through the brush towards the tavern. + +"Look here," said Phil. "What does this mean?" + +The signs were plain that something or someone had been half dragged or +carried along towards the old Ghost Tavern. + +"What had we better do?" exclaimed Dave. "Follow the car or take a look +into that old ramshackle building?" + +"Gee! Why, Billy may have been carried there--hark!" + +At this from Paul all listened intently. There were certainly queer +sounds to be heard somewhere ahead. Phil dashed boldly forward, calling: + +"Dave, you go back and see which way that car went! Then come back to +Paul and me. Get a hustle on now!" + +Paul, dashing on after Phil, heard Dave grunt a dubious acquiescence as +he turned back towards the road. They could trust Dave. He was often +doubtful, even dubious, but he had sharp eyes and good judgment in the +main. + +A minute or so later Phil, followed closely by Jones, reached a more +open space, though overgrown with straggly weeds and grass. + +"This must be the yard of the old inn," remarked Phil. "Look, Paul!" + +He was pointing where the woods trail on entering the yard showed +distinct signs where some hard objects had been half dragged. It was as +if boot-heels had dented the soft places in a steady imprint. + +Just then came sounds from inside the house that might have been grunts +or groans of pain. Without a halt Phil dashed over the porch, where +heavier weights had partially crushed the rotten flooring. Avoiding +these places, the two boys--Phil still in the lead--entered a short +hallway, where was a doorless opening that led into what once had +doubtless been the tavern office. + +On the floor of the porch and hallway were fresh tracks, with the trail +of shoe or boot-heels dragging along. The office room looked dark +inside, though a couple of sashless windows let in some light which was, +however, little more than shadowy gloom from the overhanging branches of +the trees without. While they stared, listening, something stirred and +scraped the dusty floor in a far corner, where a short counter toppled +outward as if in danger of falling over. + +"What's that?" echoed Phil. "Is it anybody?" + +Muffled, jerky noises issued from the recess under the half tumbling +counter. With an exclamation Paul darted forward, reached under the +counter and felt an object that at once electrified the boy. + +"Let's pull it out, Phil!" he urged. "It may be--" + +Aided by Phil, Paul dragged forth a bound form, tied hand and foot with +improvised shreds of cloth, the mouth tightly gagged with a couple of +kerchiefs--in a word, Billy! + +"Why, Billy, you poor boy!" exclaimed Phil, whipping out his knife and +in another minute releasing the cords that bound him and cutting loose +the cruel gag that had been so tightly forced into the lad's mouth that +the corners of his lips were bleeding. + +They bore him out of the porch to a grassy place, where with a sudden +wriggle Billy sat upright, twisted his neck about, gulped a time or two, +then stared at his comrades as if astonished. + +"D-didn't you hear me holler?" he asked. "But of course you didn't. +Before I was half awake they had me down out of that car trying to gag +and bind me." + +"Who, Billy? Just what do you mean?" + +"I mean those two chaps that caught me fast asleep under Paul's rug on +the back seat, taking forty winks when I ought to have kept wide awake." + +"Two men?" Instantly Phil's thoughts ran back to the two strangers they +had seen at Feeney's who seemed so anxious to get away as soon as the +boys arrived with Nan. + +"Would you know them if you saw them? Were they the two strangers we saw +at Feeney's? Think hard, Billy!" + +"Confound 'em--they had on handkerchiefs that covered their faces, so I +could hardly tell. I didn't get more'n a glimpse or two along at first. +Then they pulled something over my head after gagging me so tight it +hurt. My mouth is sore now." Billy dubiously fingered the corners of his +mouth. "One thing I'm sure of. One of the men we saw at Feeney's had on +a visored gray cap and gray clothes. The other wore something darker. I +feel sure the gray-clad man was one of 'em. Of course I never got half a +glimpse of their faces." + +"Recognize these handkerchiefs?" asked Phil, showing the ones used in +binding and gagging. "Two of 'em are bandanas: the others of a soiled, +nondescript variety that might have belonged to tramps of any sort." + +By this time Billy was more himself, being pretty well recovered from +his recent manhandling. He was the first to think again of the Big Six. + +"I'm all right now, fellows. Let's see what went with the car. They +stopped with me some distance from this old rookery. Gosh! If it wasn't +for the car, I'd like to take a look around!" + +But, like Worth, whom they were most glad to have with them again, all +hated to feel that the pride of their hearts, their new car, was gone. +But where? + +At this juncture they were joined by MacLester, who after greeting Billy +very effusively for one who had seen him just two hours before, turned +to the others, interrupting Worth's brief recital of what had happened +to him. + +"Boys," Dave began, "I followed those tracks about thirty yards or so; +then they turned towards the railroad; right through the woods, too. +Rough going for a car like ours. I bet she's all scratched up by now, if +nothing worse happens to her." + +"Did you go any further, Dave?" This from Paul eagerly. + +"Why, yes! Presently the car struck another old trail that led towards +the road, and I picked up this." + +Mac held out the visored cap Worth had mentioned to Paul and Phil. At +sight of it Billy grabbed it and turned it over in his hands as he said: + +"That's the one the chap in gray wore, I'm sure." + +"Must 'a' got knocked off going through the woods," said Dave. "I think +they were in a hurry or they'd never have plunged along the way they did +over such rough places." + +"Well, if we're through here, let's get on." Thus spoke Phil, ever +mindful of the lost car. "I took a look into a back room of the old +tavern, and I saw a queer outfit--looked as if they'd been camping and +working there. Saw tools, and what looked like a sort of forge or +fireplace. But we've no time now for anything but to look after the car. +Come on!" + +Rapidly now the four lads pushed through the woods along the old road, +then into the woods again along the open trail that led recklessly over +rocks, through thick undergrowth and over fallen saplings, with here and +there uneven rifts and rises, showing that nothing but superior motor +power could have propelled the machine thus far. + +"Bust their dirty hides!" said Paul wrathfully. "Those two ain't fit to +drive cattle to water! Hello! What's that?" + +Jones, being in the lead, was pointing at a tumbled mass of their own +outfit that had been dumped overboard during a rapid downward course, +the end of which was not in sight owing to the thicker screen of bushes +beyond, which the partially denuded car somehow had crashed through. + +Paul and Billy paused to gather up the suitcases, bags of bedding, and +the wicker hamper containing their present supply of food, while Dave +and Phil hurried ahead, their route roughly descending now until, +reaching the thick screen where the car had crashed through, they came +unexpectedly to a low embankment. At the bottom was the dry bed of a +small brooklet, with a further shore that sloped gradually up into +second-growth timber again. + +But this was not all. Right below the two boys was the Big Six; not +upright, but lying on its side, two wheels in the air, yet apparently +uninjured. Uttering a shout of joy at sight of the beloved car, Dave +jumped down the declivity, the irregular projections of which had +doubtless caused the Six to turn over under the reckless driving it had +been subjected to ever since it had been seized. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +UNDER THE CAR + + +Reassured as to the fate of the car, Phil was about to turn back to +where Paul and Billy were still picking up the things, when Dave's voice +was heard: + +"Oh, Phil! Here's trouble! Come on down here--quick!" + +Shouting back to the two lads behind that the car was found, Phil jumped +down and ran round to where Dave was staring at something on the ground. +Meantime catching the meaning of Phil's words, Paul and Billy hurried +forward with the loads they already had. + +"Geemineddy!" This was of course by Paul, always emphatic and +exclamatory. "If I ever get my hands on that old Six again, I bet she +don't go out of my reckoning soon!" + +"I know just how you feel, Paul. I was to blame, but--oh, don't I wish +we had the chaps that did it!" + +The two, their hands filled with sundry belongings, were hastening after +Phil who had vanished from their view. Down the slope, over the jagged +embankment they hurried, giving a yell as they saw the Big Six upturned, +but apparently safe. The tops of Dave's and Phil's heads bobbed up and +down on the further side of the car. + +Reaching the spot, what was their surprise to see the body of a man +lying prone on the ground, his legs and part of his body fairly under +the car. Billy, after one look, gave a gasp of amazement. The man was +bareheaded, his face half turned under and pressed against the ground. + +"Here, boys," began Phil. "Drop everything and let's turn the car off +his body!" + +By the united efforts of all the Big Six was lifted at the forward end +so that the weight of the car no longer rested on the dead or insensible +man. + +"Boys," said Billy, "that's the man in gray who wore the visored cap we +found back yonder. I'll swear to that. Is he dead?" + +Phil and Dave, stooping closely, examined the man, and in so doing +turned his head to one side. There, near the temple, was a purplish +blot, from which a few drops of blood were trickling. At the same time +certain movements, not unlike muscular tremors, were evident in body and +limbs. + +"Why, he's alive!" said Paul. "Let's get him more comfortably placed." + +While this was being done Worth picked up a tin cup, ran to a rocky +puddle in the dried brooklet where some water was left, and returning +with the filled cup bathed the fellow's face and head, very gently now +that they knew life was not extinct. + +This, aided by the more comfortable position in which he had been +placed, had such effect that the man's eyes soon opened. He groaned as +he breathed, while with one hand he attempted to feel his head near what +was now seen to be a bullet wound. Paul, wiping his head, felt a +protuberance under his hair, and directly thereafter drew forth a small +pointed bullet, such as is much used with pocket pistols of the Smith & +Wesson type. + +"Well, well!" exclaimed that lively youth. "If here ain't a regular +twenty-two pistol ball. It must have glanced along under the skin near +the temple and come out again. Who could have done it?" + +When the man felt Paul's hand extracting the ball from his mass of +touzled hair, he clutched at the place, saying: + +"I always--told--Dippy--that gun--was no--good--" A scuffling sigh, and +the fellow was again in a swoon. + +What had they better do now? Here was their car, all right except for +some scars and bruises incurred during the last flight after Billy was +captured and stowed away in the old tavern. Where was the other man? As +usual in such stress, Phil again took command of the situation. + +"This man's not dead. He may recover. He's either been shot by someone +or he's shot himself, which isn't likely." + +Here the man struggled into a half sitting position, as he murmured: + +"Didn't sh-shoot myself! Dippy shot--me! Dippy always--poor--shot--" + +Then with a groan he fell back again into a state of coma. Phil, looking +hastily over the car, now said: + +"Help right the car, boys." + +This was accomplished almost as soon as said, by simply easing the upper +side down so that the Six again stood on "all-fours," as Paul expressed +it. It stood squarely across the brook-bed, headed towards the railroad +which here was not more than an eighth of a mile distant. + +"Now, Paul," resumed Phil, "you hike across through the brush to the +railroad, if necessary. It may be the real highway lays over there +somewhere. Pick out the easiest way to get our car there. We can hardly +go back the way we came, can we?" The others shook their heads at this. +"When you're through, come back. Mebbe we'll meet you on the way." + +Without a word Paul vanished in the thick undergrowth beyond the +brooklet. Meanwhile Dave was examining the car, which he pronounced +uninjured by the rough usage to which it had been subjected with the +exception of sundry scars and a slight twist in one of the minor +connecting rods, easy to readjust. Both he and Phil were kept busy +restoring the things that had been dumped out by the fleeing couple +during the last stages of that hurried flight to--where? Probably where +they thought the nearest open road would be; or perhaps it was the +railroad and the nearest station they sought. + +When Paul came back, he said that they were only a short distance to the +new highway and the railroad. The guide book told them that they were +within a very few miles of a small station east, while Midlandville, the +nearest town west, was not more than two hours away, with a good road. + +"Better put that chap in the tonneau, hadn't we?" suggested Worth. + +"Aw, where'll we take him?" This from Dave who now was in the driver's +seat. + +"Looks like we had enough trouble long of him and his mate as it is." + +"Put him in back, of course," corrected Phil. "If these two are in bad +about something, it is our duty to keep track of this one, for the +present at least. Who knows? He may give us a pointer yet as to what +they were up to." + +So the wounded man, despite his querulous complaints, was put in the +tonneau with Billy and Paul to assist him and do whatever was necessary +to make him as comfortable as conditions would permit. + +Then the Big Six was started. As has been stated, the incline being +gradual, the big car, carefully steered, had less trouble in making the +remainder of the trip to the new highway than the boys anticipated. +True, with the injured man and the equipment of the lads the car was +rather crowded, but the motor did its duty, the purring sounds being as +even as could be wished. Paul, on his return, had broken down a sort of +trail which it was not difficult to follow. + +Arrived at the roadway it had been already determined that, as the day +was already well spent, they would return to Feeney's for the night, +then make for Midlandville in the morning. + +"Won't old Feeney open his eyes when we tell him what those two +strangers were up to to-day?" remarked Paul who, tired of fanning the +wounded man, had managed to exchange with Dave. + +Not far from where they turned into the highway, it veered southward, +leaving the railroad to the right, and a mile further crossed the old +road along which the boys had motored that morning on their way to the +old tavern. + +To say that they were cordially received by Mr. Feeney would be only the +truth. At sight of the bareheaded man in gray, his visored cap somewhere +among the things in the car, Pat eyed him perplexedly, saying: + +"Holy Moses! Little did I think to see the likes of you back again!" + +The wounded man opened his eyes slowly and blinked the lids when he saw +they were carrying him to the house from the car. + +"Dippy done it--yes--Dippy--he done it." Then he fainted away again. + +After the wounded man was placed on a cot in a small shed room attached +to Feeney's not very commodious house, Pat took Phil and Worth aside, +while Dave and Paul remained with the stranger. It was felt intuitively +that the man should be closely watched. Why none of them knew exactly, +except that their methods with Billy and the taking of the car indicated +that something was wrong, somewhere. What it might be, of course none of +them as yet had any distinct idea. Feeney scratched his head +meditatively, as he said to Phil: + +"Them two fellers come here about night, afore you boys appeared. They +wanted to stay all night and after breakfast they had my wife put up +some grub; quite a lot of it. But when you came in, all at once they +took a notion to leave, sudden-like. After they was gone my woman found +the stuff we'd packed up, which they seemed to have forgotten. That's +all we seen of 'em until you came in here with that one in the fix he's +in now." + +"It all does look mysterious," remarked Phil. "From a hasty look we took +in the old tavern we saw what looked like a forge and some tools. I +thought I glimpsed some dies but I might have been mistaken." + +"Wait a minute," broke in Pat, going to the door of the kitchen. "Ma," +he called out, "any sign of Nan and Dan yet?" + +A broad-bosomed, red-faced woman appeared for a minute at the open +doorway, as she replied: + +"No, Pat, I ain't seen nothin'. I went to the bend of the road, too. +It's time they was here onless something's bothered them." + +Coming back to the two boys, Feeney explained: + +"Last night, ruther late, Bill Spivee, our nearest neighbor to the west, +came over. He's got a telephone and he says that the Midlandville +op'rator asked him if any strangers had been round lately. Bill told 'em +he hadn't seen any, but that two fellers had stopped here, for I'd told +him that when we met up after puttin' up some marsh hay yon way," +jerking a thumb southward. "We often puts up wild grass together. + +"Well, later they 'phones ag'in. Asks Bill to see me right away and find +out all he could 'bout them strangers. If it was what they thought, them +fellers was wanted right away." + +Feeney pointed towards the shed-room, as he continued: "We mustn't let +go of that chap, whatever happens, until we knows more." + +"I should say not," put in Worth, who quickly related what these +strangers had done to him. Then Phil briefly described the subsequent +proceedings, including their finding the man senseless under the +overturned car, and with the pistol wound, finally showing the bullet +that had been found in his hair, which had glanced from the skull, as we +have described. Feeney looked at the bullet. + +"Smith & Wesson pistol sure!" He thought a moment. "I think I saw that +pistol when the man that is missing changed some of his things, as I was +passing their door. After thinking it all over, I sent Dan and Nan on +horseback, soon after you all left, but I didn't say nothing, for I +didn't really know nothing. We needed more coffee, and that was a good +excuse. But I told the kids to be sure and see the operator of the +telephone booth and try to find out what was the matter. I reckon we'll +know if they ever get back." + +Mrs. Feeney now appeared in the doorway and excitedly pointed westward. + +"Nan and Dan's a-comin'. I can see 'em out at the kitchen back door. +There's nobody with 'em as I can see." + +Just then Paul came in to say: + +"That chap's come to again. Looks like he's worrying some. What ought +Dave and I to do? He seems to want Dippy, as he calls that mate of his." + +Phil accompanied Paul back, while Worth remained with Pat to wait for +the arrival of the girl and boy. Their horses seemed tired, and stood +with drooping heads while they dismounted, delivered the coffee to their +mother and glanced shyly at Billy as the father explained briefly what +had happened. + +The children brought news that as soon as a telegram could reach +Midlandville, two officers would start at once for Feeney's place. Might +get there some time in the night. + +"Well, here's a pretty to-do!" exclaimed Mrs. Feeney. "How am I goin' to +feed so many strangers? You know, Pat, we're pretty near out of flour." + +"Shucks, mother! We got plenty of meal and hog meat, and there's +vegetables. We'll not starve. Besides," here he whispered in Mrs. +Feeney's ear, "you'll get some money from 'em, eh? I knows you--" + +"Pat, you know you're not going to charge them four boys, if they stay a +week. I've heard ye say so." + +"Now, Mrs. Feeney," put in Billy, "don't you worry! We boys are not +going to cost you a dollar more than we'll pay back. We like you folks." +Here Billy winked boldly at Nan who laughed as she slightly blushed. +"Anything will do us." + +"You sure are good boys," nodded Mrs. Feeney. "You were nice to my folks +on the way from the hay market. Pat and me are glad to have ye. But +these others--real strangers, that might be different." + +"Oh, Billy," called Paul from the shed doorway, "please come here!" + +Thus summoned, the two at once followed Paul into where the sick man was +picking at his wounded head and moaning: + +"Dippy--done--it. What'd you do it for, Dippy?" A series of feeble +coughings ensued, and the man again seemed to swoon away. + +"That's the way he keeps going on," remarked Worth, regarding Phil +attentively. "Reckon he ought to have a--a doctor?" + +After another short consultation Dan, who meanwhile had eaten and felt +refreshed and rested, set out on another horse for the nearest +physician. + +"Tell Doc the whole story, Dan," urged the father. "If we get any sense +outen him, mebbe it will help undo this mystery that surrounds the whole +business. Tell him I won't pay his bill, but the county probably will. +Thurfore he can stick it up to a pretty stiff figure." + +Meanwhile Phil had been conferring with his three chums apart. + +"I've made up my mind that some of us ought to visit that old tavern +again. There's something up down there or I'm a fool in judging by +appearances. How do we know that this Dippy, as that chap calls his +mate, may not slip in, having, as he may think, killed his partner, and +destroy what I saw when we went in after Billy? We've got time now. We +can take the car--Worth and me." + +"That sounds bully," exclaimed Worth. "I'm with you. They kidnaped me; I +want to get even." + +The only trouble now was that both Dave and Paul wanted to be "on," in +this adventure; but they yielded when Phil made it plain that part of +them must remain at Feeney's to make sure that the one they had captured +was in safe keeping. They all felt that if anything serious were in all +this, it was incumbent on all of them to be where things would go +smoothly. + +"Well then," remarked Phil in low tones, "when Billy and I are gone, it +falls on you, (meaning Dave and Paul) to help Feeney when anything +happens." + +Just then the wounded man suddenly sat up in bed, clapped a hand upon +his forehead and began to mumble to himself. + +"No--good--" he began. "Metal--dies--all there. Then--Dippy--tries to +kill--me--" + +"Who are you anyway?" suddenly demanded Phil, spurred by a sudden hope +that in his delirium the wounded man might let out something as his now +disordered brain appeared to connect the present with what he remembered +of the past. + +"Me?" The man stared vacantly past Phil at the wall. "I--I'm +Jimmy--Horr. I'm--I'm--" His voice trailed off into a mumble. + +Phil bent forward close as he demanded: + +"If you are Jimmy Horr, who is Dippy? You've been calling him often +enough. We want to find him." + +"D-Dippy--he--he's my partner. He's--he's Dippy Quinn--he--" Again he +stared, straight now at Phil. "Wh--who be you?" + +Still staring, he fell back, trembling as if in pain, muttering: + +"My head--my--he--head!" Then his eyes closed and he was off in another +apparent swoon. + +"Come on, Billy," said Phil. "Let us be off! Are the things out of the +car?" + +"Most of them," replied Dave. "I put 'em in the porch. Don't be gone +longer than you can help." + +In they jumped, Phil at the wheel, and the car purred softly down the +old woods road towards the Ghost Tavern. Whether either of them knew +their departure was observed by the Feeneys was not important, and gave +them no concern. Both now felt that no time should be lost in finding +out if the partner of Horr was yet in that vicinity. Despite the +improbability, Phil could not help feeling that if those two had been +doing wrong in the old inn, it might be that the survivor, as he +probably deemed himself, might wish to pay a final visit there before +taking his stealthy departure. + +In fact, so mysterious was the whole series of adventures which the boys +had gone through that almost anything might happen. In due time the Big +Six drew up near the old tavern, and the boys cunningly hid the car +behind a screen of shrubbery, where it would hardly be seen if any one +should pass by. Still Phil, in view of what had happened to the car, +made a suggestion. + +"You stay here, Billy; at least until I call you or you see something is +happening. If I find anyone or anything that's dangerous, I'll let you +know." + +"Will you--sure?" queried Worth anxiously. + +Before Phil, now out of the car and heading for the porch could answer, +there came the muffled sound of something inside the inn being moved. At +the sound Billy seized a heavy walking stick from the driver's seat, +which no one ever used, but which was carried simply because it might +some time come handy. Giving this to Phil, he himself took a short thick +rubber tube used at times when gasoline was transferred from a tank to +the machine reservoir. + +"I'm going with you, Phil," he whispered. "No use to say no!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AT THE OLD TAVERN + + +Phil offered no objection, but took the walking stick and at once +entered the porch, making as little noise as possible. Billy came close +behind, feeling the rubber tube to make sure that it could stun, if not +kill, when handled with due precision and force. + +As has been stated before, portions of the porch floor had been +previously broken in, where the elements had too heavily tested the +wood. Phil finally passed into the office without making any noise but +Billy was not so lucky. Despite his care, he misjudged where he trod +when he was near the doorway, when there was an ominous crackling sound +under his last footstep. + +"Cr-r-r-r--a-c-c-k!" Down went his leg, clear above his knee. In the +effort to rise, down went the other leg with a similar crunching +crumble, and there was Billy submerged, so to speak, to the waist. Nor +did it stop there, for under the porch was a cellar that extended pretty +well under the fore part of the ancient building. + +For half a moment Billy's form remained waist deep under the porch, when +from below there came another crackling, crunching sound, and Billy +began to descend at first slowly, as the rafters over the cellar began +to collapse. Then down he went amid a cloud of dust from the rotting +woodwork, as with a feverish exclamation he vanished from sight. Just at +this instant Phil wheeled, startled by the noise Worth was making and +started to whisper a cautionary "Silence!" + +At this juncture Billy vanished from sight, though Phil heard him, as he +struck the earth of the partially filled cellar, give voice as follows: + +"Hullo, Phil! I'm gone!" And that was all Phil then heard from Billy. + +Just then there came a scuffling noise from the interior, where a door, +partially open, led from the old office to the rear room. Knowing that +someone must be inside, for the noise was not from where Billy had gone +down, Phil grasped his cane harder and dashed through the open door into +the back room where he had before seen the forge and the tools, which he +had not been able to understand at the time. + +Right in front of him was another open door, beyond the hastily +constructed forge; and down what seemed to be a cellar stairway he could +see the head and shoulders of a man. The stranger was struggling upward, +impeded by some burden he was carrying with difficulty. + +It was difficult in the half light that filtered through the overhanging +shade trees without to distinguish anything distinctly. All Phil could +see was that the man wore a slouch hat, combed with cobwebs from the +cellar region below. All at once came the conviction to the lad: + +"This must be Dippy, whom the other was calling for so often." + +With this came Phil's resolve to boldly move up and prevent this +mysterious fellow's escape. He dashed forward, calling out: + +"Halt, you! Give an account of yourself! I--" + +Here the stranger, dropping the bundle he was carrying, attempted to +spring up the last two steps, at the same time reaching behind and +pulling forth something small that glittered in the semi-twilight. What +could it be--a pistol? At the mere thought, Phil leaped nearer, struck +at the glittering toy, while the descending blow knocked the fellow's +hat off and, partially stunning him, sent him back down the gloomy +stairway. The lower end of this was shrouded in deeper gloom, though +some light from a cellar window shed a little pale glow from the outside +daylight. + +Following closely, Phil began to stumble down the stairway, when he +heard another's unmistakable advance below. For Billy, still armed with +the rubber tube, had heard the mix-up going on above, together with +Phil's loud tones and the succeeding fracas; and he saw dimly the +tumbling of some bulky weight, followed by the heavier fall of a man's +body. + +"Great goodness!" thought Worth. "Can that be Phil?" + +With the thought he scrambled forward over heaps of loose earth to the +firmer floor of the main part of the cellar, until he stood over a +figure trying to rise. At the same time down stumbled his comrade, +saying: + +"I'll get you yet--mind that!" + +Satisfied now that it was not Phil at his feet, Billy brought down his +heavy rubber tube over the man's head, who sank back uttering a groan of +pain. At the same time Phil, reaching the bottom of the stairway, saw +something twinkle in the dirt at his feet. He picked it up. + +"Here is the pistol he was trying to shoot me with, Billy. Don't let him +up while I feel for some cord I brought along." + +Billy, standing astride the prostrate man, took the pistol, a small +affair. As the stranger groaned and moved Billy gave him another sharp +tap with the tubing that seemed to settle his hash, as the boys later +expressed it. + +Fingering the weapon, Billy found that it was loaded, all except one +chamber. He looked up, saying: + +"I bet a nickel against a cent that this is the same pistol that +shot--what's his name?--Horr." + +Meantime Phil, having produced several cords that he had taken from the +tool box of the Six, proceeded to bind the stranger's wrists together +behind his back as he lay half stunned by Billy's attack. While so +doing, he stumbled against a heavy object that proved to be a cheap +suitcase, filled by something that rattled metallically as it was moved. +Having tied the man's wrists, they half carried him up the stairway, +through the back room and into the old office. Here Billy stood guard +armed with the tube and the pistol. This last they discovered was enough +like the one Billy had at home to be its mate. Also one chamber being +empty, Phil at once felt sure--with Worth--that they now held the very +weapon that had been fired at Horr, the supposed comrade of the man now +recovering his senses at their feet. + +"Watch him close, Billy," cautioned Phil, "while I go below and get that +suitcase, and look around a little before we go back to Feeney's." + +"Don't be uneasy, Phil. I'll watch him all right. Ain't I just getting +even for the way those two did me when they ran away with our car?" + +While Phil was gone below the stranger, recovering his senses, and +seeing only a boy standing over him, looked up with cunning, yet +imploring eyes. + +"Say, kid," he weakly began, "that was a bad blow you hit me. My head's +about to bust. You've tied my arms too tight. Please loose me. I won't +do anything." + +"No, you won't! Not while I'm in sight! Remember how you and your pal, +who's been calling on you constantly, did for me when you caught me fast +asleep? Not much will you get away! Just bank on that, will you?" + +"I mean all right, boy. 'Deed I do! Just came back here for a few things +that belong to us. Be a good boy. Turn me loose. I'll go with you all +right." + +"No, you won't! We don't trust you. Besides that, your pal's begging us +hard to fetch 'Dippy' back. Wants to see you and ask you why you shot +him after stealing our car. Do you catch on?" + +At this the man, whose head and shoulder was bruised and aching from the +effect of Billy's rubber tube, seemed to give up. But Worth had one more +arrow. He produced the pistol, showed the man the one empty chamber, and +said: + +"Look here, Quinn. That's your name or the one you go by, for Horr said +it was. See that empty cartridge? I know these Smith & Wesson +twenty-twos, for I've got one at home myself. We got the bullet, too. It +glanced off and came out. You might as well own up now and thank your +stars you didn't kill your pal, or you would be in for murder as well as +these other jobs." + +But before the man could make any rejoinder back came Phil with the +suitcase which seemed quite heavy. In the other hand he carried the +stranger's black felt hat, from which Phil had brushed most of the dust +and cobwebs and placed it on the man's head as he now sat leaning +against the edge of the tottering counter behind which the boys had +found Billy after his capture by the two who attempted to escape with +the Six. + +"Can you stand and walk?" queried Phil. "We've got to put you in our +car; the one you and Horr tried to steal." + +The man, now sullen enough, made no reply. Without more ado they helped +him up and started with him towards the porch. Though his hands were +tied, he went grudgingly until he saw the big, yawning open space made +by Worth when the boy fell through both porch floor and the cellar +roofing below. The sight seemed to nerve the man to a final effort. + +As they stood at the outer office entrance he suddenly pushed against +Phil on one side and at the same time butted his head into Worth as +forcibly as possible. Worth fell down while Phil, overborne by the +weight of the suitcase, seemed in danger of stepping into the hole in +front. The man, seeing a wild chance, drew back his foot, and was about +to kick at the suitcase as if to send it through the hole in front. + +"You would, would you?" grunted Billy, recovering in time to put his +back against the door-facing and administer a push with his foot to the +man, still standing on one leg in the act of kicking at the suitcase. + +Down he went, the intended kick going wild. At the same moment Phil, +having dropped the suitcase, sprang upon the man and with Billy's ready +aid, managed to bind both legs fast together, so that he lay helpless. +After that the boys dragged their prisoner across the porch, then they +carried him to where the car stood amid the shrubbery and placed him in +the tonneau. + +"Now, Billy," said Phil, "you watch him close. I'll go back, get that +bag of his, shut the doors and come back. Don't take your eyes off him. +He's tricky!" + +And Phil again went back while Worth stood over the man watchful and +wary. + +He was a sullen looking chap, like and yet unlike the stranger whom, +with his partner, Billy had briefly seen that day at Feeney's. His eyes, +roving about, avoided Billy, while he apparently looked for some further +loop-hole that might offer another chance to resist or afford a possible +escape. + +"No good, old man," remarked Worth, standing over him with the tube in +hand, ready for any move the bound man might make. "You've got to go +with us." + +"Look here!" suddenly said the fellow. "We've got money--me and my +partner. Why not turn us loose on the quiet? We'll make it all +right--sure." + +"How do we know you'll make it all right? Didn't you shoot your own +partner? He says you did. He calls you Dippy Quinn. That your name?" + +"Oh, that's nothing! I was reloading the pistol. It went off 'fore I +knew a thing. That's the real goods, boy! As I said, he and me have the +dough. Two hundred of it's yours, provided you'll turn us loose--on the +quiet." + +"You're talking to no good, Quinn. I wouldn't be party to turning either +you or Horr loose, not if you placed twice that amount in my hands right +now." + +About this time Phil was seen coming, lugging what appeared to be a very +heavy suitcase, evidently packed full of something that weighed about as +much as Phil could carry. At sight of this the man seemed beside himself +with anger. He almost spat in Billy's face as he declared: + +"You're both a dirty set of rogues! Yes, both of you! That," pointing at +the packed bag, "is mine--mine and my partner's. We wasn't bothering +you--" + +"Oh, no!" laughed Billy. "Come, that's good! All you did was to gag and +tie me and try to steal our car. That's a mere nothing, of course." + +Phil, by this time arriving, seated himself at the wheel, putting the +bag beside him. Then he looked warningly at Worth, saying: + +"Keep a sharp eye out, Billy. If he gets too obstreperous, just use the +tube. If that don't quiet him, try his pistol." + +Then he started the car, steering carefully until they had turned round +and were headed up the old road leading through the timber towards +Feeney's. As the car bumped along over the rough places, Quinn seemed to +be suffering greatly, his tightly bound ankles being the cause of his +present misery. + +"Honest, boy," he began, "at least loose my legs! I sprained my ankle +somehow in our scrap back yonder. Besides, there's a boil on my leg. +Just loosen it up a bit--that's a good kid!" + +One would have supposed that with the previous experience they had had +with this man, Billy would have given no heed. But Billy, naturally +soft-hearted, saw real tears in the man's eyes. His looks and manner now +were in such sharp contrast to that exhibited when he felt himself on +the verge of an escape that even Worth felt a certain compunction. Could +the man be shamming all the time, first in one way, then in another? + +With a side look at Phil, who was watching the road as he steered, he +bent forward as he said: + +"Does the cord hurt you like that? Will you promise to be quiet if I +loosen up those leg cords a bit? But mind you, none of your shenanigan, +if I do!" + +"No--no--no--course not!" Thus the man mumbled, his breath coming and +going tremulously, but his wet eyes, resting on Billy appealingly, +suddenly changed their expression as Billy's head bent down over the +cord, and a swift, crafty gleam shot from under his treacherous brows, +while Worth was bending over the confined legs. Meantime Phil, trusting +to Billy's watchfulness, was fully occupied with the wheel and the +brakes, for right here was a bad bit of going. + +In manipulating the cord so as to loosen it a little--not too much--and +while, in order to deceive Billy, the fellow kept up his groaning, +Billy's fingers were all needed. He hastily tucked under his arm the +tube for a moment, as he contended with a stubborn portion of the knot. + +Watching both the condition of the loosening knot and noting that no one +else seemed to be regarding them, the man shoved his legs apart. At the +same time he seized the tube with both hands, jerking it from the arms +of Worth. Then, springing to his feet, he raised the tube upward--all in +the twinkling of an eye, so to speak. + +With one shoulder he pushed Billy heavily, so that the boy dropped back +into his seat just as Quinn levelled a quick blow across the tonneau at +Phil, still busy at the wheel. The blow came as a complete surprise to +the latter, still fully occupied with the wheel and the brakes. +Fortunately Phil happened to bend forward in shifting gears, and the +blow aimed for Phil's head fell glancingly along his shoulder. Even then +the force was temporarily paralyzing. + +The boy shrunk still further forward under the blow, the movement +causing him to press his foot on the brake. Hence they began to slow +towards a stop. With his faculties still shaken, he mechanically threw +on the halting gear, thus bringing the car to a gradual stop. + +Meanwhile Billy, seeing at once how he had been duped, raised up so +forcibly that he bumped against the prisoner, who was trying to throw +himself from the tonneau to the ground, his legs now being practically +loose. + +"Ha, you will, eh?" gasped Worth. "I'll show you!" + +Reaching forth he grabbed a leg of the leaping fugitive, holding on for +dear life, so that instead of alighting on his feet, the fellow actually +fell forward over the tonneau with his head and arms dragging along with +the car. Reaching the earth, the man managed to wrench free from Billy's +clutch and finally kick himself loose, though with his arms still bound. + +Meantime Phil, having recovered, was already climbing from the car, and +as the man scrambled to his feet he started in pursuit. + +"After him, Phil!" shouted Worth, bursting through the tonneau door. "He +fooled me! Don't give up! I'm behind you!" + +From then on it became a sharp though short race. First the fugitive, +his hands tied behind, bareheaded, straining every nerve. Just in his +rear came Phil, with every muscle doing double duty, reaching forward to +grab him who fled. A yard or two behind was Billy, doing a stunt in +rapid running that might have surprised him a few minutes before. + +The man was agile enough, though doubtless tired. Besides this his arms, +inconveniently bound behind his back, doubtless interfered with his +running. One result was that after several futile grasps, Phil was at +last able to fasten his grip on the man's tied arms. From that to +passing an arm round his neck and hanging grimly on was but momentary. + +Then in came Billy, fairly frothing over the manner in which he had been +tricked by the captive just when he was trying to make the stranger less +uncomfortable. Between them they soon had him down on the ground where +he writhed, kicked and twisted about in a climax of sheer desperation. + +Doubly exasperated, Billy managed to get hold of a stout, short bit of a +club from amid the fallen litter of the woods, and brought it down +smartly on the man's head. It raised a welt, but he continued to +struggle, though with decreasing force. Evidently he was becoming +exhausted. Suddenly Worth jerked out his handkerchief, saying at the +same time: + +"Gimme yours, Phil--quick!" + +Phil not only complied, but resumed holding down the stranger so +effectively that in another minute Worth soon had his legs bound fast +again. + +"Now let's drag him back to the car and be off," remarked Phil. "Really +the way that chap acts causes me to feel sure we've made a haul that the +law will more than sanction. Yet I won't feel safe until we have him +back at Feeney's." + +The prisoner was lifted in the car where Billy stood over him, with +pistol and the tube club ready for instant use if necessary. Without +further trouble the Big Six sped along the rough roads until at length +Feeney's house was reached. What was their surprise to see another car +drawn up before the yard gate, while two strange men were coming out of +the house, evidently in a great hurry, preparatory to entering their own +machine. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CONCLUSION + + +At sight of the Big Six they halted, while in their rear came MacLester +and Paul, with Mr. Feeney looking over their shoulders in sheer +amazement at what his eyes beheld. Noting Worth's and Phil's disordered +attire and the bound, somewhat bruised captive inside the tonneau, the +foremost man came forward, saying to the two lads: + +"Well, well! I guess you have saved us some trouble, you boys!" He waved +a hand at his partner. "Permit me to introduce self and partner. We're +from Buffalo, plain clothes detectives, secret service. McPherson is my +name; Westcott that of my partner. We already know yours through Mr. +Rack, of Syracuse. Guess you know him. This man," pointing at Quinn, +"and the other chap inside have been wanted some time for illegal +coinage. After putting them under guard we will visit that old Tavern +for further proofs. What's this?" + +"It's what that man Quinn was trying to lug off when we took him. Before +that they had stolen our car--" This from Billy. + +"I know, I know! And you got this, did you? Pretty good!" McPherson had +opened the valise, disclosing tools, dies, bars of metal and numerous +coins. "We were at Midlandville. Heard of you there. Also got wind of +these chaps and the old Tavern, and, prompted by Rack, we hurried along, +fearing you lads might alarm them, inadvertently of course. But you have +done well, remarkably well! There's a thousand reward out for them and +it looks as if you four boys will have decidedly the best claim." + +Meantime Westcott, assisted by Feeney, who greeted the two lads +effusively, carried in Quinn to join his comrade under strict guard. + +"Are you not entitled to that reward, Mr. McPherson?" asked Phil at +length. + +"No, sir. Not if anyone else does more than we in apprehending them. It +looks now as if you four and perhaps Feeney and his folks will be +entitled to all there is in it." + +It may be said here that after all was over, the boys insisted that the +Feeneys should share proportionately in the reward. It did Phil good to +see the delight which these humble, hard working folks felt in what the +third of that reward might do for them. They needed it and were glad to +get it besides being grateful to our boys for being so generous. + +Three days later the Big Six rolled smoothly into Lannington once more. +Glad indeed were the Auto Boys to see again the dear home faces and +receive the sweet home greetings. "And also, and likewise," said Mr. +Paul Jones, "home cooking beats the world!" + +A number of weeks later the boys read of Adam W. Kull being sentenced to +serve seven years in prison, while Grant Coster received a sentence of +two years. Thus vividly reminded of their adventures, the friends +renewed a former effort to learn how Scottie had happened to appear in +Lannington, their own home city. They could not, though it was evident +that the dog, always even humanly fond of automobiles, had followed some +car there. + +Phil and Billy were now preparing to enter college. Dave was already +occupying a steady position in his father's shop and Paul was about to +take up engineering in a school near home. Slowly but surely the almost +unbroken companionship of years' duration was encroached upon by the +demands the days were bringing. The boys were growing older. But I know +there were still no pleasanter hours for any of them than when, on +holidays and of an evening, they sometimes met again at the little green +and yellow garage under the whispering elms. + +THE END + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Rider Agents WANTED + +Boys and young men everywhere are making good money taking orders for +"Ranger" bicycles and bicycle tires. 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They are +easily, effectively staged--just the sort that girls like to play and +that enthusiastic audiences heartily enjoy. + +CLOTH BINDING . . . $0.50 + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Auto Boys' Vacation, by James A. Braden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTO BOYS' VACATION *** + +***** This file should be named 33476.txt or 33476.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/4/7/33476/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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