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diff --git a/old/50282-0.txt b/old/50282-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 355e4fa..0000000 --- a/old/50282-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6353 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto, by Roy Rockwood - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto - Or A Run for the Golden Cup - -Author: Roy Rockwood - -Release Date: October 22, 2015 [EBook #50282] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPEEDWELL BOYS *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rick Morris and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -[Illustration: - - THE AUTOMOBILES CAME THROUGH SO CLOSE TOGETHER. - _Speedwell Boys and their Racing Auto_ _Page_ 161 -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - The Speedwell Boys - and Their Racing Auto - - - Or - - A Run for the Golden Cup - - - - - BY - ROY ROCKWOOD - AUTHOR OF “THE SPEEDWELL BOYS ON MOTORCYCLES,” “THE - DAVE DASHAWAY SERIES,” “THE GREAT - MARVEL SERIES,” ETC. - - - - - ILLUSTRATED - - - - - NEW YORK - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY - PUBLISHERS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BOOKS FOR BOYS - BY ROY ROCKWOOD - - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS SERIES - 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. - - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS ON MOTORCYCLES - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS AND THEIR RACING AUTO - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS AND THEIR POWER LAUNCH - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS IN A SUBMARINE - - THE DAVE DASHAWAY SERIES - 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. - - DAVE DASHAWAY THE YOUNG AVIATOR - DAVE DASHAWAY AND HIS HYDROPLANE - DAVE DASHAWAY AND HIS GIANT AIRSHIP - DAVE DASHAWAY AROUND THE WORLD - - THE GREAT MARVEL SERIES - 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. - - THROUGH THE AIR TO THE NORTH POLE - UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE - FIVE THOUSAND MILES UNDERGROUND - THROUGH SPACE TO MARS - LOST ON THE MOON - - CUPPLES & LEON CO. PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK - - Copyrighted 1913, by - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY - - -------------- - - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS AND THEIR RACING AUTO - - Printed in U. S. A. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - CONTENTS - - CHAPTER PAGE - I. THE MANŒUVERS OF MAXEY 1 - II. DAN SPEEDWELL AT HIS BEST 7 - III. MYSTERY OF THE MAROON CAR 14 - IV. BILLY ACTS ON IMPULSE 25 - V. THE ROBBERY OF THE BANK 32 - VI. A FIRST DIFFICULTY 39 - VII. THE HAND IN THE DARK 48 - VIII. ON WATCH 57 - IX. THIEVES IN THE NIGHT 64 - X. JOSIAH SOMES ON THE WARPATH 72 - XI. ON A HOT TRAIL 79 - XII. A GREAT RUN 84 - XIII. A SHARP TURN 93 - XIV. A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS 99 - XV. SECRET SERVICE 105 - XVI. INGRATITUDE OF CHANCE AVERY 113 - XVII. A FRIEND IN NEED 118 - XVIII. ON THE ROAD TO KARNAC LAKE 126 - XIX. AN EXCITING RUN 135 - XX. ON THE ENDURANCE TEST 145 - XXI. THE FIRST TEN HOURS 156 - XXII. UNDERHAND WORK 167 - XXIII. QUEER ACTIONS OF NO. 41 177 - XXIV. AN OBSTACLE RACE 189 - XXV. THE CAR AND THE CUP 197 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS - AND THEIR RACING AUTO - - - - - CHAPTER I - - THE MANŒUVERS OF MAXEY - - -“Say, fellows! Look at what’s coming!” - -“Oh, my eyes! See him wabble! Why, he’ll be over the wall into the -river, machine and all, if he doesn’t watch out.” - -“Say, Dan, did you ever see a fellow run a car as bad as Maxey? If we -didn’t know better we’d think he had a fit,” declared Billy Speedwell, -who sat with his brother, and several of their chums, on a high, grassy -bank overlooking the Colasha River and above the road, a mile or two -below Riverdale. - -“He certainly does make a mess of it,” admitted the older Speedwell lad, -gazing down the road, as were his friends, at a drab-painted automobile -which was approaching them. - -They were five boys, all members of the Riverdale Outing Club and all -rode motorcycles which just now were leaning, in a row, against the -bank. The chums had come out after school for a short spin into the -country. It was fall, which fact was proven by the brilliant coloring of -the leaves. - -Beyond where the Riverdale boys lay on the short turf, and coming toward -them, was the erratically-guided car. The drab racer seldom kept the -middle of the road for a full minute at a time. It actually “wabbled,” -just as Jim Stetson said. - -And yet the fellow at the wheel of the machine had been driving it up -and down the roads for nearly three months. - -No instruction, and no practice, seemed to avail with Maxey Solomons, -however. His father was one of the richest men in the county, and when -Maxey expressed a wish to own and drive a car, Mr. Solomons made no -objection. Indeed, the wealthy clothing manufacturer seldom thwarted the -least of his son’s desires. - -But the drab auto seemed aiming for trouble now. It nearly ran up the -bank on the inner side of the road; then it shifted to the other side -under the manipulation of Maxey at the steering wheel, just grazing the -stone fence that separated the highway at this point from the sheer drop -of fifty feet or more to the bank of the river. - -“As sure as you live,” cried Monroe Stevens, “he’ll back over the dump!” - -The boys with the motorcycles jumped to their feet the better to watch -the manœuvers of the drab car and its owner. Shaving the stone wall, -Maxey came back into the middle of the road and wabbled along for some -rods toward the group of Riverdale youths. - -Suddenly the spectators heard the purring of a fast moving car coming -from the direction of the town. The road was quite straight for a couple -of miles here; but there was a sharp turn behind the group of boys that -hid the approaching car. - -They knew it was coming at great speed. No warning was sounded on the -horn as the car approached the turn. The driver of the unknown auto was -very reckless. - -Dan Speedwell was first to realize that Maxey Solomons was very likely -to get into much more serious trouble than he was having at the moment, -if the fast motor car swept around the corner upon him without any -warning. It was well known that the only really successful way by which -Maxey could pass any vehicle on the road, was by pulling out to one -side, and stopping until the other machine went by! - -Although moving so slowly, the drab car was steadily approaching the -turn in the highway. Maxey was not two hundred yards from where the boys -stood upon the grassy bank. - -Knowing that he would only startle Maxey by running toward him, Dan -leaped away in the other direction. He reached the turn in the road and -saw the racing automobile coming in a cloud of dust. - -Surely the reckless driver of the machine must slow down to round this -curve. Dan Speedwell could see him plainly—a little, goggled-eyed -fellow, completely disguised in coat and motor-cap, alone in the -driver’s seat. - -There were two passengers, however, and Dan knew that they must see him -as he sprang out upon a jutting tree-root, and waved his cap wildly to -attract their attention. One of the men leaned forward and tapped the -chauffeur on the shoulder. He pointed to Dan above them on the bank; but -the boy’s warning motions did not seem to do the least bit of good. The -driver of the madly-running car did not reduce its speed. - -On came the racing automobile, and the cloud of dust which traveled with -it flew down to the curve in the road. The driver shifted his wheel and -the machine took the turn on its outer tires, with the others in the -air—Dan could actually see daylight between the wheels and the ground. - -The boy saw, too, that it was a heavy touring car; that it was painted -maroon, and that a blanket, or robe was trailing over the back of the -tonneau, fairly dragging in the dust, in fact, and so hiding the plate -on which was the license number. - -Without a single blast of the horn the car charged around the bend. The -group of boys on the bank yelled excitedly at Maxey down below. That -erratic youth beheld the maroon car coming and literally “threw up his -hands!” - -The road was wide enough so that the racing car could have passed -Maxey’s machine on the outside. But, unfortunately, it had stopped so -that the rear wheels, bearing the larger weight of the car, was on the -outer slope of the roadway, which was rounded to properly shed the -water. The drab car began to run backward. Maxey did not know enough to -put on the brakes. - -The few seconds that elapsed after the fast-traveling auto came around -the bend in the road would not have been sufficient for the chauffeur of -that car to stop; and he merely swerved to the outer side of the road, -intending to pass Maxey’s stalled car at full speed. - -Maxey himself was immovable with terror at the appearance of the -charging auto. He could not even leap from his seat. And when his own -car began to run backward, directly into the path of the other machine, -young Solomons only opened his mouth to emit a yell. - -The drab car ran back into the shallow gutter. The stone wall behind it -needed some repairs, several of the top layer of stones having fallen -into the chasm below the road. This left the barrier at the spot -scarcely eighteen inches high. - -The unguided motor car ran back until its rear wheels came against this -broken wall. The chauffeur of the maroon automobile swerved his car -again, but only slightly. His heavier machine, running fast, charged -down upon poor Maxey and his car like a huge battering-ram. - -There was nothing the boys on the bank could do to save Maxey, or his -car. And, at that late moment, there was little the wheelman of the -maroon car could do to avert the catastrophe. His reckless driving of -his machine made it impossible for him to stop in time. - -The collision stopped Maxey’s cry of fright in the middle. The lighter -car was flung up and backward by the swiftly moving and heavier touring -automobile. The latter passed on in a flash, and practically unharmed. -The drab car was flung over the low stone wall and, upside down, with -the cushions and other gear raining from it, dropped into space. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - DAN SPEEDWELL AT HIS BEST - - -Billy Speedwell, at the head of the other lads, leaped into the road and -sprinted to the spot where Maxey’s automobile had been thrown over the -embankment. They saw that the unfortunate youth had clung to his wheel; -but he had gone out of sight with the wreckage. - -Their interest in and sympathy for Maxey blinded them to the further -actions of the maroon car and the three men in it. But Dan Speedwell, -coming back toward the scene of the catastrophe, noted well the conduct -of these men. - -The chauffeur had made no proper attempt to avoid the collision; and now -he neither slowed down nor glanced back to see what had become of the -drab car and its driver. - -When Dan Speedwell reached the place where his motorcycle rested beside -the road, in company with those of the other boys, the maroon car was a -mile away along the straight highway. There was plainly no intention on -the part of the three men to stop and inquire as to the damage their car -had done. - -The other boys thought only of Maxey and his machine. Dan, angered by -the indifference of the other automobilists, had no intention of letting -them escape if he could help it. His mind was made up on the instant. He -seized his wheel and rolled it out into the road. - -The balloon of smoke which trailed the flying maroon car was already far -down the road. It seemed impossible for a boy on a motorcycle to seek to -overtake that flying vehicle. But Dan knew that farther on the -automobile could not safely maintain its present pace, and he knew -likewise the speed which he could get out of his machine. - -Dan and Billy Speedwell had owned their motorcycles a short time only; -but within that time they had learned to handle the machines with the -best. Both at the Compton motordrome, and in the Riverdale baseball park -the Speedwell boys had won high place in trials of speed. These races -are narrated in the first volume of this series, entitled: “The -Speedwell Boys on Motorcycles.” - -Their Flying Feathers, the newest model produced by the Darringford -Machine Shops, in Riverdale, had been given to the brothers by Robert -Darringford whose life Dan and Billy had saved from a fire that had -destroyed a part of the machine shop plant. - -Their parents were not in circumstances to give the boys such expensive -gifts as two hundred dollar motorcycles. Mr. Speedwell owned some dairy -cows and a few acres of land on the outskirts of Riverdale, and Dan and -Billy delivered the milk to their customers in town, even during the -school terms. When this story opened it chanced to be a Saturday -afternoon, or the Speedwell brothers would not have been idling here -with their friends on the river road. - -What Dan knew he could do under favorable conditions with his Flying -Feather urged him to start in pursuit of the heartless trio who had left -Maxey Solomons and his wrecked car to their fate. - -Before the other boys missed him, Dan’s machine was popping like the -explosion of an automatic gun, and he was several rods away from the -scene of the collision. The youth settled himself firmly in his seat, -opened his engine to almost its highest speed, and dashed away along the -road. - -The lad did not sight that car, however, for some time. The river road -followed the winding course of the stream itself, and it was fringed -with woods for a good part of the way. There were few dwellings on the -highway between Riverdale and Upton Falls. The men in the car could have -chosen no better stretch of road in the county for escape. There were -likely to be few vehicles, and no constables at all at this hour of the -day. - -It was perilous to run so fast on a public road, even when the way was -as smooth and well kept as this highway to Upton Falls. But the act of -those men in the racing automobile had roused Dan Speedwell’s -indignation. For all he knew, Maxey Solomons had met serious injury in -the wreck of his auto; the men guilty of the crime must be apprehended. - -On this hard track the automobile ahead left no trail; but for the first -few miles Dan was positive that the maroon car had not gone into any -by-way. In fact, there were no by-ways save into private estates, and -those offered no escape for the fugitives. - -The youth was quite sure that the men were strangers in the vicinity; he -was confident that the car was not familiar to the locality, at least, -for he and Billy were so much interested in the automobile game that -there was not a car in this end of the county that they did not know. - -The three men were strangers. They had deliberately made it impossible -for anyone to read the numbers on the license behind the car. They were -evidently of that reckless class of automobilists who ride through the -country districts with regard for neither law nor safety. - -A few moments only had elapsed since Dan started after the car when he -reached the first public cross-road—a highway turning away from the -river. But this road was macadamized, too, and offered no trace of the -automobile’s wheels. However, Dan did not believe the trio in the maroon -auto would turn aside, and he kept straight on. - -Although the distance to Upton Falls was considerable, the pace of the -motorcycle ate up the miles speedily. Dan and his steed of steel came -soon to the outskirts of the town. The pedestrians he passed looked -after the flying boy with wonder. Dan reached the head of Main street -and, as he began its descent toward Market Square, and the hotel, he saw -an automobile standing before the wide porch of the latter building. - -The maroon car! Dan was sure of it even at that distance. The trio of -reckless men who had perhaps injured Maxey Solomons had stayed their -flight at the Falls hotel. - -Even as Dan sped down the street, however, he observed that the men he -followed were climbing into their car again. The blanket had been drawn -in over the back seat of the car and the movements of the three were -leisurely enough. They were probably convinced that there was no -pursuit. - -The boy saw several men in the square whom he knew. One was a deputy -sheriff and this officer stepped quickly out into the street and held up -his hand for Dan and his Flying Feather to reduce speed. - -Dan shut off his engine. The maroon car was just starting. The short man -at the wheel guided the auto carefully out into the road, and turned -toward the highway that led to Barnegat. - -“Stop them!” cried Dan, waving his hand at the departing auto. “Arrest -those men, Mr. Polk!” - -“What do you mean, Dan?” demanded the deputy, running along by the boy’s -side as the Flying Feather slowed down. - -“Do as I say! They’ve perhaps killed a boy up the road. At any rate, -they smashed his automobile. Then they drove on, full tilt, and I -followed them.” - -“Nonsense, Dan! Not those men,” cried Mr. Polk. - -“Yes they did. I tell you it was a maroon car, with three men in it. I -was close enough.” - -“To see the license numbers?” interrupted the deputy sheriff. - -“They had the sign covered. But they came this way and I have followed -them too closely to be mistaken. Stop them, I say!” - -“Dan! you don’t know who these men are,” gasped Mr. Polk, as the -motorcycle came to a halt and the excited boy leaped off. - -“I don’t care who they are!” declared Speedwell, his righteous -indignation still inspiring him. “I saw what they did——” - -“Are you sure? Can’t you be mistaken?” - -“Didn’t they just come from Riverdale?” - -“Ye-es. They came from that direction.” - -“And I have been chasing them. There was no other car.” - -“But the gentlemen are beyond suspicion of any such act as you relate, -Dan!” cried the deputy sheriff. “One of them is Thomas Armitage, of -Compton, and the other is Raleigh Briggs, who has offered the prize for -the cross-country run of a thousand miles which is to be arranged next -month—you’ve heard of it. Why, Dan, neither of them would allow his -chauffeur to commit such an act of violence as you relate.” - - - - - CHAPTER III - - THE MYSTERY OF THE MAROON CAR - - -Dan Speedwell was completely taken aback by this statement of the deputy -sheriff. He knew that Mr. Polk must have surety for his words. The men -in the maroon automobile were well known and perfectly responsible -citizens. - -Indeed, as Dan wheeled his motorcycle nearer to the car he saw that the -two in the tonneau of the auto were much different-looking individuals -from those he expected to find. The men who had wrecked Maxey Solomons’ -auto, and perhaps killed the young man himself, would certainly not -possess the personal appearance of these gentlemen! - -Mr. Briggs Dan knew by reputation. He was the most enthusiastic motorist -in Crandall County. The thousand mile endurance test which he had -suggested, and to the winner of which he had promised a gold cup, -interested Dan and Billy Speedwell not a little, although they owned no -automobile, and at this time had no immediate expectation of getting a -car. - -“What does the young man want, Polk?” inquired Mr. Armitage, a -gray-mustached man with a ruddy face and pleasant smile. “He asked us to -stop; didn’t he?” - -“There’s a mistake been made somewhere, Mr. Armitage,” declared the -deputy sheriff, with some hesitation. “Dan is a good boy, and -trustworthy. But it seems he has been following you and Mr. Briggs on -his motorcycle——” - -“What for?” asked the gentleman, quickly. - -“Because of something that happened up the road. He says that the -automobile he followed wrecked another machine and hurt the driver.” - -“Our auto?” cried Mr. Armitage. - -“Why, Dan says it was a maroon car, like yours, and that it came direct -from Riverdale.” - -“By which road?” asked Mr. Briggs, quickly. - -“The river road,” said Dan. “I was sure I had followed the right -car—there was no other all the way.” - -“But we did not come to the Falls that way,” said Mr. Briggs. “We -traveled by the pike, and we stopped at Mr. Maury’s place for some -minutes.” - -“Oh, I know it could not have been your machine,” said Dan, hastily. -“The men who ran down Maxey Solomons have escaped by some means. They -must have taken a cross road toward the other side of the county.” - -“You did not get their number?” - -Dan quickly related the incidents which had brought him to this place, -and in such haste. The gentlemen in the car were sympathetic and -interested. - -“Come!” said, Mr. Armitage, “this matter must be looked into. The -rascals should be apprehended. They are getting farther and farther away -each minute, it is likely. Come, Briggs, what do you say? You have been -bragging about the speed of this car. Let’s see what Henri can get out -of her.” - -“I am with you, Armitage,” declared his friend. “Hop aboard, Polk. You -are a county officer. Those men must be arrested, if possible, and held -until we learn what damage they have done.” - -“I’ll go with you, Mr. Briggs,” said the deputy. - -He leaped into the tonneau. Mr. Armitage looked at Dan, who stood by his -motorcycle. - -“The boy had better go with us,” said Mr. Armitage. “He is evidently an -observant lad, and he will not be likely to make a second mistake in the -automobile.” - -“Yes! let the boy come,” said Mr. Briggs. “If he was a witness to the -accident he speaks of, we will need his testimony if we overtake the -guilty ones.” - -“But my machine?” said Dan, doubtfully. - -“Lift it right up here,” commanded Mr. Briggs. “We’ll fasten it on the -running board. Then, young man, you get in beside Henri, and we’ll be -off.” - -Dan was quick to obey these suggestions. His Flying Feather he stood -upright on the running board of the car, and he saw that it was fastened -securely. In five minutes they were off, after Mr. Polk left word at the -sheriff’s office for the officers to watch for the mysterious car and -its three occupants. - -The auto dashed off along the pike toward Riverdale. There were three -cross roads that the offenders against law might have taken, as long as -they did not complete their run to Upton Falls. But there were by-roads, -too, on which they might have hidden and the deputy sheriff advised -stopping to inquire at every farmhouse, and of every teamster whom they -met. It was some time, however, ere they picked up the trail of the -maroon car, and then they obtained the clue in quite a strange way. - -As they came to the lane leading up to a barn, the farmer came running -out with a pitch fork in his hand. Before Mr. Polk could speak, the man -demanded: - -“Ye got ’em, hev ye, Sheriff? Wa’al I’m glad of it! I’ll go right down -with ye t’ th’ ’squire’s office, an’ I guess, he’ll make ’em pay a -pretty price for their fun. That calf of mine run int’ a barbed wire -fence an’ tore herself all up——” - -“Hold on, Mr. Jackson!” exclaimed the deputy. “You’re getting your dates -mixed, I guess. These gentlemen certainly have done you no harm.” - -“No harm!” yelled the farmer. “When they come up through the Indian -Bridge road not an hour ago, they skeered my heifer into a conniption -fit, and come pretty nigh runnin’ over _me_ when I come out at ’em.” - -“Not _these_ gentlemen,” said Polk. “I can vouch for them. One is Mr. -Thomas Armitage, whom you ought to know, Jackson.” - -“I swan!” exclaimed the farmer. “I voted for him for Congress.” - -“Much obliged to you, I am sure,” said Mr. Armitage. “And I hope that -you will not think I so illy deserved your vote as to race an automobile -through these roads to the endangering of life and limb of good -citizens.” - -“Wa’al!” ejaculated the puzzled Mr. Jackson, “it was a car jest the same -color as yours, Mr. Armitage.” - -“And how many men were in it, Mr. Jackson?” interposed Polk. - -“Come to think on’t, there warn’t but three,” admitted the farmer. - -“Did you see the license number?” - -“Not much! They went so quick I couldn’t see much but the color of the -car.” - -“And in which direction did they disappear?” asked the deputy. - -The farmer pointed up the side road, away from the river. - -“They are making for the railroad,” declared Mr. Briggs, in some -excitement. “Drive ahead, Henri.” - -They came to the railroad—the Barnegat & Montrose Branch of the R., V. & -D.—and halted long enough to speak to the flagman. He had seen the -flying car, too. They were on the right track. - -But a mile beyond the pursuing party came to a place where the highway -branched in three directions. There was no house in sight. The escaping -car might have taken any one of the roads. - -“We’re stuck!” ejaculated Mr. Polk. “We might as well take one at random -and see if we can run down a clue upon it.” - -“Wait!” urged Dan Speedwell. “Perhaps I can do better than that.” - -He got out of the machine and ran into the first road at the right. He -had noticed that these highways here were not so well made as those -nearer the river. There was a chance that he might find some trace of -the passing of the strange car which they followed. - -And he was right in this surmise, although he did not find it in this -first road. Marks of the tires of an automobile—and fresh marks—were -visible in the middle road. As far as Dan could see no other machine had -passed this way. - -He leaped back beside the chauffeur and they drove on again at top -speed. A mile beyond they halted at a farm house to inquire. The passing -of an automobile in a cloud of dust had been noticed less than an hour -before; but the sight was too common to have attracted much attention, -and the occupants of the house had been too far from the road to note -the color of the machine, or the number of men in it. - -Mr. Briggs’ car was certainly fast, and Mr. Briggs’ chauffeur was the -most marvelous manipulator of an automobile that Dan Speedwell had ever -seen. And to sit directly beside the Frenchman and observe the skill and -art with which he handled the levers and the wheel was a sheer delight -to the boy. - -He thought to himself: - -“Ah! if Billy and I only owned an auto! If we could only take part in -this endurance test that Mr. Briggs is going to arrange! If we could -handle an auto half as well as this Frenchman!” - -But the boy’s thoughts were disturbed suddenly by Mr. Polk, who -remarked: - -“It looks to me as though these fellows were aiming for Port Luther, or -even Cadenz. Unless they turn back toward Riverdale and Compton they -will be obliged to strike some of the coast towns.” - -“Quite right, Polk,” admitted Mr. Armitage. - -“Then, here is Landers Station just ahead. There is a train coming down -now. I’ll take that train and go on. The railroad is more direct than -the highways and I may be able to head those fellows off at Port -Luther.” - -“And we stick to the trail in the car, Polk!” agreed the gentleman. -“What do you say, Briggs?” - -“It suits me. Henri, shall I take your place for a while?” Mr. Briggs -asked his chauffeur. - -“The young man here will change with me, Monsieur,” returned the kindly -Frenchman, who had seen how eagerly interested Dan was in the management -of the automobile. - -And when they halted at the railroad station to allow the deputy sheriff -to take the train, the chauffeur did indeed change places with Dan -Speedwell. Once at the wheel the youth proved that Henri had not been -mistaken in him. For a lad of sixteen Dan handled the car with great -dexterity. - -The maroon car was out of sight of the station before the train bearing -the deputy was on its way again; but the automobilists were obliged to -halt frequently to inquire for the motor car of which they were in -pursuit. And there were more autos than one ahead of them now. Sometimes -they lost the trail of the maroon car completely; but when they reached -the lively little town of Larned they learned that the fugitives had -halted at the local garage for gasoline, and that they had left, still -following the road toward the coast, but at a moderate pace. - -“Half an hour behind them—or thereabout,” exclaimed Mr. Armitage, with -satisfaction. “We should be able to pick that up.” - -But even as they started from the garage they met with an accident. A -forward tire blew out and the car came down with a solid bump on the -roadway. - -“Now!” cried Mr. Armitage. “Look at this delay! Isn’t it abominable?” - -But Mr. Briggs was a man of quick thought. He was observant, too. He -spoke to the owner of the garage. There was a good car standing on the -floor and it was for hire. In two minutes it had been run out, Henri was -at the wheel, and Mr. Armitage and Mr. Briggs in the tonneau of the -hired machine. - -Dan had expressed his desire to return to Riverdale. It would soon be -night, and he and Billy had many chores to do. They were now thirty -miles from home, and the boy feared to go farther without permission -from his parents. - -“And quite right,” Mr. Armitage said. “But hold yourself ready -to-morrow, my boy, if we have the good fortune to overtake those fellows -in the maroon car. We shall need you for a witness.” - -Dan promised and Mr. Briggs, who had consulted with Henri for a moment, -said: - -“My chauffeur tells me that you are quite able to run our car back to -Holliday’s garage at Riverdale. This man here will put on a new tire and -you can get back to town easier in my car than on your machine. Do you -want to do me that favor?” - -Dan’s sparkling eyes and flushed face replied for him before his lips -could form the words. It was so decided, and the others got off quickly -in the hired auto. Within the hour Dan started the beautiful touring car -on the back track, delighted with his charge, and looking forward to -nothing more than a pleasant run over familiar roads to his home town. - -It was growing dusk, however, long before he reached Riverdale. Indeed -he was all of ten miles from the town when he stopped to light his -lamps. Before he started the auto again he observed another car bearing -down upon him from ahead, its lights blazing in the dusk. - -Dan had pulled out to the side of the road and apprehended no danger. -But the coming car was braked quickly when a few rods from him, and its -driver brought it to a complete stop beside Mr. Briggs’ vehicle. - -One of the four men in the machine leaped out and, to Dan’s amazement, -stepped into the front of the maroon car beside him. - -“Hold up your hands!” commanded this man, in excited tones. “We’ve got -_you_, at least, if your pals have escaped. Hold up your hands!” - -Dan shrank back and demanded a reason for threatening him in this savage -way. - -“You know what I want,” said the man. “You are in the hands of the law. -I arrest you, for the robbery of the Farmers’ National Bank at -Riverdale!” - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - BILLY ACTS ON IMPULSE - - -The sight of Maxey Solomons and his automobile tossed over the -embankment and out of view—as a mad bull might toss a dog—frightened -Billy Speedwell and his mates; at the moment they did not, like Dan, -think of bringing the three men in the maroon motor car to account for -their rashness. - -With cries of fear they ran along the road to the broken place in the -stone wall. Motor car and driver had disappeared over the brink of the -chasm. The tops of several trees, the roots of which were embedded in -the soil of the river bank, were visible above the wall. The motor car -had crashed into these tree-tops; but the boys did not dream, at first, -that the branches would stay such a heavy object. - -When they came to the break in the stone wall and leaned over it, they -saw the drab automobile hanging in the air, not more than twenty feet -below the road. It was upside down and it had stuck in the crotched -branches of two of the tall trees. - -At first they saw nothing of Maxey; but of course, they could not see to -the ground at the foot of the fifty-foot precipice over which young -Solomons and his automobile had fallen. - -“He’s dead!” groaned Monroe Stevens. - -“Crushed to death down there—poor chap!” agreed Jim Stetson. - -“My goodness!” said Billy. “Who’ll tell his father? The old gentleman -will be all broken up. He just about lived for Maxey.” - -“And the auto isn’t worth a cent, either,” added Brace Henderson. - -At that moment a muffled voice reached their ears, and startled them -all. - -“Help! Mercy on us—isn’t this dreadful? Help!” - -Billy cried his surprise ahead of the others: - -“It’s Maxey! He is under the auto!” - -They could not see the owner of the wrecked car—not even his legs -dangled into view. But Maxey’s voice was unmistakable. - -“What you doing down there, Max?” cried Monroe Stevens, loudly. “Why -don’t you crawl out?” - -“I can’t!” wailed the voice of the hidden youth. - -“Why can’t you?” queried Henderson. - -“I don’t dare,” admitted Solomons. - -All the cushions of the automobile had rattled to the ground. Its driver -was clinging to the wheel, or some other stationary fixture, and not -being a particularly brave youth, he could only hang on. - -“Somebody’s got to help him,” declared Billy. - -“But we haven’t a rope,” objected Jim Stetson. “How can we get him up -here?” - -“Belts, boys!” cried the quick-witted Billy Speedwell. “Buckle ’em -together. I can jump into the top of one of those trees, and I’ll carry -the line of belts down, fasten it to the tree, and then to Maxey, and -swing him off.” - -“You’ll fall, Billy,” objected Monroe, who was older and felt himself -responsible for Billy’s safety, now that Dan had gone. - -“Not a bit of it!” declared Billy. “Come on with the belts.” - -There being no better way suggested, the boys followed Billy’s plan. -They watched him in some trepidation, however, as he let himself over -the broken wall and leaped for a swinging branch of one of the trees -into which the automobile had fallen. - -He reached a limb directly below Maxey. That young man was clinging—as -Billy had supposed—to the steering gear. He was afraid to drop upon the -limb where Billy stood. Indeed, had he done so, he would have had no -means of balancing himself. Billy Speedwell had kicked off his shoes -before descending the tree and he was barely able to keep his -equilibrium. - -“Catch the end of this belt, Maxey!” he cried. - -“Oh, I can’t!” - -“I tell you that you’ve got to!” - -But, although Maxey was usually easily influenced, Billy could not put -pluck into him at this juncture. The younger boy had to finally climb -into the overturned automobile, cling with one hand and his feet to the -car, and buckle an end of the string of belts around Maxey’s waist. - -The rescuer tossed the end of the line of belts to Monroe and Brace -Henderson, and they helped Maxey out upon the roadway again. Billy -followed, and when the adventure was over not alone Maxey Solomons, but -the boys of the Riverdale Club, felt the reaction. The peril threatening -the owner of the wrecked automobile had indeed been great. - -“I’m afraid your car is done for, Maxey,” said Monroe Stevens, with -sympathy. - -“I don’t care!” sighed the rich man’s son. “I wouldn’t ride home in it -if it was right-side up here in the road. I never want to ride in a -motor car again.” - -“Pshaw!” said Jim. “Now you’re talking reckless. It’s too bad you’ve got -the car in that bad fix.” - -“I tell you I don’t want the car. If it can be got out of the tree I’ll -sell it. I won’t ever ride in it again.” - -“You don’t mean that, Maxey?” said Billy, earnestly. - -“Yes, I do.” - -“But it’s a new machine.” - -“I’d sell her for half what she’s worth,” Maxey persisted. - -Monroe Stevens laughed, and said: “According to your own tell, Maxey, -she isn’t worth anything.” - -“But, if anybody thinks she’s worth buying?” began the owner. - -“Isn’t that just like you?” cried Jim. “I suppose you’d want half what -your father paid for her.” - -“I might want—but would I get it?” returned Maxey, shrewdly. - -“Just _what_ will you take for the car?” demanded Billy, still in -earnest. - -Monroe Stevens looked at Speedwell suddenly, and with interest. - -“My gracious, Billy! I forgot that you and Dan are capitalists. You -_could_ buy old Maxey out, couldn’t you?” - -“So he could,” cried Jim. “Billy and Dan banked the thousand dollars -reward the Darringfords offered for the apprehension of the fellow who -set the shops afire. Now, Maxey, if you really want to sell, you’d -better put a real price on your car.” - -Billy flushed. He was stirred by impulse to buy the wrecked car. He had -seen just how badly it was smashed and he knew that if Maxey would sell -cheap enough somebody would get a bargain. The drab racing machine was -of a standard make and there was good reason why Maxey might have -thought of entering it in the thousand mile endurance run. A car of the -same kind had won such a contest only the season before. - -Young Solomons looked at Billy thoughtfully. Something seemed to be -working in his mind. - -“You came down and saved me, Billy Speedwell,” he said. “Of course, the -other boys helped, and I’m grateful to all of you. But Billy came first -to my help.” - -“Shucks!” grunted Billy. “Forget it!” - -“No. I’m not likely to forget it,” returned Maxey, gravely. “If you want -that car—just as it lies there in the tree-top—you can have it for five -hundred dollars. She cost twenty-two hundred and fifty. I can show you -the receipted bill.” - -“Whew!” cried Jim. “You don’t want anything for it, do you, Maxey? I -don’t believe you can get it out of the tree.” - -But Billy had made up his mind already about that phase of the matter. -And how he wanted to own that racing car! - -He and Dan had watched the auto as it was handled by the professional -chauffeur, and knew that it was a wonderfully good machine. But if the -car was lifted safely back to the road, it would cost a good deal to -rebuild it and put it in running shape again. Still—— - -“I’ll think about it, Maxey,” he said, slowly. - -“No, Billy,” said the owner of the wrecked car, seriously. “If you take -time to think about it, so will _I_ take time to think about it. I won’t -feel the way I do now, to-morrow maybe. You see? You can have it _now_ -for five hundred dollars. I maybe won’t want to sell at all when I think -about it a while.” - -Both Dan and Billy had put their money into the bank untouched. Billy -had just an even five hundred dollars. He could not expect Dan to back -him up with any of his money in such a wild bargain as this. But there -was the car—Billy believed it could be saved and repaired for a -comparatively small sum—and one-fourth of its purchase price, for a car -less than three months old, was a bargain indeed! - -Billy took it. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE ROBBERY AT THE BANK - - -Dan Speedwell, in Mr. Briggs’ maroon car, was at first badly frightened, -and then angry. The pressure of the muzzle of a revolver against his -stomach precluded his seeing the humor of the situation. - -“Ouch!” he exclaimed. “Take it away!” - -“Surrender!” cried the man with the weapon, and then Dan realized that -his captor was Josiah Somes, one of Riverdale’s constables, and a -pompous, officious little man. - -“Surrender, in the name of the law!” repeated Mr. Somes, using the -instrument a good deal like a gimlet. - -“Oh!” gasped Dan. “Who do you think you’ve got hold of, Somes?” - -“Eh? Ye know me, do ye?” growled the constable. “Then, Mr. Bank Robber, -you know that Josiah Somes ain’t to be fooled with.” - -“I don’t want to fool with you when you act so careless with that -pistol. Take that gun away!” cried Dan. - -“Hold up your hands!” ordered Mr. Somes. “I’ve got to search you.” - -By this time one of the other men in the strange automobile, had gotten -out, and brought a lantern to the side of the maroon car. He flashed the -light into the boy’s face, and at the same moment Dan recognized Hiram -Baird, the cashier of the Farmers’ Bank. - -“Mr. Baird!” gasped Dan. “Take him away, will you?” - -“Dan Speedwell!” rejoined the cashier, in amazement. “Why, how is this?” - -“One of them Speedwell boys!” cried Somes, glaring into Dan’s face, and -dropping the pistol’s point, to Dan’s great relief. - -“That’s certainly who it is,” said the cashier of the bank. - -“Wa’al! It’s nothing more than I could expect,” said Somes, shaking his -head. “Them boys are always racing around the country on them motor -wheels of theirn—huh! Where’s the other robbers?” and he grabbed Dan by -the collar. - -“What do you mean?” demanded the boy, angrily. - -“You helped them get away,” declared the constable. “The car was seen -standing before the door of the bank after hours. They shut Mr. Baird -into the strong room and he was almost smothered before the president -came back and found him there.” - -This garbled account of a very interesting happening was sufficient for -the moment to explain his position to Dan. He knew now why the trio of -men in the first maroon car had refused to halt when they had wrecked -Maxey Solomons’ automobile. - -“You’ve made a mistake, gentlemen,” said Dan, quietly. “I really wish -you would put up that gun, Mr. Somes. You’ll do yourself, or me, an -injury.” - -“Yes, do put away the pistol, Josiah,” urged Mr. Baird. - -“But this young villain——” - -“Nonsense, Josiah!” exclaimed the cashier. “We know Dan is not mixed up -in the robbery.” - -“Then how came he by the car? A maroon car. This is it—I’m positive of -it.” - -“No it isn’t,” declared Dan. - -“But, really, Dan,” said Mr. Baird, puzzled, “I saw the car stop at the -bank door myself, and this one looks just like it.” - -“And what happened then?” asked Dan, curiously. - -“Two men came in. The third sat where you do—in the driver’s seat. It -was after three, but the door had not been locked. I was alone. One of -the men covered me with a pistol, and the other locked the door. Then -they backed me into the vault and locked it. We had not put away the -money. They got fifteen thousand dollars in bills and specie. They might -have got much more had they known where to look for it. I had to stay in -the vault until Mr. Crawley came in at half-past five.” - -“And they sent for _me_,” added the pompous Somes, “and put me on the -case. I remembered, of course, seeing this maroon car standing by the -bank.” - -“Not _this_ car,” urged Dan, again. - -“Why ain’t it?” snapped the constable. - -“Because this car is the property of Mr. Briggs—and you don’t accuse him -of being a bank robber, do you?” - -“Mercy!” ejaculated Mr. Baird. “One of our largest depositors!” - -“Well!” cried Somes. “How came you with the machine?” - -Dan repeated the narrative of his adventures that afternoon and evening. -Mr. Baird, of course, saw how reasonable it was, and believed him. Somes -disliked to say he was mistaken. - -“I think I’d better arrest him, and take the machine back to town, Mr. -Baird,” he said. - -“Nonsense!” exclaimed the cashier. “Get into Mr. Crawley’s machine here, -and let us follow the trail Dan has told us of. Perhaps Mr. Armitage and -Mr. Briggs have caught up with the thieves.” - -Dan was much excited by the story of the robbery. To think that the bold -thieves had ridden down the river road out of the town, and within a -short distance of the scene of their first crime, had committed the -desperate act which (so Dan supposed) had brought about Maxey Solomons’ -serious injury, or death, and the wrecking of that youth’s automobile! -They were certainly desperate characters. He hoped, with all his heart, -that the gentlemen whom he had left in pursuit, and Deputy Sheriff Polk, -would apprehend them. But he did not believe Josiah Somes would be of -much aid. - -Dan came safely to Holliday’s garage and delivered the maroon car, to be -called for by its owner. Then he got upon his Flying Feather and motored -home as quickly as possible, for it was already late and he and Billy -had the milk to pick up at Mr. Speedwell’s dairies. - -His younger brother had arrived at home ahead of him; but before he left -town Dan had learned how Maxey Solomons had been saved. Billy, however, -had something on his mind, and he even listened to Dan’s tale of his -“arrest” by Josiah Somes without showing very much interest. - -“What’s the matter with you, boy?” demanded Dan, as they finally -finished the chores about the stable and milkhouse and sat down a few -minutes on the granary stairs before going into the house for the night. - -“What makes you think there’s anything the matter?” returned Billy, -quickly. - -“Come on, boy! ’Fess up,” laughed Dan. “What’s on your mind? If it’s -anything good, don’t keep your brother out of it; and if you’re in a fix -of any kind, maybe I can help you.” - -“You’re all right, Dan. But I reckon this is something I’ve got into -myself, and I mean to stand by it,” admitted Billy. “I expect you’ll -think I’m crazy.” - -“Don’t know. Can’t say. Open up!” urged his brother. - -“Well—I’ve bought an automobile!” blurted out Billy Speedwell. - -“You’ve done _what_?” - -Billy repeated his statement, gloomily enough. Dan stared at him in the -light of the barn lantern and remarked: - -“Well, you don’t look any crazier than common. And I expect you’re -telling me the truth. But I don’t understand it. How did you buy it—from -whom—what with?” - -“Hold on!” exclaimed Billy. “Let me tell you all about it.” - -“That’s right. It don’t sound very real to me,” said Dan, rubbing his -head. “By the way, where’s the machine?” - -“Up in the air,” returned Billy, with a grin. - -“Huh! in a garage attached to one of those ‘castles in Spain’ that they -tell about?” - -“I bought Maxey’s wrecked machine. I paid five hundred dollars for -it—or, I promised to do so on Monday—and I don’t even know whether I can -get the thing out of the tree where it’s roosting!” - -Billy blurted all this out in a hurry. The information left Dan fairly -speechless. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - A FIRST DIFFICULTY - - -“For goodness sake tell me all about it, Billy,” urged Dan. - -His brother did so, relating the particulars of how Maxey Solomons had -been rescued from the automobile and the conversation which had -followed. - -“You know how Maxey is. He changes his mind mighty easily. And, Dannie, -I really believe the car is worth a whole lot more than five hundred -dollars.” - -“But it’s every cent you’ve got, Billy!” - -“I know it. That’s what’s bothering me. It’s going to cost something to -hoist the car out of the tree, and then it’ll cost I don’t know how much -to put it into shape again—as much as fifty dollars, perhaps.” - -“Is that all, Billy?” queried his brother, in surprise. - -“The car isn’t damaged much. I found and saved everything that dropped -out of it when it was overturned. The thing is wrenched some, I suppose, -and dented and marred. That’s all. And it cost over two thousand -dollars.” - -“I know,” said Dan, nodding. “I know all about it. I rode in the car one -day with Maxey, too. It’s a dandy!” - -“You bet it is!” cried Billy, eagerly, and evidently much relieved -because his brother took the news as he had. “Suppose we could fix it up -and enter for the gold cup that Mr. Briggs has offered? Wouldn’t that be -great?” - -“That’s all right, Billy. I’ll go over and look at the car with you on -Monday. Perhaps we can get it onto the road without much trouble. But -say! I never knew you to be so selfish before, boy.” - -“How?” grunted Billy, in surprise. - -“Why, you might have given a fellow a chance to buy in with you.” - -“Dannie!” - -“Going to have it all to yourself, are you?” - -“I thought you’d say I was crazy to do it,” explained Billy, eagerly. “I -have been afraid to tell mother and father. Of course, they said we -could do exactly what we pleased with that money the Darringfords gave -us——” - -“Don’t worry about it. I believe you’ve made a good investment,” -declared Dan, confidently. “And if you’ll sell me a half interest in the -car, I’ll draw out half my money, and then we’ll divide the cost of -repairing the machine between us.” - -“Bully!” shouted Billy, smacking his brother on his sturdy shoulder. -“That will be fine.” - -“I’d do the same for you, Billy-boy,” said Dan. “And I’m just as eager -to enter that endurance test as you are.” - -“And suppose we could win the cup, old boy!” - -Dan chuckled. “We’ll have an old rival in that run—if we have the luck -to get into it.” - -“Who’s that?” demanded his brother. - -“Chance Avery. Burton Poole has taken him into partnership in his motor -car. You know, Poole’s got a good car. Chance has been rather out of -conceit with the motorcycle business ever since the races at the -baseball park.” - -“When you walked away from him, eh?” said Billy. - -“But I heard him bragging down to Mr. Appleyard’s store yesterday that -he and Burton were going to have a try for the gold cup—and they -expected to ‘lift’ it.” - -“It’s just providential, then,” said Billy, seriously, “that Maxey’s -machine was wrecked, and I got a chance to buy it.” - -The Speedwell family numbered but six—besides the parents and Dan and -Billy, there were only Carrie, ten years old, and Adolph, who was just -toddling around and learning to talk. They were, in spite of their -somewhat straitened circumstances, a very happy family. Mr. Speedwell -was not a strong man, but was gaining in health now that he worked out -of doors instead of in a shop. With the help of his two big boys (Dan -was sixteen and Billy a year younger) he was making the small dairy pay. - -Although the boys had long ridden bicycles, and still owned their steeds -of steel, the motorcycles on which they had taken their spin along the -river road that day had been presented to them by Mr. Robert -Darringford, and were the best wheels the Darringford Machine Shops -could turn out. Now the fact that Dan and Billy were about to own an -automobile was indeed a matter for discussion and interest around the -evening lamp. - -“For a poor man’s sons, I believe you two are doing pretty well,” -remarked quiet Mr. Speedwell. He never went back upon what he said; -having told the boys they could do what they pleased with the thousand -dollars they had earned, he was not likely to criticize Billy’s -impulsive bargain. - -That afternoon Dan and Billy hurried home on their machines and went at -once to the woodlot with their axes. They cut and shaped two white-oak -timbers, loaded them into the heavy wagon with such timber chains and -ropes as they chanced to have about the barns, and drove back through -the town and out upon the river road to the spot where the accident had -occurred. - -Jim Stetson and Wiley Moyle, both members of the Riverdale Outing Club, -and in their same grade at the local academy, saw the Speedwells driving -through town, and they climbed into the wagon. - -“By gravey!” ejaculated Wiley. “I didn’t believe it when they told me. -Do you mean, Billy, that you’ve given up five hundred good dollars to -Maxey Solomons for that smashed-up car?” - -“Dan and I have bought it,” admitted Billy, cheerfully. - -“You must both be crazy, then,” declared young Moyle. “You’ll never get -it out of those trees without smashing it all to bits. What do you want -a motor car for, anyway? You’ve got motorcycles; and it wasn’t long ago -you were riding bicycles like the rest of us. The club will go to the -dogs if all the members get buzz-carts.” - -“Don’t you fret,” returned Dan, laughing. “As long as we can keep -Captain Chance Avery in bounds, you fellows who ride bikes will not be -neglected in club affairs.” - -“Remember how Dan fought for you at the meeting following the Barnegat -run,” said Jim. “And he and Billy owned their motors then.” - -“But an auto is different,” grumbled Wiley. “Look at Burton Poole—and -the Greenes. They don’t care about going on the club runs at all any -more because the autos have been shut out.” - -“Fisher Greene isn’t stuck on the things,” said Billy, laughing. - -“No. There’s never any room for Fisher in the car,” said Jim Stetson, -“and he has to stick to his old bike.” - -Although Wiley was such a “knocker,” as Jim expressed it, he lent a -sturdy hand to the unloading of the wagon. Dan had brought tools, and -after carefully planning the arrangement of the contrivance he proposed -building, the elder Speedwell began digging a post hole beside the road, -and inside the wall. There was a turf bank here and the work of -excavating was comparatively easy. - -While the quartette of boys were thus engaged an automobile came into -view from down the road. It approached swiftly, and Wiley Moyle suddenly -recognized it. - -“See who has come!” he scoffed. “Here’s Burton Poole’s buzz-wagon with -Captain Chance at the wheel. Chance is going to win the gold cup, he -says, and he and Poole are in partnership with that old lumber wagon.” - -Chanceford Avery, who was considerable older than most of the club -members, was a dark complexioned, sharp featured young man, not much -liked by the boys of Riverdale, but who made himself agreeable to most -of the girl members of the Outing Club. - -Some months before he had shown his enmity to the Speedwells, and he -never let an opportunity escape for being unpleasant to the brothers. -When he saw what the boys were about beside the road, he brought the -automobile to an abrupt halt. - -“Haven’t you got a cheek to dig that bank up in that manner, Speedwell?” -he said. “You’ll get into trouble.” - -“Guess not,” returned Dan, cheerfully. “It never entered my head we’d -have to get a permit to set a post down here, as long as we are going to -take the post right up again and fill in the hole. I’ve saved the sod -whole, too.” - -“At any rate, there’s one thing sure,” snapped Billy, who didn’t like -young Avery at all, any more than he did Francis Avery, Chanceford’s -brother, and the superintendent of the Darringford shops; “we haven’t -got to come to _you_ for a permit.” - -“Aw, stop your rowing, you fellows,” advised Burton Poole, who was a -good-natured, easy-going chap. “What are you going to do, Dan?” - -Dan explained briefly, still keeping on with his work. - -“You’ll have a fat time trying to get that old hulk of a car up here,” -sneered Chance Avery. “And after you get it up, what good is it?” - -“That we’ll see about later,” returned the older Speedwell, rather -gruffly. - -“Max Solomons made a fool of you,” declared Chance. “He is blowing -around town how he got the best of you fellows. Why, the car wasn’t good -for much when it got pitched over the bank.” - -“You’d laugh the other side of your mouth if this old car ever beat you -and Poole, wouldn’t you now?” demanded Billy. - -“I suppose you fellows intend entering with it in the thousand mile -endurance run?” laughed Chance. - -“Bet your life we are!” cried Billy, before his brother could stop him. - -“Listen to that, will you, you fellows?” said Chance. “These Speedwells -are the limit!” - -“We’ve been able to beat you before now, Chanceford Avery,” snapped -Billy. “Now go along! Nobody wants you here.” - -Chance might have stopped longer to argue the point, but Burton, who was -all for peace, urged him on. Their car, which was really a very good -one, hummed away toward town. Inside of twenty minutes a carriage -rattled down to the place where the boys were at work. - -“Hey, you, Dan Speedwell!” exclaimed an unpleasant voice, and Dan looked -up from settling the big timber in the ground to see Josiah Somes, the -Riverdale constable. - -“How d’ye do, Mr. Somes,” returned the youth. “Haven’t caught those -robbers in the maroon car yet, have you?” - -The other boys laughed. Josiah’s ability as a detective was a joke about -town. - -“Well, them other fellers haven’t caught the scoundrels, either,” -snarled Somes. “I guess there ain’t no medals on Polk, if he _is_ a -deputy!” - -“Wish you luck,” said Dan, good naturedly. - -“Never you mind about them bank robbers. I ain’t here looking for them,” -said the constable. “I want _you_.” - -“What!” cried Dan. “Are you going to arrest me again, Mr. Somes?” - -“I want to know who gave you permission to dig that hole, and clutter up -this place with them contraptions.” - -Dan and Billy looked meaningly at each other. Both boys knew at once -that Chance Avery had set Josiah Somes after them—and the constable was -only too willing to do them an ill turn. - -“Come on!” the man snarled. “Hop into my buggy, Dan Speedwell. I’m going -to take you before the ’Squire and see what he’s got to say about this.” - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE HAND IN THE DARK - - -The three other boys were not a little alarmed by the constable’s word -and manner; but Dan did not show any fear. - -“Just pack the earth and stones well around the post, Billy,” he said to -his brother, cheerfully, “while I go back to town with Mr. Somes, and -get this matter straightened out.” - -Dan knew a little something himself about the town ordinances; he was -aware that a permit was necessary for the opening of an excavation in a -public road. But it was a rule often ignored in such small matters as -this. Chance Avery had set the officious constable at this work, and -Somes was just mean enough to delight in making the Speedwells trouble. - -And on the way to the house of ’Squire English they would pass the -office of the council clerk. Dan knew this gentlemen very well, and as -Somes pulled up his horse to speak to a friend, the boy hopped out upon -the sidewalk. - -“Hey! where you going?” demanded the constable. - -“I’ll be right back,” said Dan, dodging into the building and leaving -the constable fussing in the carriage. - -The boy found Mr. Parker at his desk and explained quickly what he and -Billy were doing down there beside the river road. - -“Digging a hole to set a post? Well, go ahead! I reckon nobody will -object,” said the clerk. “You’ll fill it in all right, Dan?” - -“But somebody _has_ objected,” explained the boy. And he told Mr. Parker -of the difficulty. - -“Pshaw! Josiah ought to be in better business,” declared the clerk, and -he hastily filled out a permit, headed “Highway Department” and gave it -to the youth. “Show that to Justice English,” he advised. - -He nodded and smiled and Dan knew that the gentleman appreciated the -joke on the constable. The latter was sputtering loudly when Dan -returned to the sidewalk. He had got out of the carriage and hitched his -horse. - -“Here! you come along with me, Dan Speedwell!” cried the constable. -“You’re trying to run away.” - -Dan saw Chance Avery grinning widely on the other side of the square. It -was plain that the captain of the Riverdale Club congratulated himself -that he had got the Speedwells into trouble. - -They went into ’Squire English’s office. The old gentleman was a -crotchety man, stern and brusk of speech, and a terror to the evil-doers -who came before him. He did not like boys, having forgotten that he was -ever one himself. - -“What now? What now, Josiah?” he snapped, looking up from his papers, -and glaring under bristling brows at Dan Speedwell. - -“This here boy—and some others that I didn’t bring in—are digging holes -in the turf along the river road, just beyond Mr. Abram Sudds’ place. -You know that piece of turf there, ’Squire, that the town spent so much -to grade and make handsome. Well this here Dan Speedwell was digging a -hole in it.” - -“You’re old enough to know better than to do that, young man,” said the -’Squire, to Dan. “What did you do it for?” - -Dan silently tendered the paper Mr. Parker had given him. The justice -put on his glasses, looked at it, and turned on the constable -wrathfully. - -“What do you mean by bringing him here, when he’s got a permit to set -his post? Think I’ve got nothing more to do, Josiah, than to monkey with -foolish cases?” - -“Why—why—he never told me he had a permit!” cried the chagrined -constable. - -“You never gave me a chance to tell you,” declared Dan. - -“Get out of here—the whole of you!” snarled Justice English, as the -crowd that had followed Dan and Somes in began to giggle and whisper, -just as delighted over the constable’s taking down as they would have -been had Dan been punished. - -The boys, on Dan’s return from the ’Squire’s office, rigged a clumsy, -but efficient, swing-arm for the derrick before they were obliged to go -home. But it grew too dark for anything more to be done that night. So -they piled into the wagon and started for the other side of town. - -As they halted at a certain corner to let Jim and Wiley get out of the -wagon, a party of girls came along and hailed them. - -“Oh, boys!” cried Lettie Parker, who was a jolly girl with more than a -suspicion of red in her hair, and the quick temper which is supposed to -go with it. “Oh, boys! you are just whom we wished to see. I don’t -believe any of you have heard about the candy-pulling out at Stella -Mayberry’s.” - -“Stel Mayberry’s?” cried Jim. “I knew she was going to have one; but I -didn’t hear when.” - -“It’s to-night. She wasn’t at school to-day, so the word didn’t get -around. I got a note from her, and so did Mildred,” Lettie said. “And -we’ve been around inviting folks.” - -“Never heard a thing about it,” declared Billy. - -“But she means for you boys to come,” Mildred Kent, the doctor’s -daughter, said, more quietly. She spoke to Dan. “I hope you can come. -We’ll go over on our wheels as soon after supper as we can.” - -“We’ll be late getting there, Mildred,” said Dan Speedwell. - -“But we can all come back together. You know where she lives?” - -“Oh, yes. Down the river road.” - -“We’ll hurry along,” said Billy, “so as to get over to Mayberry’s as -early as possible.” - -The Speedwells drove away. They went around to several other farmers to -pick up the evening’s milk before going home. Then, when their chores -were all done and they had supper, Dan and Billy mounted their -motorcycles and dashed away through the town and out the river road -toward the farmhouse which was the scene of the evening party. - -While within the immediate confines of Riverdale they had to run -moderately; but it was already after half-past eight, they wanted to -reach Mayberry’s before the fun was all over, and therefore “let out” -the motors when they got upon the river road. - -The white highway before them was deserted clear down to the bend at -which Dan Speedwell had first seen the maroon car of the bank robbers on -Saturday afternoon. That trio of criminals had gotten away: all pursuit -had been futile. - -But as the two boys shot around the bend they sighted an automobile -chugging slowly toward them. It was not far beyond where the shadowy -outline of their rudely constructed derrick was visible. - -An automobile on this road was no uncommon sight; but the attention of -Dan and Billy was called particularly to it because it showed no lights! - -The boys flashed past the slowly moving machine at racing pace; yet -Billy gained some particular knowledge of the car and its single -occupant. - -“Hey, Dannie!” he shouted. “Did you see him?” - -“The fellow at the wheel?” - -“Yes.” - -“I couldn’t help seeing him; but I’m not sure who it was. The car I -know,” responded Dan. - -“Poole’s?” asked Billy, eagerly. - -“That’s what it was—Burton Poole’s car,” said the older brother. - -“Then I’m sure I made no mistake. My eyes didn’t fool me. That’s Chance -Avery in the car alone, running without a light. It would be a good joke -to report _him_ for breaking a town ordinance and have him up before -Judge English,” cried Billy. - -The candy-pull broke up at an early hour, for all hands had to face -lessons on the morrow. The girls had come out on motorcycles, too, and -they were a gay party that started for Riverdale after bidding the -Mayberrys, and those guests who lived near the farm, good-night. - -Dan and Mildred Kent got off a little in advance of the rest of the -riders, and led the company by several hundred yards. They were very -good friends, Dan having dragged Mildred to school on his sled when they -were both in the primary grade, and the fact that Doctor Kent was -wealthy and the Speedwells were comparatively poor never made the least -difference in their friendship. - -“I heard the boys saying something about you and Billy buying an auto, -Dan,” said Mildred Kent. “Is it a joke?” - -“We can’t tell about that yet, Milly,” responded Dan, chuckling. “Just -at present it _looks_ like a joke, for, as Billy says, the machine is up -in the air.” - -“Do tell me what you have done,” urged Mildred. - -“Wait until we get along the river road a bit and I’ll show you the -car.” - -“You don’t mean it’s Maxey Solomons’?” - -“It _was_ his,” admitted Dan, cheerfully. “And if we can get it out of -the tree where it lodged last Saturday, we’ll show some of the folks -around here that it is a real flying machine, although we hope to keep -it out of the air for the future.” - -They were wheeling along the road at a fast clip, but easily. Just as -Dan spoke there sounded ahead an echoing crash—the fall of some object -which made quite a startling noise on this quiet evening. - -“What can that be?” demanded Mildred. - -“I declare I don’t know,” said Dan, and quite involuntarily increased -his speed. - -There followed the sudden noise of a rapidly driven automobile—a car -that was just starting ahead of them. In half a minute Dan knew that the -car was hurrying toward Riverdale. Before he and Mildred had traveled -three hundred yards the motor car was almost out of their hearing. - -“What do you suppose has happened?” cried the girl. - -Dan did not reply. It was a moonless night, but the heavens were -brilliant with stars and their light made pretty plain objects along the -road. - -Their swift motorcycles had brought Dan and Mildred almost to the spot -where the Speedwells had set their derrick in the afternoon. The -contrivance had disappeared! - -“Stop!” shouted Dan, and shut off his power and leaped from his saddle. -He ran to the side of the road. There was the stump of the post he and -Billy had set. It had not broken off, but had been chopped down with an -axe! - -And the whole apparatus had been allowed to fall over the precipice. In -the darkness below the wall Dan could not see whether or not the falling -derrick had crashed upon the automobile in the tree-top. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - ON WATCH - - -“Oh, Dan! what is it?” cried Mildred, dismounting from her own -motorcycle, and running to the gap in the wall through which the lad was -leaning, seeking to peer into the gulf. “What has happened?” - -“Somebody has knocked down our derrick. I hope the auto has escaped,” -muttered Dan. - -He ran back to his machine, lifted off the storage battery lamp, and -came with it to the verge of the precipice again. Its bright ray flashed -into the depths revealed one thing at least—the auto was still wedged in -the tree limbs. The heavy timbers had missed it in their fall. - -“Oh, Dan! the car is there,” cried Mildred, “And can you ever get it up -to the roadway—do you believe you can?” - -“We won’t be able to get it up here if many such tricks as _this_ are -played on us,” grunted Dan. “Ah! here’s Billy.” - -The remainder of the party came up swiftly and stopped their cycles. - -“What’s happened?” cried Billy, first to reach his brother’s side. - -Dan pointed to the post, chopped off at the ground. All could see it. - -“The car—is it hurt?” questioned Billy. - -“I don’t think so,” replied his brother. - -“The rascal! I’d like to pitch him over that wall myself,” declared the -younger Speedwell, in a passion. - -“Who is it? Who did it, Billy? Do you know?” were the questions fired at -the impulsive lad. - -Dan touched his brother’s arm, and Billy accepted the warning. - -“I won’t say anything more—now,” Billy said, mysteriously. “But you can -see what a mean trick it is—just as we got the derrick in place, too.” - -“I believe you!” cried Jim Stetson. “I skinned a knuckle and pretty near -broke my back helping you. I’d give something to get hold of the fellow -who did it, myself.” - -“Couldn’t be old Somes, could it?” asked Wiley Moyle. “He was almost mad -enough to bite you fellows, to-night.” - -“Nonsense! Josiah wouldn’t do such a thing. He has too much respect for -the law,” said Monroe Stevens. - -“I think it is very fortunate,” put in Mildred Kent, earnestly, “that -the person—whoever he was—did not manage to utterly ruin the automobile. -Suppose he comes here before you can get the derrick erected again, and -throws these boulders down upon the car?” - -“He’ll not do that!” declared Dan, firmly. - -“How do you know?” - -“Because either Billy or I will be on this spot until we get the car out -of the place. We have too much money invested in the machine to have it -wrecked.” - -“Right, Dannie!” declared his brother. “And I’ll stay here now. You go -on home, ask father to help you with the milk in the morning, and then -come down with the team and another post as early as you can. If there’s -any way of getting the car up, we’ll get at it without further delay.” - -It was so arranged, and Billy sat down beside the break in the wall -while the others motored away. His own machine he carefully hid in a -clump of bushes, and proposed to keep awake until morning so that the -mean-spirited person whom he suspected of cutting down the pole, should -not return and do any damage to the motor car. - -Billy heard dogs barking in the distance—they seemed to start far down -the road toward the Mayberry farm at which he and his young friends had -spent such a pleasant evening. First one dog, and then another, joined -the chorus, the sound of which drew nearer. - -“Somebody coming along the road,” thought the lad. “They’re coming fast -and stirring up a racket as they come. Somebody is traveling fast, for -the houses are a good way apart, and the dogs join each other in hailing -the passer-by in one, two, three order.” - -“Ha! an auto, I bet,” pursued Billy. “Coming at a stiff pace. There’s -the hum of her! No other sound. Gee! she’s spinning the miles behind -her. Hear her purr!” - -Billy rose to his knees and peered down the road. He was still in the -shadow and could not be seen. There was a flash of light at the far -bend—but it was no lamp. Billy knew a car had turned the corner, but it -had not a single headlight lit. - -Then, to his amazement, he saw that there were figures in the car—one at -the wheel, the other in the tonneau. And it was a somewhat larger car -than Billy had expected. - -A car without a light had no business on the road in the first place; -that fact was suspicious. And when the car halted directly before the -crouching boy, Billy was indeed amazed. - -“Is this the spot?” asked the man on the front seat, turning to speak -over his shoulder. - -“I—don’t—know,” returned the other, in a low voice. “It looks so -different by night.” - -“Hang it! you and I were past here on Saturday.” - -“Well! we went so fast that I couldn’t tell what the place looked like. -I know that Sudds lives here somewhere. Ha!” - -“What’s the matter?” asked the man at the wheel, whom Billy noticed was -rather small. - -“I believe this is the spot where that auto went over the bank; eh?” - -The chauffeur stood up, evidently trying to peer into the darkness -beside the road. Billy’s heart beat loudly. He was so near that he could -have almost reached out his hand and touched the rear wheel of the car. - -There was something about this automobile that awoke in Billy Speedwell -a feeling of suspicion. It was too dark for him to see the color of the -automobile exactly; but he was apprehensive. - -“Sudds’ place is farther along,” exclaimed the chauffeur, sitting down. -“_He_ ought to be on the lookout somewhere. We’ll run on slow, and then -back again if we don’t pick him up.” - -“All right,” growled the second man. - -They were both looking forward and away from Billy. The boy, shaking -with nervousness, but willing to risk much to prove to himself that his -suspicion was right, crept out of the shadow behind the car. The machine -started and Billy leaped lightly up behind, and clung to the back of the -large, folded canopy top of the tonneau. - -The car rolled on smoothly—almost silently; her engine throbbed -steadily. They turned the bend and Billy knew that the dwelling of Abram -Sudds, a granite mansion set high on the bank beside the road, was in -sight, although he could not see it. - -The car purred on. Billy clung desperately, afraid to drop off now, for -he would be revealed the instant he came out of the shadow of the -automobile’s folded-back top. Impulsively he had jumped into trouble, -and without a thought for the wrecked auto he was watching, and in which -his brother and himself had invested five hundred dollars! - -But the mystery of this car, and the men in it, had taken hold of him -strongly. As they ran slowly past the Sudds property Billy glanced about -for the man whom the two in the car evidently expected. - -There was no one in the road. They ran on to the next house and there -the chauffeur turned slowly. There was a street light here and its dim -radiance shone for an instant on the side panels of the car as it -turned. Billy, craning his neck around the corner of the car to look, -saw the light flash upon the shiny varnish. - -The car was painted maroon! There had been _two_ maroon cars in the -neighborhood of Riverdale within the past few days. Billy was very sure -indeed that this car did not belong to Mr. Briggs! - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THIEVES IN THE NIGHT - - -The maroon car turned slowly and ran back along the road. At the -wrought-iron, ornate gate before the Sudds’ front steps it halted -suddenly. Billy shot another glance around the car. - -A man had stepped out of the shadow of the gate post. The two in the car -evidently recognized their comrade. - -“Come on!” the new-comer said, commandingly. “You run on around the -corner, George, and wait for us. Keep your power on. We may be ten -minutes—we may be half an hour; but you wait.” - -“All right,” assented the man at the wheel, and the car moved on slowly -while Billy saw the speaker, and the man who had ridden in the back of -the car, walk in at the gate and mount the steps. - -The Sudds mansion was high above the street, and the door was gained by -mounting several terraces. The couple of strangers were up three sets of -granite steps when the maroon car slipped around the bend and Billy lost -sight again of the house. - -Now, Billy Speedwell had not the first idea what he should do. He -believed these three men were criminals. He was sure this was the maroon -car Dan had chased on his motorcycle on Saturday—the car that had thrown -Maxey Solomons and his auto over the embankment. And the men in it had -robbed the Farmers’ Bank of Riverdale of fifteen thousand dollars! - -They had dared come back into the neighborhood. Not only had they come -back, but Billy believed they were here for quite as bad a purpose as -that which had made them notorious in the neighborhood two days before. - -An honest car does not usually run without lights. The river road -chanced to be deserted at this late hour (it was now approaching -midnight) and standing where the chauffeur stopped it, this maroon auto -could scarce be seen until one was right upon it. - -But Billy dared not climb down behind. The throb of the slowly running -engine shook the car and made noise enough to drown any slight sound he -might create. But the chauffeur, George, was standing up and looking all -about him. He would spy a rat running across the road, let alone a boy. - -But, if the other two came down to the automobile, would not they see -Billy clinging behind the car? The thought gave young Speedwell courage -to make a change of base, and make it quickly. - -He lifted himself up carefully, sliding his legs into the bag of the -collapsed tonneau top. There he lay stretched out, perfectly invisible -in the half darkness, but able to see all that went on behind the car, -at least. - -What he intended to do, Billy had not thought. His jumping on the -machine was one of those impulsive, thoughtless acts for which he was -noted. He very well knew now that Dan would not have done this without -having seen his way clear to escape! - -He heard the chauffeur moving about for a few moments. He undoubtedly -looked over his machine; but this scrutiny did not bring him near the -hiding Billy. Then George got into the car and sat ready to speed up the -moment his comrades joined him. - -It seemed to the lad in the back of the car that much more than half an -hour had passed. He grew very weary with waiting. - -Then suddenly, shattering the silence of the night, came a sound that -startled Billy like a pistol shot. A heavy window went up with a bang. - -Billy heard the chauffeur utter a sudden exclamation. Then a voice in -the distance began to shout; but it was so far away that Billy could not -distinguish the words uttered. - -It was an alarm, however. He heard a policeman’s rattle, as the -householder who had opened the window swung the loud-sounding -contrivance with a vigorous arm. A woman shrieked, too; then followed -the quick bark of a pistol—a sound that dwarfed the other noises. - -Footsteps pounded on the road behind the car, and the two men for whom -it was waiting appeared. One carried a bundle; the other held onto his -arm and seemed to be in pain as he stumbled on. - -“He winged me! he winged me!” cried the wounded man. - -“Get in and stop your howling!” commanded the other, who seemed to be -the leader. - -He pushed his comrade into the tonneau, leaped in himself with the -bundle, and said to the chauffeur: - -“Go to it, George! This is getting to be too hot a neighborhood for us -to linger in!” - -As he spoke the car leaped ahead. Billy gasped, and then lay still. -Wherever the criminals were aiming to go, it seemed that the boy was -forced to accompany them! - -The maroon car sped along the straight stretch of two miles to the next -bend in the road. Billy, looking out behind, saw no pursuit. Around the -curve the car whipped, and they were safe! Or, so it seemed, for there -was no pursuit. Probably there was no suspicion that the thieves had -gotten away in an automobile, for the purring of the car was scarcely -audible, she ran so easily. - -The boy could hear nothing that was said by the trio. Sometimes the -sound of voices drifted back to him; but he could distinguish no words. -The machine kept up a swift pace and ran boldly down to Upton Falls. -Billy knew the locality well; but until the car stopped he could do -nothing toward either his own escape, or raising an alarm. - -Remembering how Dan had chased this car before on Saturday, and the fact -that the men had cut across country toward the coast villages, Billy was -surprised that they did not follow the same route again; but he soon -discovered that the thieves were afraid of the machine running out of -gas. - -As they spun quietly down into the square, Billy peered ahead again, and -saw the flaring electric sign in front of Rebo’s garage. Although they -had not passed another car on the road, Upton Falls was one of the roads -to Barnegat, and there was a good deal of night travel. Mr. Rebo -advertised to cater to the trade twenty-four hours in the day, and Billy -knew there would be at least one man on duty here. - -The trio of robbers knew this, too, it was evident. One of them hopped -out of the car the moment it stopped and rapped on the office window. A -sleepy voice replied, and the door was quickly opened. - -By this time the two men in the back of the automobile, as well as the -chauffeur, were coated and masked. The dust masks and great goggles -completely hid their features. - -Billy had hoped that there would be more than one man at the garage, or -that somebody would stroll along whose attention he might call. He -feared to leap out of concealment and reveal himself to the trio of -thieves. - -He knew that one of the Upton Falls constables was supposed to patrol -the streets of the town at night; but he did not show up at this -juncture. The man on duty at the garage went about his work sleepily -enough. It was plain by the muttered conversation Billy overheard from -the gang, that they were impatient, but dared not show how hurried they -were. - -“We’d never ought to have had to run down here,” growled the leader, who -was a big, aggressive man, and seemed to have the other two under his -thumb. - -“I tell you we burned a lot of gas running up and down, waiting for -you,” was the chauffeur’s reply. - -“Well! It’s the back track for ours, anyway. If they look for a car at -all, it won’t be running _toward_ Sudds’ house.” - -“You’ll not take the river road!” exclaimed the third man, earnestly. - -“The pike,” growled the other. - -The man came out with the gasoline can, and there was no more -discussion. But Billy had heard something of importance. He dared not -show himself, for the glare of the garage lights would betray to the -robbers just where he had been hiding. - -Nevertheless, he made up his mind to make some good use of the -information he had gleaned. He swiftly drew a letter from his pocket, -tore a blank page from it, and with a bit of lead-pencil scribbled a -line on the paper. The chauffeur was already cranking up the maroon car. -The machine quickly began to throb. - -Billy waited until the car had started. He saw that the chauffeur was -making a turn in the square, preparatory to taking the back track as he -had been instructed. - -The garage man stood gaping on the walk, and staring after the maroon -car. Billy thrust out his hand and waved the paper in the air. The man’s -jaws came together with a snap. The boy was almost certain that he had -observed the waving paper. - -Therefore Billy let it float back into the road. He even had the -satisfaction of seeing the man step into the roadway to pick it up -before the motor car struck a very swift pace. The next moment the -shadow of the trees and houses shut out Billy Speedwell’s view of the -spot. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - JOSIAH SOMES ON THE WARPATH - - -Dan Speedwell had gone back to Riverdale with his young friends in a -much disturbed state of mind. That anybody should be mean enough to have -tried to utterly ruin the racing car which he and Billy had bought of -Maxey Solomons, not only angered Dan, but hurt him. Like his brother he -suspected who the person was who had chopped down the derrick, and sent -it crashing over the edge of the cliff to the bank of the river. - -It was eleven o’clock when he reached home. He and Billy were usually -astir before three each morning, and with the younger boy absent Dan -would have all the milking and other chores to do by himself. He did not -propose to arouse his father until about time to start with the milk -wagons for Riverdale. - -He put away his motorcycle, took his axe and a lantern, and started for -the small woodlot that was a part of the Speedwell farm. That day, when -cutting the two timbers that had now fallen over the cliff beside the -river road, Dan had marked several other oak trees of practical use in -this emergency. - -“We’ll not go to school in the morning,” decided the older brother; “but -we’ll rig another derrick and get that car out upon the road before more -harm is done.” - -Dan went along the county road to the bars and climbed over them into -the few acres of timber Mr. Speedwell owned. He had been hunting ’coons -and ’possums on many a night and was not afraid to fell a tree by -lamp-light. He cut away some of the brush, chose the direction in which -he wished the tree to fall, and set to work with the axe. - -The reverberating blows rang through the wood, and the chips flew. Dan -was not alone a sturdy youth; he was a good woodsman. In five minutes -the tree fell with a crash that could have been heard afar. And as the -echo of it died away our hero was aware of a swiftly approaching sound -along the highroad. It was the throbbing of an automobile, and now a -horn sounded: - -“Honk! honk! honk!” - -“Joy-riders,” muttered Dan, preparing to trim the tree. “Hello! they’re -slowing down.” - -The throbbing of the car ceased. The boy was near the edge of the wood -and heard voices in a moment. Some of the occupants were getting out of -the car. - -“Hello in there!” shouted a voice. “What luck have you had, brother?” - -“They think I’m hunting,” exclaimed Dan. “And I declare! I believe that -is Mr. Armitage. It sounds just like his voice.” - -Dan Speedwell picked up his lantern and walked toward the road. For a -second time the jolly voice hailed him: - -“Hello! Who’s there? Where’s the dogs?” - -“I haven’t any dogs, and I’m not hunting,” explained Dan, coming out to -the bars. - -“Hullo!” rejoined the same voice. “Isn’t that young Speedwell?” - -“I thought I recognized your voice, Mr. Armitage,” said Dan. - -“And Mr. Briggs is here. This is the car you took a ride in Saturday -night, young man,” and the gentleman laughed. “How are you? I hear -Josiah Somes tried to mix you and Mr. Briggs’ car up with the robbery of -the Farmers’ Bank.” - -“He did indeed,” admitted Dan. - -“I’m glad to see you again, boy,” said Mr. Briggs, likewise leaning out -of the tonneau. “Some of our boys and hired men started out an hour ago -after ’coons. Have you heard or seen anything of them?” - -“No, sir. I reckon they went over toward the swamp. We only own a small -piece of these woods, and the ’coons and ’possums have been driven all -away to the swamp side.” - -“There!” exclaimed Mr. Armitage, “I told you I was sure we were taking -the wrong road, Briggs.” - -“And we’ve got to go clear around by Meadville to find a road fit to -drive this machine over!” exclaimed his friend. - -“No, sir,” said Dan, quickly. “You can go into town and turn at -Peckham’s Corner. There’s a good road going into the swamp which -branches from the Port Luther turnpike.” - -“I know it!” cried Mr. Armitage. “I remember now.” - -“Sure you can find it, Tom?” - -“We—ell——” - -“Do you know the way, Henri?” asked Mr. Briggs, of the Frenchman at the -wheel. - -“No, Monsieur,” replied Henri, quickly. “I am not what you call familiar -with the ways.” - -Dan could not help offering. Besides, his whole body tingled for another -ride in the swift, easy-running car. And Henri might let him run the -machine again! - -“I can go with you, Mr. Armitage,” he said, quickly. “We can run around -to the swamp in half an hour—at night. You won’t mind traveling fast. -And the road back here passes within half a mile of our house, although -there is no cross-road—not even a wood-team path. I can walk from the -turnpike to our house in less than ten minutes.” - -“Say, that’s kind of you, Speedwell,” said Mr. Briggs. “But it’s late. -Your folks will expect you home.” - -“They’re abed. I wasn’t really expecting to go to sleep to-night,” said -Dan, laughing. “You see, we have to milk early, and Billy is away. I -have his share of the work to do, too.” - -“I am afraid we are imposing on you,” said Mr. Armitage. - -“No, sir.” - -“Perhaps the boy is itching to get in Henri’s place again,” laughed the -owner of the maroon car. - -“Yes, sir; that’s it,” admitted Dan, with a broad smile. - -“Jump aboard, then,” said Mr. Briggs. “If Henri wants you to show him -how to properly handle a six-cylinder Postlethwaite, why you may do so.” - -The Frenchman’s little, waxed mustache shot up toward his eyebrows in a -smile, and he slid over and allowed Dan to take the steering wheel of -the motor car. The boy laid his axe on the footboard and turned down his -lantern and put that in a secure place, too. Then, with a hand on the -gear lever and another on the wheel, and his foot on the clutch pedal, -he brought the beautiful car into motion as easily as Henri himself -could have turned the trick. - -“You are going to make one fine chauffeur,” whispered Henri, in Dan’s -ear. “That was magnificent!” - -There was nobody else on the road. They came down into Riverdale as -swiftly—and almost as silently—as a cloud shadow chasing across a -wheat-field. The town street lights were quickly in view. They came -within sight of Peckham’s Corner, just above the Court House. - -And there—right in the roadway—suddenly flashed a lantern. It gyrated -curiously, as though the bearer of the lamp was dancing from side to -side. And those in the car heard a raucous voice shouting. - -“What’s the matter here?” demanded Mr. Briggs, as Dan began to reduce -speed. - -“Look out, Speedwell!” warned Mr. Armitage. “There’s a rope stretched -across the road.” - -“It’s right at Josiah Somes’ house,” exclaimed Dan. - -“Is that fellow going to hold us up?” demanded Briggs. - -“Josiah must be on the war-path,” chuckled Mr. Armitage. “He’s out -holding up automobilists so as to fill the coffers of the local ’Squire -and his own pockets.” - -Dan was obliged to shut off power and brake hard. The heavy car barely -stopped in season. - -“Surrender!” yelled the voice of Mr. Somes. He bore the lantern in one -hand, and a revolver of the largest size in the other, and he waved both -of these indiscriminately. - -“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Mr. Briggs, wrathfully. - -The constable evidently did not recognize the gentleman. He continued to -paw the air and make threatening gestures with his weapon, as he -shouted: - -“Hold up your hands! Pile out of that car! I swear I got ye now, ye -robbers, you! Move lively!” - -“Say! who do you think you are speaking to?” demanded Mr. Armitage. - -“You can’t fool me,” declared the constable wildly. “They jest -telephoned me to stop ye. Ye robbed Colonel Sudds of jewelry and money -this very night. But I know ye done more than that. You are the fellers -that robbed the Farmers’ Bank on Saturday, and I’m goin’ t’ march ye t’ -jail for it!” - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - ON A HOT TRAIL - - -The first thought Dan Speedwell had was for Billy. Mr. Sudds’ residence -was the nearest house to the spot where Maxey’s automobile had been -overthrown, and where he had left Billy to watch over the wrecked auto -for the night. - -If Colonel Sudds had been robbed within a short time, did Billy know -anything about it, and had he got into any trouble? Dan knew his -impulsive brother so well, that he feared at once for his safety. - -But Mr. Thomas Armitage, and Mr. Briggs burst into a shout of laughter. - -“Oh, Josiah! you’re the only man who could possibly make the same -mistake twice, hand-running. When _will_ you ever wake up?” demanded Mr. -Armitage, when he could speak for laughter. - -The constable’s face lengthened enormously and he put away the big -pistol with much haste and chagrin. - -“I—I don’t s’pose you know anything about the robbery of Mr. Sudds, -gents,” he muttered. “But see here! ’Twarn’t half an hour ago they -telephoned to me from Sudds’ house that they’d been robbed; then come -another message saying to stop a maroon car; that the men in it had -robbed Mr. Sudds, and was also suspected of being the bank robbers. I -remembered that them robbers had a car like this——” - -“And _that_ fact ought to earn them a term in jail alone,” growled Mr. -Briggs. “I have a good mind to send my car back to the factory and have -it repainted.” - -“Tell me!” interrupted Dan Speedwell, eagerly, “who telephoned you, Mr. -Somes?” - -“Man at Rebo’s Garage,” said the constable, shortly. - -“Rebo’s! That’s at the Falls,” observed Mr. Armitage. - -“Sure enough!” agreed Mr. Briggs. “What did they say about it?” - -“Why—I was some flustered,” admitted Somes, doggedly. “Ye see, I was -sound asleep when I heard from the Sudds’ of the robbery there.” - -“When did this happen?” asked Dan, quickly. - -“Not half an hour ago, I tell ye!” snapped the constable. “Ha! you’re -Dan Speedwell, ain’t ye?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, your brother’s mixed up in this thing, now I tell ye!” - -“Oh, how?” cried Dan. “What do you mean?” - -“Surely not in the robbery of Mr. Sudds’ house?” said Mr. Armitage. - -“Wa’al, it’s mighty funny,” snapped Josiah. “As I tell ye, they -telephoned me that two men had entered through a lower window, opened -the library safe, and took jewelry and money—ten thousand dollars’ wuth. -One of the men had been in the house early in the evening—so they -thought. He was a stranger, and made out he had some business with the -colonel.” - -Mr. Sudds was a “colonel” by courtesy, having at one time served on the -Governor’s staff. - -“So I scrabbled on me clothes, meanin’ to start right down there to see -about the robbers. My telephone rung agin, jest as I got to the door, -and Mrs. Somes called me back. It was the man at Rebo’s.” - -“In Upton Falls? Yes?” said Dan, eagerly. - -“He says a maroon automobile had just stopped there for gasoline——” - -“Yes?” urged Dan. - -“And he says,” pursued the constable, “that when the car started away, -somebody dropped a piece of paper out of it. He says he believed -somebody was hangin’ onto the back of the car, and throwed the paper so -he’d see it. He ran and picked it up, read it, and then telephoned me. -Of course, he knew I’d ’tend to it,” said Josiah, pompously. - -“Yes, yes!” agreed Dan. “What did the paper say?” - -“Why, as near as I can remember, it said: ‘Telephone authorities at -Riverdale to stop maroon car, headed that way. Men in her have robbed -Mr. Sudds and I think they are the ones who robbed Farmers’ Bank.’ And -your brother’s name was signed to it. Now, Dan Speedwell, either it’s a -hoax, or your brother is mixed up in these robberies,” declared the -constable, with a tone of satisfaction that made Dan angry. - -“Well, well, Josiah!” said Mr. Armitage. “You’d better let us by. If you -are going to try to catch the real robbers’ automobile, you’ll want some -help, won’t you?” - -“Wait!” cried Dan, again, as the constable dropped the rope. “Tell me -one thing.” - -“Wal, what is it?” returned Josiah, grudgingly. - -“How long ago did the man at Rebo’s ’phone you?” - -“Jest now.” - -“What does _that_ mean?” cried Dan. “Ten minutes ago, or more?” - -“I jest got word, and ran out of the house, heard you comin’ and stopped -ye.” - -“Ten minutes it would be, then, Speedwell,” said Mr. Armitage. “What’s -on your mind?” - -“And did the man say the other car had just left the garage?” - -“Yes he did,” drawled Josiah. - -“I see!” cried Mr. Armitage. “If the maroon car is coming this way it -has not yet reached Riverdale.” - -“But it must be near,” urged Dan, anxiously. “Oh! I believe my brother -is really with the robbers—perhaps as a prisoner. Can’t we head them -off?” - -“Does it seem reasonable that they would come back this way, having -robbed Mr. Sudds within the hour?” queried Mr. Briggs. - -“It would be a shrewd move,” said his friend. - -“It’s a hot trail, I believe,” cried Dan. - -“Run through the town, and onto the pike,” advised Mr. Armitage, -“Perhaps we may meet with them.” - -Dan shot the car ahead without further word. Everything else was -forgotten by the lad but his anxiety to learn the truth about his -brother’s connection with the other maroon automobile. Dan was deeply -worried. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - A GREAT RUN - - -Instead of turning at Peckham’s Corner, as they had intended had the -party kept on after the ’coon hunters, the swift automobile ran on into -Riverdale. They passed the Court House and shot through the public -square. The town was asleep and nobody challenged them. - -A little beyond this was the brick structure in which county prisoners -were kept, and the sheriff lived in a wing of the prison. Mr. Armitage -touched Dan’s shoulder lightly and the boy slowed down. - -“We’d better speak to Midge,” said the gentleman. “We can’t wait for -him, but he had better know what’s afoot. If there’s a deputy here——” - -“Why didn’t Mr. Sudds telephone _here_, instead of to Constable Somes?” -queried Mr. Briggs, as his friend got out of the automobile. - -“It was Mrs. Sudds who telephoned. To the women-folk, Josiah is bigger -than the president. That tin star he wears is what gets them.” - -Mr. Armitage went up the steps of the sheriff’s house, chuckling. He -rang the bell, and almost immediately the door opened. There was a light -in the office; connected with the jail, and there was usually one or two -deputies on watch in the office all night. - -“Why, Polk you’re just the man for us,” said the hearty voice of Mr. -Armitage. Then, in a low tone he explained what was afoot. The deputy, -whose turn it was to be on duty at the Riverdale jail, spoke to his -partner inside, got his hat, and came back with Armitage to the car. - -“Evening, Mr. Briggs. Hello Dan!” he said. “I’ve been dead sore ever -since those fellows escaped us on Saturday night. If there’s a chance of -catching ’em, I want to be with you.” - -“Hop in,” said Mr. Briggs. “If they are coming directly to town, we -ought to meet them on the pike in a very few moments.” - -Dan had already started the motor car again and they ran swiftly out of -town. Passing the Darringford Machine Shops they could see the gaunt -skeleton of the new office building being erected on the site of the old -one that had been burned in the summer. As they shot into the straight -pike, the road seemed deserted. - -They came soon to the first cross-road—a lane which cut over the country -and joined the Port Luther highway. Polk shouted to Dan to stop. - -“What is it now?” demanded Mr. Briggs, quickly. - -“Let me get out and see if a car has recently turned into this road from -the direction of the Falls. It’s sandy here,” said the deputy. - -Before he could put his suggestion into words Henri, the Frenchman, was -out in the roadway in his stead. He carried Dan’s lantern with him, and -turned the wick up so he might see. - -“There is no marks of a tire, Monsieur,” said Henri, confidently. “The -car has not turned this way——” - -“Hark!” exclaimed Dan. - -The humming of a fast-driven machine in the distance suddenly came to -their ears. It was approaching from the right direction—and its approach -was speedy. - -“Let me back into this road and wait till she passes,” suggested Dan. -“We’ll put the lights out and they won’t see us as they go by.” - -“Good!” exclaimed Polk. “Do it.” - -The strange car came on like the wind. A bend in the pike had hidden it -thus far; but suddenly the increased volume of sound proved that it had -darted around this bend into the straight stretch of road leading to the -Darringford Shops. - -Then the flickering rays of their lamps came into view. The members of -Dan’s party leaned forward, straining their eyes to catch the first -glimpse of the car. Was it the mate to this one which Mr. Briggs owned? - -And then, with surprising suddenness, the sound of the other car showed -that its power was being reduced. Dan had stopped the engine of their -auto, and Henri stooped in front of it, with his hand on the crank, -ready to start the instant the other car was past. - -Suddenly the Frenchman uttered a yell of fright. The lights of the -strange car swerved, and in a breath it had dashed right into this lane -where the silent car stood! - -Had Dan not backed well into the side of the road, there would surely -have been a collision. The lamps of the turning automobile revealed at -the last moment the standing car, and the chauffeur of the other swerved -well to the right hand. - -Henri leaped aside, and the guard of the other auto just shaved him. The -two vehicles escaped each other by a narrow margin. Only Mr. Armitage -kept his head. He leaped up with a shout, and held the lantern which had -been turned low again, so that its light fell upon the passing car. - -It was painted maroon. - -“There they go!” yelled Polk. - -They saw the three men in the car—the small man at the wheel and the two -in the tonneau. - -One of these latter stood up, and something glittered in his hand. But -no shot was fired. - -But Dan Speedwell was seriously troubled. _Where was Billy?_ - -For a moment the older boy forgot what he was doing, and he sprang to -his feet, too. - -“Billy!” he shouted, his voice sounding high and shrill above the sudden -puffing of the car he was in. Henri had grabbed the crank at once and -turned over the flywheel. - -The fugitive car was already gathering speed again; but something white -fluttered from the back of the racing automobile. - -“I saw him, Dan!” cried Mr. Armitage. “He’s lying there in the slack of -the canopy. I don’t believe the scoundrels know they are being spied -upon.” - -“Turn around, boy, and get after them!” cried Polk. “We’ll rescue him!” - -It was not yet one o’clock. The leading machine had raced to Upton Falls -and back again. Without much doubt, it was now headed across the county, -aiming for the same section in which it had escaped pursuit on Saturday -night. - -But as Dan Speedwell felt the car he drove throb and shake under his -manipulation, and realized that it responded to his will and touch, he -could not but believe that his was the better one. - -On and on the cars tore along the road. The red spark of light ahead -seemed to draw nearer. Dan knew that he was gaining upon the other -machine. - -Suddenly the spark of light ahead vanished. Dan did not reduce his -speed, but he wondered for a moment if the rascals, becoming wary of -pursuit, had put out all their lights again. - -They could observe the lamps on Mr. Briggs’ car and Dan dared not run -dark in this narrow road. One collision they had escaped by a hand’s -breadth; he was not likely to risk another right away. - -But before he could comment upon the disappearance of the rear light of -the fugitive automobile, Polk cried from the tonneau: - -“There she goes around the corner. They’ve struck the Port Luther -turnpike.” - -“And turned toward the coast?” demanded Mr. Armitage. - -“Don’t know. Too far away for us to be sure whether she turned right or -left,” said the deputy. - -“Slow down when you get there, then, Dan,” said the proprietor of the -motor car, understanding what Mr. Armitage wanted. “There must be some -mark of her tires in the earth. The Port Luther road is not -macadamized.” - -But Dan did not reduce speed yet. He could see the roadway very plainly -in the strong radiance of the car’s lights. If the tires of the machine -they were chasing made as plain a trail at the corner as they did in -certain soft spots in this lane, there would be no need for them to -reduce speed, save to make the turn in safety. - -Henri saw this, too. He shrugged his shoulders and held up a warning -hand as Mr. Armitage leaned forward to shout in Dan’s ear. - -“Wait!” cried the Frenchman, eagerly. - -They were at the corner. The glare of the lights revealed a wide patch -of the road. The wheel-marks of the fugitive car had swerved to the -right hand. The robbers were racing on to the north—were, in fact, -running around Riverdale, and away from the coast. - -But, as Dan brought Mr. Briggs’ car out of the lane, and shot her into -the broader highway, he looked ahead in vain for the tail-light of the -other maroon automobile. He knew that the pike here was straight for -five miles; there wasn’t a light upon it! - -This was the road Dan had first agreed to drive his party to, had they -taken the turn at Peckham’s. But they were several miles below Peckham’s -road. The fugitive car could not have turned into this last highway, for -it could not, running at top speed, have covered five miles, even, -before the pursuing auto took the turn into the pike. - -“Running without lights,” was Dan Speedwell’s quick decision. “And why -can we not do the same on this broad road? At least, those fellows -cannot so easily gage our speed,” and he suggested the idea to Henri. -The Frenchman spoke to his employer and then shut off the lights in -front. The tail lamp they allowed to show, to warn any vehicle -behind—although so far they had discovered no car on any of these roads, -save the machine run by the bank robbers. - -They skimmed along this wider way at fast speed. Indeed, Dan believed -that he had never traveled so fast before save on the racetrack with his -Flying Feather motorcycle. - -Dan felt that before them, flashing in and out of the shadows as they, -too, were, was another car, running likewise without lights and at top -speed. The noise of their own machine drowned all other sounds. Suppose -he should bring this great vehicle crashing into the rear of that other -flying car? - -With Billy in the back! The thought shook Dan Speedwell. For an instant -he was tempted to pull down—to reduce speed—to take no further risk in -this wild chase. - -But then, the thought that Billy might need him—that the robbers might -have already discovered that they carried a spy with them—urged the -brother to cling to the trail like a hound on the scent of game. - -They shot around a curve in the road. Henri held up his hand. Some -sound—a noise louder than the roar of their passage—had come to him. - -“What is it?” shouted Dan, but not reducing speed. - -“A blow-out!” cried the Frenchman, and pointed ahead. - -“It’s the other car!” shouted Polk, leaning over the back of the front -seat. “We’re going to catch ’em. They’ve burst a tire!” - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - A SHARP TURN - - -Billy Speedwell, in the hood of the robbers’ car, speeding over these -lonely roads at this late hour of the night, had many sensations. He had -his own anxieties and fears—nor were they much connected with the -wrecked automobile in the tree-tops; nevertheless, they were poignant -troubles. - -Billy was much shaken as the motor car bounced over the way. The pace -was not quite so wild, however, as it had been on the run down to the -Falls. George was handling the car with more caution. Billy could hear a -low murmur of voices—now and then a little cry. The man who had been -shot, and who had kept perfectly still while at Rebo’s garage, was -having his wound dressed, without doubt. - -Nothing occurred to alarm Billy, or to spur his wit to any action, until -the car suddenly took the turn into the lane, where the second maroon -machine was in hiding. The short turn surprised Billy quite as much as -it surprised his brother and those with him. - -Billy heard the shouting, saw a light flashed, and realized that the car -he was with had barely grazed another touring automobile standing -without lights in the narrow roadway. Then he recognized his brother’s -voice as Dan shouted his name! - -Billy could do nothing but wave his hand—and he did not know that the -signal was seen. He realized on the instant, however—as did the three -robbers—that they were pursued. Somehow, Billy’s written information had -reached Dan Speedwell’s ear, and he—with others—were out to catch the -men who had looted the Sudds’ house and who (so Billy believed) had -robbed the Riverdale bank. - -Billy knew quite well the direction in which he was traveling. In a very -few minutes they would pass a spot in the big swamp which lay less than -half a mile from his own home. And Billy Speedwell very much wished that -he was safe in his home at that moment! - -Lights flashed beside the road, but at some distance ahead. Billy knew -that they were already in the thick woods lying behind his own home. The -flaring of the lights assured him that they had come upon a hunting -party. - -Indeed, as George shut off the power, and the noise of the engine -ceased, the yelping of the dogs could be plainly heard. They had treed -something right beside the highway. - -“Switch on the lights quick!” whispered the man who seemed to command -the trio. “They are too busy to have seen us yet.” - -“But can’t we take some side road?” asked the wounded one. - -“There is none, I tell you; I know the country like a book. We have got -to pass that crowd of fools.” - -The lamps were already alight; the chauffeur spun the flywheel and the -car moved on. It might have seemed to any of the party of hunters, who -noticed at all, that the automobile had only then flashed around the -curve in the road. - -It leaped ahead again, but not before Billy heard the approaching purr -of the car in pursuit. Dan and his friends were close behind! - -“Hold on!” yelled somebody. “Look out for the dogs.” - -The thieves uttered exclamations of anger, but George slowed down. The -excited canines were leaping about in the roadway. The ’coon had taken -to a tall, straight tree, directly on the line of the highway. The -branch on which the animal crouched overhung the road. - -The torches and lanterns flashed in front of the car. The chauffeur -brought it down to a creeping pace. Those beside the road obtained a -good view of the car, and of the men in it. This was in all probability -not to the liking of the latter. Beside, there was the license plate -behind—no dragging robe covered those numbers now. - -Already a man with an axe was at the base of the tree. He struck a blow, -or two, before the motor car crawled past. They were going to fell the -tree so as to get their quarry. - -The maroon car passed. Billy heard the sound of the pursuing auto, -growing louder and louder. He decided that the moment had come for him -to escape from the car, for the hunters would protect him from the -vengeance of the criminals. - -And even as he was about crawling out of the canopy, and dropping to the -lighted roadway, the boy was startled by a sharp detonation—followed by -the shaking of the automobile as it was brought to a sudden stop. - -“A blow-out!” thought Billy. - -The car was stalled. He heard the three thieves express their fear and -anger. He knew he would be less likely to be observed by them now than -at any time. He leaped down and scuttled into the bushes in a moment. - -“Hullo!” shouted one of the men of the hunting party. “A breakdown?” - -Then another hunter heard a fast-approaching car, and uttered a cry of -warning: - -“Look out for the dogs! Here’s another of those plaguy autos.” - -Billy was aware, from his place of concealment, that the three robbers -were extremely busy men. They soon had a lantern beside the burst tire, -and tools spread about the road. George and the wounded one were jacking -up the car so as to get off the old tire and replace it with a new one. - -With a sudden shout, the leader of the trio of robbers left the car and -bounded toward the ’coon tree. He passed Billy so near that the boy -shrank back with an affrighted cry. He thought he had been discovered. - -But the man did not stop for Billy Speedwell. Indeed, he probably did -not hear the lad’s cry. He had seen the lights of the pursuing -automobile at the turn in the road. - -He dashed in among the hunters who, with their flaring torches and -lanterns and dogs, were gathered about the tree in which the ’coon had -taken refuge. The man with the axe had already cut half through the tall -trunk. - -Without a word, but giving the axeman a strong push to one side, the -leader of the thieves seized the axe, wrenching it from the other’s -hands. Then, with mighty blows, he set upon the work of felling the -tree. The hunters were amazed. They did not know whether it was a joke, -or not. But suddenly one observed the object of the stranger. - -“Look out, there!” he cried. “You’ll have that tree down across the -road.” - -And, even as he spoke, with the second motor car still some rods away, -and slowing down, the event he had prophesied occurred! With a crash the -tree fell. The motor rascal was an excellent woodsman. He had known just -how to slant his axe to make the tree fall in the right direction. - -As it came down to earth the yelping dogs made a dash for the ’coon, and -for some moments there was a lively scrimmage in the brush across the -highway; but nobody had paid any attention to this event. - -The pursuing car stopped in bare season to escape collision with the -fallen tree. It had been completely blocked from further pursuit. - -“Stop them! Hold them!” shouted Mr. Briggs and Mr. Armitage. - -“Are you there, Billy?” yelled Dan Speedwell. - -The leader of the party in the first maroon car leaped back toward that -crippled machine. At the moment one of his mates whistled a shrill -signal, while George, the chauffeur, shouted: - -“All ready! We’re off!” - -Mr. Polk, as well as several of the hunters, made for the man. He eluded -them with ease, sprang into the middle of the road, and sprinted for the -forward car. There was only Billy Speedwell between him and escape. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS - - -But Billy was a factor to be counted on. There was peril in any attempt -to halt the leader of the bank robbers. The lad knew that well enough. -He would have tackled either of the others with a better liking for the -job; he knew them to be less desperate. - -He shot out of the shadow of the bushes, still on hands and knees, and -threw his body across the track of the running man. The fellow could -neither dodge, nor overleap the boy; the latter had timed his -intervention too well. So he tripped upon Billy, and sprawled like a -huge frog in the roadway. - -Billy was not hurt. He sprang up, saw that his antagonist was down, and -immediately jumped upon his back, shouting: - -“Come on! Come on! I’ve got him! Help!” - -The fellow struggled to get up. He was able to lift the boy’s weight -with ease. In half a minute Billy knew he would be shaken off. Why -didn’t some of those ’coon hunters take a hand in the proceedings? - -Billy heard the sound of running feet behind him; but it was a long way -behind. Then came an answering shout from Dan: - -“Hold to him, Billy! Hang to him!” - -Billy did his best. But he was light weight for the leader of the -motor-robbers. That individual got to his feet, reached behind him, and -shoved the lad loose, pushing him far from him upon the road. - -Fortunately he did not stay to punish the boy, but bounded on. Dan was -beside his brother in a moment, leaning over him and seizing Billy’s -shoulder in an anxious grip. - -“You’re not hurt, Billy? Say you’re not hurt?” he cried. “Did that -man——” - -“Oh, ouch!” gasped the younger boy, getting his breath. “Never mind me! -Get him, Dan!” - -But with a loud blast the robbers’ automobile shot ahead. They were off. - -Mr. Briggs wanted to run back and take the Speedwells home; but there -was a path through the woods right here to their house, and the boys -refused to cause any trouble. The hunters cut up the tree and cleared -the roadway so that the maroon car could go on; but the automobile -driven by the men who had robbed Mr. Sudds and the bank was then far, -far out of reach. - -Everywhere in town there was talk of the robbers. Mr. Sudds had lost -anywhere from ten to a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry, so -gossip said. But the Speedwell boys did not add to it, although they -might have told some interesting particulars of the robbery and how the -thieves had gotten away. - -Josiah Somes, having been able to do nothing but annoy Mr. Briggs and -his friends, was discreetly silent regarding the telephone message he -had received from Rebo’s garage at Upton Falls. So nobody stopped Dan, -or Billy, to ask them about the midnight race of the automobiles. - -The boys hurried home and begged permission to remain away from classes -that morning. They would make the time up on their lessons later; it was -quite important that they should get the car out of the tree before -further trouble ensued. Billy’s motorcycle was hidden down there on the -river road, too. - -The brothers got the new post Dan cut at midnight, and another stick for -the arm of the derrick, hurried to the place, and raised a new lifting -apparatus. The auto and the motorcycle were both safe, nor did anybody -come to trouble them while they worked. - -There was a steep path down to the shore of the river, and up this Billy -lugged the tangle of rope and chain, with the hoisting tackle, that had -fallen with the derrick when their enemy had cast the apparatus over the -precipice. - -Meanwhile, Dan dug a hole for the new post, and it was set up, and the -derrick re-rigged. It was Billy who climbed down to the overturned auto -again. He fastened it in a strong sling, brought the ends of the rope in -a loop over it, and hooked the falls into it, which Dan pulled taut. - -The latter had already unhitched the horses from the wagon, and now had -them rigged to the second pulley, ready to start the weight of the -wrecked car out of the tree. Billy refused to come up. - -“I must see her start, Dan. Perhaps something will catch—we mustn’t -break or mar it any more than possible,” declared Billy, quite -nervously. - -“Look out for yourself, old man,” Dan returned, and then spoke to the -horses. - -Bob and Betty strained to their collars; the rope tauntened; the motor -car began to squeak and the tree branches to rustle. - -“She’s coming!” yelled Billy. - -He stood on a limb, clinging to another with one hand. The car started, -stuck a little, and then came loose with so sudden a jerk that the bulk -of it was dashed against the boy! - -“Whoa!” cried Dan; and it was well he stopped the team. Billy was flung -off his unstable footing; but he had presence of mind enough to seize -the car itself, and so hung on, his body swinging with the auto. - -“Are you all right, Billy?” demanded Dan, anxiously. - -“Right—oh!” returned the younger boy. “Let her go! I’m coming up with -her.” - -And he did. In five minutes the scratched automobile was hoisted out of -the gulf, and the boys worked it over the farm wagon body. Upon that -they lowered it carefully. - -It was safe! And as far as Billy and Dan could see, it was not much -damaged—not materially so, at least. - -They dismantled the derrick and let the posts fall over the cliff, with -those that had been cut down in the night. Then Billy went down below -again and got the fisherman to help him up the path with the cushions -and the rest of the automobile outfit, Dan meanwhile filling up the -holes in the bank, and replacing the turf. - -Everything once loaded on the wagon, the boys drove away. In passing -through the town several people remarked upon the condition of the -wrecked vehicle which the boys had purchased of Maxey Solomons, and more -than one intimated that the Speedwells had spent their good money for -something that neither they—nor anybody else—could make use of! - -The boys knew that they would have to take the wrecked car to the -Darringford shops to have it rebuilt and put in running order; but first -they wished to assemble the parts as well as they could in their own -workshop. Upside down as the car lay, Dan and Billy could see several -bad breaks in the mechanism. The boys were not altogether sure that they -would be able to put the wrecked car into good condition with the five -hundred dollars that remained of their savings-bank hoard. But they said -nothing to each other regarding these doubts. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - SECRET SERVICE - - -Mr. Speedwell possessed some little ingenuity in mechanics himself, and -perhaps Dan had inherited his taste for the same study. The boys knew -they had a hard task before them when, on getting the wrecked car out of -the farm wagon, they turned it over and ran it in upon the shop floor. -Their father’s opinion was anxiously awaited by the brothers. - -He was not a man who grew enthusiastic without cause, and was slow in -forming his judgment. It was not until he had been able to thoroughly go -over the wrecked car that he told Dan and Billy what he thought of their -bargain. - -“If we had the tools here, we three could put that car in as good -condition as she was when she came from the shop,” he finally said, -wiping his hands on a bit of waste. “As she stands she is worth three -times what you gave for her, I am sure. And after we have made all the -repairs we can make, the expense of putting her in first-class shape and -repainting her—if you are content with a plain warship drab color—ought -not to be above seventy-five dollars.” - -“Bully!” shouted Billy, flinging his cap into the air. - -“And can you help us at once, Dad?” asked Dan, eagerly. “We want to -enter for that thousand mile endurance test if we can. It will come in -Thanksgiving week, and we sha’n’t have to miss school.” - -“I will go to work on it this very day,” returned Mr. Speedwell, smiling -at their enthusiasm. - -But he pointed out again that there would be many things besides the -repainting of the car that they could not do. And so, after school the -next afternoon, Dan and Billy went over to the Darringford shops to see -what kind of an arrangement they could make for the repair of the drab -car. - -The boys had a friend in Mr. Robert Darringford, who was really the head -of the concern; but they did not wish to seem to ask a favor of him, so -went directly to the overseer of the department in which the wrecked car -would have to be repaired. This overseer was the father of one of their -fellow-club members, “Biff” Hardy, and Biff himself worked in the shop. - -“Fred was telling me about the car you boys got hold of,” said Mr. -Hardy. “I guess he knows something about it, and he saw it in the tree.” - -“What does he say?” asked Billy, quickly. - -“Says we can fix it up like new.” - -“And you can do it at once?” - -“Don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t. Of course, Mr. Avery can tell -you better than I,” said the foreman. - -Dan and Billy looked doubtfully at each other. They did not like to ask -any favor of the superintendent of the shops, for Francis Avery, -Chanceford’s brother, was not their friend. - -“You know of nothing now that will be ahead of our job?” asked Dan, -gravely. - -“Not a thing. I was just going over the order book. There is very little -outside repairing to be done just now.” - -“Then, if we get the machine down here to-morrow it’s likely that you -can go right to work on it?” - -“Guess so,” said Mr. Hardy, confidently. - -As they walked up town the brothers chanced to pass the Farmers’ -National Bank. Through the barred window Mr. Baird, the cashier, saw -them, and beckoned them to enter. - -“Boys, I have a very serious proposal to make you,” the cashier said. -“We have just had a conference with Mr. Briggs, one of our big -depositors. He has told us of the race he had with the car of those -robbers who broke into Mr. Sudds’ house, and whom we are sure are the -same that robbed this bank.” - -“And I am positive they are the same men,” said Dan. - -“Me, too,” agreed Billy. “And they’ve got some automobile! It’s as good -a car as Mr. Briggs’ new one.” - -“Well, as to that I cannot say,” returned the cashier. “But Mr. Briggs -has told us of the connection of you two brothers with the thieves, and -he has put a thought into my mind.” - -“And that is?” asked Dan, seriously. - -“That you boys—at least, Billy, here—will be able to recognize and -identify those robbers.” - -“I should say I would!” declared Billy. “At least, the fellow who bosses -them, and the man who was wounded at Mr. Sudds’, were both without masks -or goggles for part of the time. I’d know them anywhere. And the -chauffeur, George, I believe I should know by his figure.” - -“I couldn’t be sure myself,” said Dan, doubtfully. “I made a mistake in -that matter of identification once. I took Henri, Mr. Briggs’ own -chauffeur, for one of the thieves.” - -“Well, we will say, then, that Billy is the only one who can positively -identify the men; but you both know the car.” - -“If I ever see one like it it will either be the robbers’ car or Mr. -Briggs’,” laughed Dan. “They can’t spring a third one on me.” - -“Well. You see what I am getting at,” said Mr. Baird, impressively. “It -is in your power to aid the bank. I understand that you boys have bought -a motor car?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“And you will be riding around the country in it a good deal.” - -“We hope to,” declared the brothers, in chorus. - -“Then, it is my firm belief, boys, that you will some day run up against -those three men, either with or without the maroon car,” declared Mr. -Baird, impressively. - -“Oh, do you think so?” cried Dan. - -“They have been successful in at least two robberies. Of course, the -whole county—half the state, indeed—is awake to their actions now, and -they will have to keep quiet for a while. But, having been so successful -in this manner of work—this automobile-highway robbery—they will wish to -try it again.” - -“That seems reasonable,” admitted Dan. - -“And if we could only find them!” cried Billy. - -“That is the idea,” said Mr. Baird. “If you find them, bring about their -arrest. The bank will back you up in it, no matter how much it costs, in -time, trouble, or money. And, boys, you will lose nothing yourselves if -you bring about the arrest of the thieves.” - -The Speedwells went forth considerably excited. “I tell you, Dan!” Billy -whispered, “wouldn’t it be great if we came across those three rascals?” - -“It would give me a whole lot of satisfaction to see them put where the -dogs wouldn’t bite them!” agreed the older boy. “But I’d like to have -their car.” - -“Do you suppose it is a Postlethwaite, like Mr. Briggs’?” asked Billy. - -“It’s a six-cylinder car without doubt, and looks enough like Mr. -Briggs’ to be own sister to it. Hullo! Here’s Burton Poole and his car,” -Dan added. - -“Come along!” said Billy, shortly. “Chance Avery is with him. I could -give that fellow a piece of my mind.” - -“It wouldn’t do any good,” admonished Dan. “We don’t know that he -chopped down our derrick.” - -“Well, I’m pretty sure. Who else would be mean enough? We haven’t many -enemies, I hope.” - -“No. Hullo, Burton!” - -The car Dan had mentioned came to a halt right beside the Speedwell -boys, and its owner hailed Dan. Therefore the latter had to speak. -Chance Avery, who was driving it, had shut off the power, and now he got -down and took out the gasoline can. They were all in front of -Appleyard’s store. - -“I hear you got Maxey’s car out of the tree, all hunky-dory,” said -Burton, heartily, “and I’m glad of it.” - -“You don’t suppose your partner will offer us his congratulations; do -you?” asked Billy, significantly, as Chance went off, scowling, to buy -gasoline. - -“Oh, well, he has a grouch,” laughed Burton Poole. “But, he’s making -this old car hum! I never could get such speed out of her.” - -“You don’t give her enough attention,” laughed Dan, as Burton got out -lazily, and opened the gasoline tank. - -“Never mind; I add weight to her when we’re racing,” chuckled Poole. - -He turned carelessly away from the open tank as he spoke and suddenly -spied a youngster standing on the curb—a little fellow of not more than -ten years with a lighted cigarette stuck in his mouth! Poole suddenly -grew angry. - -“Ted Berry! What are you smoking that thing for?” he demanded, sharply. - -Little Berry was Burton’s nephew, and in spite of Burton’s haughtiness -and laziness, he was rather a decent fellow, and took an elder-brotherly -interest in his sister’s boy. - -“G’wan!” returned Teddy Berry, who had begun to run with a pretty rough -set of youngsters, and resented his young uncle’s interference. “You -didn’t pay for this smoke.” - -“Let me get my hands on you!” began Burton, in wrath, leaping for the -saucy little fellow. - -Ted, however, was as elusive as an eel. He dodged under Burton’s arm and -would have got away had he not slid on the mud in the gutter, right -behind the automobile. - -“Now I’ve got you!” cried Burton, leaping again and catching the little -fellow by the shoulder. - -Ted had withdrawn the cigarette from his mouth. It was in his hand as -his uncle grabbed him. The next instant it flashed through the air—both -Dan and Billy saw it—and there sounded a deafening explosion and a -tongue of flame leaped from the auto’s gasoline tank! - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - INGRATITUDE OF CHANCE AVERY - - -There had been enough gasoline—rather, enough of the vapor—left in the -tank to ignite the instant the lighted cigarette fell into it. And the -flames spread with surprising rapidity. - -A crowd ran toward the square, where the auto stood; but nobody seemed -to know at first what to do. Some shouted for water, others merely -yelled “Fire! Fire!” at the top of their voices. And one fleet-footed -youngster made for the hose house, intending to arouse the volunteer -firemen. - -Burton Poole let his small nephew escape and turned with a startled -visage toward his car. Chance Avery had heard the explosion, too, and -dashed out of Appleyard’s store to see the car burst into flames. He -grabbed a pail of water from a man who was running with it, and was -about to dash the fluid upon the flames when Dan Speedwell shouted to -him to stop. - -“Not water, Avery! You’ll only make it spread!” cried Speedwell. “Here, -Billy! Get me that shovel.” - -Billy obeyed on the instant. The shovel was in the idle hands of a -laborer—a man who did not know enough to use it in this emergency. - -There was a heap of sand in front of Appleyard’s, where the cement walk -was being repaired. Dan seized the shovel from his brother, and began -heaving the sand in a shower upon the blazing car. - -Wherever the sand landed the fire was snuffed out. A well aimed -shovelful quenched the flames which flared from the opening of the tank. -In a very few moments every spark was out—and thanks to Dan Speedwell, -and to Dan alone. - -But only one of the partners thanked Dan. Burton Poole wrung his hand -and clapped him on the shoulder, and told him he was “a good fellow.” -But Avery kept his face averted and examined the damage done to the -automobile with lowering brow. - -“It will have to go to the shop,” growled Chance, and would say no more. - -Dan and Billy went home on their motorcycles and found that already Mr. -Speedwell had put in several hours upon the auto. They were able to -hitch Bob and Betty to a truck and drag the car, on its own wheels, down -to the Darringford shops. There they delivered it to Mr. Hardy with the -expectation that in a day or two, at the latest, they would be riding in -their own machine. - -They were busy making up lost recitations for several days. And when -they went down to the shops to inquire about the machine they found -nothing done to it. A big rush of extra work was on, they were informed. -The repair gang couldn’t get at the drab racer. - -This began to bother the Speedwells after they had called twice and -found nothing done. Then they saw Chance Avery and Burton Poole running -about town again in their machine. It had been repaired, and repainted, -and was as bright as though new. - -The brothers noticed this fact about Burton Poole’s machine one evening -when they attended a business and social meeting of the Riverdale Outing -Club. Chance Avery, who was still president and captain of the club, -despite his unpopularity with the majority of the members, seemed to -feel amused on this evening whenever he looked at Dan or Billy -Speedwell. - -During the social hour Jim Stetson and his sister, Ruth, invited a few -friends to run up to their uncle’s cottage at Karnac Lake. The last time -the Stetsons had had a party at the lodge it was something of a failure -because of certain incidents that attended the run. - -“We certainly are not going to chance the risk of being chased by elks -and letting Mildred get lost in the Big Swamp,” chattered Ruth, with her -arm around the waist of the doctor’s daughter. “We’re going in cars. The -Greenes will go, and we depend upon you, Burton, to bring a part of the -crowd. And let’s see—oh, yes, you, Dan Speedwell! You and Billy have a -car?” - -“So we suppose,” returned Dan, rather ruefully. “It’s being put in shape -now; but your party isn’t until next week Friday, is it?” - -“That is the time,” said Ruth Stetson. “I am going to ask you to bring -Milly here, and Lettie Parker, and Kate O’Brien and Maybell Turner, -beside two of the boys. Can you do it?” - -“Why, the car will hold that number,” said Dan, quietly. “I think we -shall not fail you.” - -Chance lounged near, with his hands in his pockets and there was a -sneering smile on his face. - -“Aren’t you counting chickens before they’re hatched, Speedwell?” he -suggested. “You don’t know whether that broken-down car of yours is -going to run at all, do you?” - -“Oh, I guess she will be all right when they get through with her down -at Darringfords,” returned Dan, easily. - -“That car will never be fixed in those shops,” remarked Chance. - -“Who says so?” demanded Billy, hotly. - -“I say so,” snarled Chance. “I know all about it. The car isn’t worth -repairing in the first place. It’s too badly wrecked. You Speedwells -might as well go down and take your ramshackle old car home again.” - -“Biff” Hardy caught Dan by the sleeve as he and Billy were going out. - -“What is it?” asked the older Speedwell. - -“You’d better mark what Chance told you, old man,” whispered Hardy. - -“What do you mean?” asked Dan, in surprise. - -“You just think he’s gassin’, do you?” - -“What else can it be? What has he to do with the Darringford shops?” - -“Well, you must admit,” said Biff, with a broad grin on his freckled -face, “that Frank Avery has something to do with the shops.” - -“Naturally. He’s superintendent.” - -“And I only know what father said. He’s worried about it. Burton Poole’s -car came in to be repaired and repainted after your car was on the -floor. Dad had to drop everything else and fix up Poole’s car. But the -Super forbade his touching your machine. It stands right there yet, and -Avery says that no more outside repairing can be done for a month.” - -“Not until after the thousand mile run!” gasped Dan. - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - A FRIEND IN NEED - - -The Speedwell boys went home in no very pleasant frame of mind. -Heretofore they had experienced sufficient trouble through Chance Avery -and his brother to know that the superintendent of the Darringford shops -was quite capable of giving Chance great help in his attempt to “get -even” with anybody whom he disliked. - -And neither Chance nor Francis Avery could ever forgive the Speedwell -boys for beating Chance in the manufacturers’ motorcycle races held at -the Riverdale Baseball Park not long before. Chance had been picked by -the superintendent of the Darringford shops to ride a Flying Feather, -and carry the colors of the local shops to victory. But at the last -moment Dan Speedwell, likewise riding one of the Darringfords’ machines, -had beaten out the field and left Chance sadly in the rear. - -“And they are going to make it impossible—if they can—for us to do -anything to Chance and Burton in this endurance test of autos that Mr. -Briggs is financing,” grumbled Billy. “Oh, pshaw, Dan! What makes folks -so mean?” - -“I don’t know. We’ll ask Doc Bugs,” laughed Dan, referring to one of the -academy instructors who was very much inclined to harp upon the microbe -theory, and bacilli. “There’s something mean got into Chance, and his -brother’s caught it. That’s all I know about it.” - -“But we’re not going to let them beat us so easy,” growled Billy. - -“Not so’s you’d notice it,” agreed the older brother. - -“What will we do?” - -“First we’ll go over to the shops to-morrow and find out just where we -stand.” - -“But if they won’t fix the auto there, what will we do? We can’t cart -the machine clear to Compton, and it would cost a mint of money to have -men from the manufacturing plant come here to make repairs.” - -“We’ll see,” said Dan. “Let’s sleep over it.” - -That was like Dan; he always thought a thing out by himself. Billy, more -impulsive and ready to discuss a point, found his brother sometimes -exasperating. It kept him “guessing,” he complained; he never knew just -what Dan would finally do. - -He was not surprised, however, the next afternoon after the second -session, that Dan should head for the Darringford shops instead of -taking wheel for home. They came to the small gate in the stockade-fence -that surrounded the machine shops, spoke to the gate-keeper, and went in -to the repair department. When Mr. Hardy saw them in the doorway he -looked slightly discomposed. In truth his somewhat smutted face changed -color. - -“Sorry, boys,” he said, hurrying toward them; “we haven’t had a chance -to touch your machine yet. Hurried to death.” - -“Of course, your outside jobs take their regular turn, don’t they, Mr. -Hardy?” asked Dan, smoothly. - -“Oh, of course! Er—that is—it’s the general rule.” - -“Then no other outside job has been put in ahead of ours?” - -“Why—now——” - -“What do those fellows want?” asked a sharp voice suddenly, and Dan and -Billy turned to see the superintendent of the shops eyeing them with -disfavor. - -Mr. Hardy waved the boys toward Mr. Avery. - -“You’ll have to talk to him, boys,” he said. “I haven’t anything to do -with it.” - -“What are they bothering you about, Hardy?” demanded the superintendent. - -“We have been waiting some days for our automobile to be fixed, Mr. -Avery,” said Dan, firmly. - -“And you’ll wait a few days longer, I guess,” said the man, -unpleasantly. - -“But we are in a hurry, and the understanding was——” - -“With whom did you have any understanding when you brought that car -here?” interrupted Avery. - -“Mr. Hardy.” - -“And if he told you that he could put aside our regular work for outside -jobs, he overstepped his bounds.” - -“He told us nothing of the kind,” said Dan, quickly. “He only said our -car should have precedence over other outside work that might come in.” - -“Well, it will,” said Avery, with a laugh. - -“It hasn’t,” exclaimed Dan, sharply. - -“What’s that?” - -“Since our machine was brought here Burton Poole’s has been repaired and -repainted. Ours hasn’t been touched.” - -“Look here, young saucebox!” exclaimed Avery, in a passion, “Who told -you to come here and tell me my business? Your car will wait its turn——” - -“You gave its turn to Poole’s car,” declared Dan, stubbornly. “You know -you did. You do not mean that our car shall be repaired.” - -Somebody had stopped quietly behind them. A stern voice said: - -“What’s the matter, Avery?” - -“Mr. Robert!” exclaimed Billy. - -Robert Darringford stood there, his automobile coat thrown back, his -Norfolk jacket unbelted, and cap and goggles pushed back from his -pleasant face. He was just drawing off his gauntlets. - -“What’s the matter, Mr. Avery?” he repeated, as the flaming face of the -superintendent was turned toward him. - -“These young rascals have become impudent!” declared the superintendent. -“I’ve told you before, Mr. Robert, that I consider your attitude toward -these Speedwells as utterly wrong——” - -“Come, come,” said the younger Darringford, good-naturedly enough, yet -with a tone of voice that halted Avery in his headlong speech. “Let’s -get at the trouble. Of course, Dan and Billy are my friends. I have told -you that several times.” - -“And they presume upon your notice of them,” declared the -superintendent. “Your undignified treatment of them gives them a license -which they abuse.” - -“And how have they abused my kindness now?” queried Darringford, -gravely. - -“They have brought us an old, ramshackle car here to be patched up. You -know Hardy’s department is working overtime. All outside work must take -its chance. We cannot do this now.” - -“And the boys are impatient, are they?” demanded Darringford, smiling, -however, quite kindly upon Dan and Billy. - -“When we brought our car here, the shop was not so busy,” said Dan, -interrupting. “Mr. Avery knows that. He has had a car repaired here -since ours has stood on the floor.” - -“How is this, Avery?” asked Mr. Robert, sharply. - -“The boy tells an untruth,” snapped the other. Then, thinking better of -it, he added: “Or, at least, I know nothing about it. I only know that -Burton Poole had a machine here to be fixed, and I ordered Hardy to get -it out of the way.” - -“And why not this one?” queried Mr. Robert, pointing to the drab car. - -“Well——” - -“Chance is driving Poole’s car, isn’t he?” asked Mr. Robert, with marked -emphasis. - -“Well, sir! You know yourself we are over-driven here!” cried Avery, in -despair of clearing his skirts completely of the ugly charge of -favoritism. - -“Quite true. We will excuse you, Mr. Avery. I will attend to the -Speedwells’ car,” said the young proprietor of the shops. - -He turned his back on his superintendent—not without a little bow, -however—and said pleasantly to Dan: - -“Now, young man, as spokesman for you and your brother, tell me how you -came in possession of a Breton-Melville car, this year’s type, racing -rig, and apparently one that has been misused, at that?” - -Dan laughed. Mr. Robert’s keen eye was not to be mistaken. One would not -have thought that he had more than glanced casually at the wreck of -Maxey Solomons’ automobile. - -But between them (for Billy was bound to put in a word here and there) -the Speedwells told him of their good fortune in obtaining possession of -the wrecked car. Mr. Robert grew more and more interested. He began to -take off his coat, and his cap and auto-goggles followed. Mr. Avery -waited in the near distance, covertly watching the “young boss.” - -“It’s a great chance for you, boys!” declared Mr. Robert. “Why, do you -know, I’m going to enter for Briggs’ endurance test myself. I believe -I’ve got a car that can even beat out a Breton-Melville,” and his eyes -twinkled. “But it would be too bad if your car wasn’t ready in time, so -that we could find out just how good a machine it is.” - -“We mean to get it repaired somehow,” said Dan, firmly. “If not here——” - -“And why not here?” demanded Mr. Robert. He glanced quickly around and -began to strip off his Norfolk jacket. “Hey, Hardy! Have you got an -extra suit of overalls anywhere about? I want ’em.” - -“Sure, Mr. Robert,” declared the foreman, coming briskly forward. - -“What Mr. Avery says is quite true, boys,” declared young Darringford, -seriously. “This department is driven to death. But then—I’m sort of an -outsider and I’m not driven to death. I’m going to shuck my coat, and -get into these duds—that’s it, Hardy! thank you—and then we’ll see what -is the matter with the vitals of that machine. Mr. Avery,” he added, -with a humorous twist of his lips, “won’t mind if I use the tools here -to repair your machine. I am rather a privileged character myself about -the shops. But you know, Dan and Billy, we always back up our foremen -and superintendent; and it is quite true that the men are too busy to do -your work at present.” - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - ON THE ROAD TO KARNAC LAKE - - -The Speedwell boys could have imagined no better outcome of this affair. -Yet they were both too independent to have courted Mr. Robert’s -attention and complained to him of the unfair treatment they had -received at the hands of the superintendent of the shops. - -As for the car itself, the boys knew very well that they could leave -their Breton-Melville in no better hands. Mr. Robert, though -college-bred, had put on overalls and worked every summer in the shops -since he was fifteen years of age. He was a finished mechanic. That is -why his men respected and liked him so much. - -Dan and Billy retired, full of glee over the turn matters had taken. -Their car would be put in order—in first-class order—and they need have -no fear but that the work would be done promptly. In fact, the first of -the week Mr. Robert sent word to them that they could take the car home. - -They settled their bill at the office like any other customer, and it -was no small one. They doubted if Mr. Robert had charged them much for -his own time; but the repairs cost over eighty dollars. When they ran -the car out of the yard the enamel paint was scarcely dry. But the -mechanism worked like that of a fine watch! - -Were they proud as they sped swiftly through the Riverdale streets? -Well! - -There was nothing beautiful about the drab car, saving her lines. She -was neither a touring car nor one built for show. But Mr. Robert had -assured them that he had never gone over and assembled the parts of a -finer piece of auto work than this same Breton-Melville car. - -“I shall have to look out for my own laurels, I very well see,” laughed -the acting head of the Darringford shops. “And Mr. Briggs himself will -have to get the best there is out of his Postlethwaite if he expects to -beat you boys in that endurance test.” - -So Dan and Billy had reason for feeling proud of their car, although it -had few of the attractive qualities of the usual auto. It was plainly -furnished, and there was not so much brass work as on most cars. As it -sped along, to the observer from the sidewalk it had the appearance of -being stripped down to the very skeleton of a car. - -The Stetson’s run to Karnac Lake was arranged for Friday afternoon, -immediately after the close of classes. Dan and Billy were hard-working -boys, both in school and on the dairy farm; they had to arrange their -schedule, as Billy said, with considerable care to be able to accompany -their friends on this run to the cottage in the woods. - -Karnac Lake was a beautiful spot, some fifty miles up the river, and the -road was a good automobile path all the way. Burton Poole and Chance -Avery were boasting of having “done it” in an hour and a half. - -“If they can do it in that time, in that machine of Burton’s,” declared -Dan Speedwell, after they had tried out their Breton-Melville car for -two evenings along the county pike, “we can do as well. Take my word for -it, Billy.” - -“I believe you,” agreed his brother. - -“Then we won’t leave it all for dad to do on Saturday morning,” Dan -said. “We can run back, help him milk, take our routes as usual, and -then race back to Karnac and get there by mid-forenoon again.” - -“Agreed!” said Billy. “I wish we had motor-wagons to use in distributing -the milk, anyway. Wouldn’t that be a great scheme?” - -“All to the good. But one motor-wagon would do it. We could get over -both routes in less time than it takes us to deliver one route with a -horse.” - -“It’s us for a motor-truck, then,” cried Billy. - -“I’ve got a scheme,” said Dan, slowly. “Maybe it won’t work; and then -again——” - -“What is it?” asked Billy, eagerly. - -“I don’t know as I’ll tell you just yet,” said Dan, grinning at him. - -And just then something called Billy away—some duty or other—and he -forgot later to ask Dan to explain his tantalizing statement. - -The Speedwells made their preparations well in advance, and between -sessions Friday noon ran home on their Flying Feathers and came back to -town in their Breton-Melville car. They backed it into Holliday’s -garage, where it would come to no harm during the afternoon, and as soon -as school was over they ran to the garage, filled up their tank, -strapped a spare five gallon can of gasoline on the running board, as -well as a pair of extra tires (that had cost them a pretty penny) in -their enamel-cloth covers, and ran out on the street. - -Dan guided the car around to Mildred’s house, where the girls and boys -who were to ride with them had agreed to assemble. The doctor’s daughter -with Lettie and Kate and Maybell were already there and Wiley Moyle and -young Fisher Greene soon arrived. Fisher was always being crowded out of -the auto belonging to his family; but he had objected so strenuously on -this occasion that room had to be found in one of the machines and he -had elected to come with the Speedwells, for he and Billy were pretty -good chums. - -Fisher sat beside Dan on the front seat; four of the party squeezed into -the rear of the tonneau and the remaining two—Wiley Moyle and Katie -O’Brien—faced the latter quartette. They were comfortably seated, their -possessions stowed away, and Dan ran the car out into the Court House -square just as the clock in the tower struck four. - -They had not long to wait for the rest of the party. Chance Avery shot -the Poole car into the square from a by-street, narrowly escaped running -over Rover, Mr. Appleyard’s old dog, and very much frightened old lady -Massey, who was about to cross the street. And he brought the car to an -abrupt stop with a grin on his face, while his open muffler allowed the -exhaust to deafen the whole neighborhood. - -“For pity’s sake, close that muffler, Chance!” shouted Monroe Stevens, -who was riding in the Greene’s car, and which now came into sight with -Perry Greene at the wheel. “We can’t hear ourselves talk.” - -“I hope the Town Council puts a stop to that,” declared Fisher Greene, -in the Speedwell car. - -“Puts a stop to what, young fellow?” demanded Chance Avery, in no -pleasant tone. - -“They’re going to fine those automobilists who run through the streets -with their mufflers open,” said Fisher. “Just to show off, you know—make -other folks notice that there’s an auto running by. It’s a good deal -like little Ted Berry smoking cigarettes. It makes him sick, and his -uncle punishes him for it; but Ted thinks it’s making a man of him. I -reckon that would-be chauffeurs who run with their mufflers open, figure -it out the same as Teddy.” - -Everybody laughed but Chance; he only scowled and demanded of Jim -Stetson: - -“Well, are you folks ready?” - -“All right, girls?” asked the master of ceremonies, standing up in the -Greenes’ car. - -Even Lettie Parker had forgotten that she was seated beside Billy and -Mildred in the tonneau of the smallest and least showy of the equipages. -They were all so anxious to be off. - -“Do go on, boys!” cried Miss Parker. “And, oh dear me! I do want you to -get outside of town where you can race. I never did go fast enough yet -in an automobile.” - -“Lettie’s fairly gone on autos,” drawled Billy. “And if she ever gets a -machine of her own——” - -“Which I intend to do some day, Mr. Smartie!” cried the bronze-haired -girl. - -“Oh, I believe you!” responded Billy, who was nothing if not a tease. -“And then we’ll see her riding around town with her nose in the -air—worse than even Nature ever intended,” he added, with a sly glance -at the tip of Miss Parker’s pretty nose, which really was a little -tip-tilted! - -“All right for you, Billy Speedwell,” Miss Parker declared. “You shall -never ride in my car when I do get it.” - -“No. I sha’n’t want to. I’d rather be somewhere up near the head of the -procession,” said the teasing Billy. - -“Say!” cried Lettie, in a heat, “you don’t call this being at the head -of the procession, do you? We’re number three, all right, and there are -none to follow.” - -“Run her up a little, Dannie!” begged Wiley Moyle. “That Chance Avery is -pulling ahead as though he was already running for the golden cup.” - -“I didn’t know this was to be a motor race,” laughed Dan, quietly -putting the lever up a notch. “I thought we were out for pleasure.” - -“Well, it’s no pleasure to be behind everybody else, and taking their -dust,” complained Lettie Parker. - -“Be careful, Dan, no matter what they say to you,” said Mildred Kent, -warningly, in her quiet way. “You know, our mothers all expect us to get -safely home again.” - -The Greene automobile, which was a heavy, practical family touring car, -was being put to its best pace. Chance Avery was running away from the -party, being already half a mile, or more, ahead of the Greenes. - -Dan’s advancing the speed lever was not noticeable in the throbbing or -jar of the car; the Breton-Melville was one of the quietest-running -automobiles in the market. And this speed was nothing to it—as yet. - -But in a very few moments they were running directly behind the heavy -car of the Greenes. The dust was choking. - -“Oh, do get out of the wake of that old lumber wagon!” cried Lettie, not -very politely. “This dust will smother us.” - -“And you wouldn’t be contented to run far enough behind to escape the -worst of it,” grunted Billy. - -“Well, Billy Speedwell!” snapped the council clerk’s daughter, “there’s -only one comfortable place in an automobile run—I see that plainly.” - -“Where’s that?” asked the innocent Billy. - -“A place in the first car,” returned Lettie. “Let the other people have -your dust.” - -Suddenly the girls uttered a startled and chorused “Oh, my!” Dan -Speedwell had sheered the car to the left, it darted ahead as though -suddenly shot from a gun, and in a flash had rounded and left behind the -heavy touring car, and they were running second. - -“Oh, Dannie!” gasped Mildred. “How did you do it?” - -“Perry must have run backwards,” grunted Billy, with scorn. “Of course! -We can’t get any speed out of this old wreck of a car. Ha! shoot it to -them, Dan!” - -The Breton-Melville was humming like a huge top. The road flowed away -beneath the wheels as though it traveled on a great spool in the -direction opposite to their flight. The girls caught their breaths and -held on with both hands. - -In half a minute, it seemed, Dan had brought his car up till it was -nosing the rear of Burton Poole’s automobile. Wiley Moyle uttered a -startled cry: - -“What you going to do, Dan? Jump her?” - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - - AN EXCITING RUN - - -Wiley had shouted the joke so loudly that those in the forward car heard -him, and it was repeated to Chance Avery. As Dan swerved to the left a -bit, preparatory to running out beside Burton Poole’s car, Chance -glanced around. They could not see him scowl, for his mask and goggles -covered his face. - -But it was plain that the captain of the Riverdale Club was not going to -be beaten so easily. He forced the Poole car ahead, and Dan immediately -gave up all intention of passing the first automobile. - -“Go to it, boy!” shouted Fisher Greene. “Show ’em what’s in this car.” - -“No,” said Dan, easily. “We’re not out for a race, but for a pleasant -run.” - -“You’re afraid!” mocked Wiley. - -“Perhaps,” returned Dan, cheerfully. - -Even Billy kept his temper and grinned at the gibes of Wiley and Fisher. -The Breton-Melville car had shown what she could do for a few moments, -and that satisfied Billy, as it did his brother. The Speedwells knew -that of the three cars, their drab machine was running the smoothest, -with less cost, and was as easily governed as any. - -They ran on for the rest of the distance to Karnac Lake in the same -order, letting Chance, in the Poole car, keep the lead, while the -Speedwell and Greene machines ran close together and the occupants were -sociable. - -They arrived at Stetson Lodge, as the lake cottage was called, in ample -season to remove the dust of the journey, and become acquainted with -other folk of the cottage colony invited in for supper. It was a merry -evening for all, the Stetsons being people who knew very well how to -make their guests feel at home. - -At eleven o’clock, or a little later, the party broke up. The -neighboring guests went home and the members of the party sought their -several rooms. Dan and Billy had already explained to Jim Stetson that -they intended to run home in their car and return soon after breakfast, -or even before, Saturday morning. - -“You can’t do it, fellows,” said Jim, as he went out with them, and held -the lantern while they ran the drab car out from under the shed and lit -the lamps, both fore and aft. “Fifty miles each way—huh! something will -happen to the machine as sure as shooting.” - -“If she can’t run a hundred miles in twelve hours without going to the -repair shop,” snorted Billy, “there isn’t much use in our entering for -the thousand mile run.” - -“You’re right there, Billy-boy,” said Dan, as he cranked up and the -engine began to whirr and pop. - -“Well, good luck!” exclaimed Jim, as he closed the shed. “We have to -keep these doors locked. You see, that M’Kim chap—Harrington M’Kim—is -just crazy about automobiles and uncle doesn’t know what he might do -next. He came over here one day last summer and borrowed uncle’s car -without saying ‘by your leave’, and started off with it. They caught -him, however, in time.” - -“What’s the matter with him?” asked Billy. - -“Why—I’m not sure that there’s much the matter with him, if his folks -wouldn’t watch over him so close and nag him all the time. The poor chap -is epileptic——” - -“Has fits?” - -“Yes. Dreadful ones sometimes. But he’ll outgrow them, the doctor says. -Only his folks are rich, and they hire maids, and governesses, and -tutors and such folk, to watch him all the time. They don’t dare have -him play like other boys, or with other boys. He’s in bad now, I tell -you.” - -“But running an automobile is no job for a fellow who may have a fit at -any moment,” said Billy. - -“I believe you,” said Jim. “Well, you’re off!” - -“Bye-bye!” shouted Billy, as Dan whirled the car out of the yard. But -before they were a mile on the road the brothers changed places. Billy -slipped to the wheel and Dan sat beside him. - -“Now, youngster!” chuckled Dan, “let’s see what you can do to her. We -have a clear road before us. Up hill and down dale—just about what we’ll -have for the thousand mile run. And we’ve got no weight behind. Let her -go!” - -The drab car climbed the hill without a break, slid over the summit, and -coasted down the other side at a pace which made the brothers stoop to -get a breath. Their lights showed a long, clear stretch of road ahead; -but when they came to a bend they went around it so quickly that Dan was -obliged to fling himself far out from the car on the inner side to keep -the tires on the ground. And his weight was barely sufficient for that. - -At racing speed they came down into Riverdale. The town was silent and -only the street lights winked at them as they roared through the streets -and out past Josiah Somes’ home. That watchdog of the public welfare was -not on hand to stretch his rope for them, and in a very few minutes they -ran quietly into their own yard—time from Karnac, one hour and thirteen -minutes. - -But as soon as the engine had cooled off they had to go over the entire -machine, tighten bolts, replace some, clean thoroughly, oil the -bearings, and otherwise give the Breton-Melville a thorough grooming. - -“That’s all right,” said Dan. “She can do fast time—there’s no doubt of -it. But that isn’t the way to win an endurance test of a thousand miles, -Billy.” - -“I expect not,” agreed his brother. - -“Fast traveling will shake the best car to pieces. And we are not up in -the mechanics of the automobile yet—we can’t stop anywhere on the road -and repair the vitals of our craft, as these professionals do.” - -“We’ve got to learn,” said Billy, thoughtfully. - -“That’s the checker! If we are going in for mechanics—motorcycles, motor -cars—perhaps, Billy, power boats——” - -“Ouch! you’re treading on a sore corn,” grunted Billy, but with a grin. -“I was watching those scooters running up and down the river under the -bridge the other day till my tongue fairly hung out of my mouth! My -goodness me, Dannie! what couldn’t we do with a motor boat—eh?” - -“We couldn’t plow for corn with it, I reckon,” laughed the elder -brother. “But it would be fine to own a launch like the _Pedoe_, or the -_Mainspring II_.” - -“And how about John Lovell’s _Blue Streak_?” exclaimed Billy. “I saw her -on the Fourth. Why, she cut the water like a shark going to dinner!” - -“Well, to get back to what I was saying,” Dan observed. “If we are going -in for these things, we must have some technical training. We can’t -think of going to school after next year. Father can’t afford to send -us. But we must get in somewhere—into some shop where we can learn -mechanics.” - -“The Darringford Shops, for instance?” suggested Billy. - -“One of us might; but the other ought to take up the electrical -branches, I believe.” - -While they were talking, they were at work upon the body and mechanism -of their Breton-Melville. Before it was time to do the usual chores they -had put the car in fine shape again, got an hour’s nap which did them a -world of good, and they were loading up the wagons when their father -came out of the house. - -“Aren’t you boys paying rather dearly for your fun?” he asked, -good-naturedly. “I hardly expected you’d get back here. Your mother and -I did not hear you come in. And how does the car run?” - -“Dandy and good, Dad!” cried Billy, while Dan said: - -“Now, there wasn’t any need of your getting up so early. We’re not going -to let you pay for our fun, that’s sure. When Billy and I get our -schemes to working right, we’ll deliver this milk in half the time it -takes now—and, naturally, at half the expense.” - -“Yes,” interposed Billy, giggling. “Dan’s going to take the bottles -around to the customers in a motor launch!” - -But Dan only smiled quietly at this. They got off with the milk wagons -in good season, and were back betimes, also, and without mishap. Mrs. -Speedwell had a good breakfast ready for them, and they ate and were off -again in the car at a few minutes past seven o’clock. - -The run back to Karnac Lake was a more moderate one than that they had -taken at midnight; nevertheless they arrived at the Stetson cottage -about nine o’clock. They put their own car into the shed which did -service as a garage and found the whole crowd out on the drive along the -lakeside—a fine macadamized piece of road sixty feet wide and following -the lake shore for nearly ten miles. - -Chance Avery had Poole’s car out and was driving up and down, “doing -stunts,” as Wiley Moyle called it. - -“Why don’t you fellows bring out your bunch of scrap iron and show that -chap some fancy running?” Fisher Greene demanded. “Perry won’t get our -car in the ring. I hate to see Chance Avery always carrying off the -honors.” - -“No,” said Dan. “We’ve just taken fifty miles at a good clip and we’ll -have to overhaul her again before we go back to-night. Let Chance do his -monkey business without any rival.” - -But the girls thought that Avery was really a remarkable chauffeur. He -did handle Burton Poole’s car with some dexterity; nevertheless, Dan was -quite decided in his own mind that the Poole automobile was by no means -as good a machine as their own Breton-Melville. - -Burton, however, had his car furnished nicely. There was little wonder -that the girls preferred to ride in it. They all became tired after a -little while, however, and either joined in, or stood to watch, a -doubles’ set at tennis. Chance left his car, and joined Mildred Kent -beside the tennis court. - -Suddenly Jim Stetson began to shout. He was one of the players and had -just started service when he dropped ball and racquette and started on a -run for the road, yelling: - -“Get out of that, Harrington! Drop it!” - -At the moment the car began to pop and they all saw it move away from -the curb. A slight fellow in a blazer coat, and without a hat, was at -the wheel. He was a pasty-faced fellow, thin, unhealthy-looking, and -with a pronounced squint in his eyes. - -He grinned over his shoulder at Jim, and stuck out his tongue. Meanwhile -he put the car up to a good speed and fairly flew away up the drive. - -“It’s Harrington M’Kim!” cried Ruth Stetson. “Oh, that boy will do some -damage to that car!” - -“He’ll wreck it, or break his own neck,” declared Monroe Stevens. “Why -did you leave it so it could be started by the first chap that came -along, Chance?” - -But there was no use in scolding the captain of the Outing Club. Poole’s -car was sailing up the drive at a pace which made pursuit afoot a futile -game. - -“Somebody get out another car and give chase!” cried Jim. - -“But then Harrington will only run faster,” objected his sister. - -Suddenly they saw the car describe a graceful curve and return toward -them. The reckless youth handled Poole’s auto like a veteran. - -“We’ve got a chance to stop him when he comes by,” declared Avery. - -“How?” sneered Jim Stetson. “He’d run right over you. He wouldn’t care. -I tell you he doesn’t act as though he had good sense.” - -“What do they let such a fellow go loose for, then?” cried Chance Avery. - -As he spoke they were all startled by the change which they saw plainly -flash into young Harrington M’Kim’s features. His countenance writhed, -he fell back in the seat, let go of the wheel and his body was convulsed -in the grip of the epileptic seizure. The automobile was running wild! - - - - - CHAPTER XX - - OFF ON THE ENDURANCE TEST - - -The boy was a sad sight himself; but the peril which menaced him -and—incidentally—Burton Poole’s auto, moved some of the onlookers more -than did the pitiful condition of young Harrington M’Kim. - -The car was rushing down toward the Stetson cottage, which was the last -house in the row before the drive turned abruptly away from the lake. At -this corner a low wall guarded the path; but the bricks were built up -only two feet high, and that wildly running auto would mount the -sidewalk and this brick wall, too, and be dashed into the water which -here lapped the foot of the embankment. - -It was a sad predicament for M’Kim. But to one of those who saw the car -flying down the drive, the fate of the machine seemed more important -than the fate of the boy! - -“Stop it! The car will be wrecked!” yelled Chance Avery, and he fairly -danced up and down in his excitement. But he did not make any reckless -attempt to halt the career of the automobile. - -Fortunately the car had been headed straight down the middle of the road -before M’Kim’s seizure. It came at fast speed, for the reckless youth -had set the gas lever well forward. It swept down upon the -horror-stricken group. - -It was Dan Speedwell who made the first move. He cleared the sidewalk in -three strides and dashed into the road directly in the path of the -flying car. The girls screamed again. Mildred Kent called to him. - -“Dan! Dannie! You’ll be killed!” - -And it did seem an utterly reckless and useless thing for Dan to do. He -was putting his life in jeopardy, so it seemed, without there being a -possibility of his either aiding the boy in the car, or stopping the -auto itself. - -The writhing figure on the front seat attracted less attention now than -did Dan. They saw him stand, unmoved, directly in the track of the car. -The heavy machine rolled down upon him and—it seemed—would crush him in -an instant. - -It was then that Dan Speedwell leaped aside. The automobile flashed by, -but Dan was quick enough to catch hold with both hands. - -He was whirled off his feet and was dragged for several yards. Then he -got a knee upon the run board, then raised himself, slipped to the -wheel, and as the car came to the sharp turn, he threw back the lever, -cast out the gear, and guided the fast-flying auto so that it would take -the bend in the road on a long curve. - -It was all over, then. Dan turned the car about and came easily back -before his excited friends reached the corner. M’Kim lay still, the -paroxysm past. Dan ran the car in toward the curb and halted. - -“Dan! you dear fellow, you!” shouted Burton Poole, first to seize his -hand. “I suppose I’m selfish to not think more of M’Kim—but the car! You -saved it for us.” - -“You’re all right, Dannie,” cried his brother, pumping away at his other -hand. - -Jim and Fisher Greene raised a more or less familiar chant: - -“Dan! Dan! He’s the man! Dan! Dan! Dan Speedwell!” - -They were all shouting the chant in a moment—all but Chance Avery. -Chance looked the car over to make sure that it was not injured. But he -never gave the lad who had saved it a word of thanks. Friends of M’Kim -cared for the unfortunate youth. - -The pleasant day by the lake passed without incident after that. They -rode home in the evening, a merry party indeed. Mildred Kent elected to -sit beside Dan in the front seat. There was a new moon riding above the -tree-tops, and the stars were brilliant. - -“Dannie,” said the girl, laying her friendly hand upon his jacket -sleeve, “I want to tell you how proud I am that you stopped that car and -saved it from going over the wall. I know Chance Avery has treated you -meanly, and it must have taken some effort on your part to jump in and -save the car he has boasted is going to beat yours for the golden cup. -It was real noble of you—you heaped coals of fire on Avery’s head.” - -But Dan and Billy both had occasion to think a good deal about Burton -Poole’s automobile before Thanksgiving week came around. Chance Avery -allowed no opportunity to pass wherein he could belittle the Speedwells’ -drab car, or cast doubt upon the possibility of our heroes getting a -hundred miles on the trail laid out by Mr. Briggs for the endurance -test. - -The circulars containing the rules of the road and other information -were studied more than the school text books those final few days before -the Thanksgiving vacation. Even Dan, who was particularly faithful to -his studies, found it hard to keep up to the mark. - -He and Billy had bought maps of the states through which they hoped to -travel. The course was laid out as a rough triangle, making Compton the -starting point and touching two large cities, bringing up finally at -Compton again as a finish. The measured distance over the route chosen -was exactly a thousand and eight miles. - -They knew that they could easily comply with all the demands Mr. Briggs -made, and with all the conditions of the race. They had learned by this -time the minutest particulars about their car. Either of the Speedwells -could have taken the Breton-Melville auto apart and assembled the parts -again perfectly. - -Among the Riverdale Outing Club members the interest lay in the rivalry -between the local cars, more than in the general outcome of the race. -There were to be several contestants from the town in the endurance run, -but it was generally acknowledged that none of them had much chance—if -the result of the run was governed by speed—saving Burton Poole’s car -and that of the Speedwell boys. - -And the owners of the Breton-Melville car knew that the speed -possibilities of their auto was only a part of the game. It would never -do to race over the roads at the pace they had come from Karnac Lake at -midnight. No machine, no matter how well built, could stand many miles -of such work without shaking to pieces. - -The boys had gone over the route by map, and planned just where they -would halt for their meals and for necessary sleep. They had read -accounts of former runs, and knew about what to expect on the road. -Although the run was well advertised, there would doubtless be many -obstructions on the route, and the weather, of course, could not be -arranged to suit the contestants. - -The rules were that any contestant could run ten hours in each -twenty-four—consecutively, not otherwise; time lost on repairs or -stoppages beyond the automobilists’ control, not allowed. The cars were -to be started within ten minutes of each other, and their time would be -registered at each station. Stoppages for refreshment, or sleep, had to -be reported exactly, too. - -One week before the starting of the race there were entered sixty-five -cars in the endurance test. Then came the drawings, and Dan and Billy -found themselves to be forty-eighth on the list. The first car would be -started out of the Compton Motordrome at four o’clock in the morning, -and, allowing ten minutes for each car to get under way, the Speedwell -boys would not be sent out until ten minutes before noon. Their first -day’s run, therefore, would end at ten minutes to ten at night. - -The rules allowed them to make the nearest station at the end of a day’s -run; but any extra time had to be subtracted from the following day’s -schedule. It was a much discussed question as to how long it would take -the best car to get over the route under Mr. Briggs’ rules; Dan and -Billy believed that it would take between four and five days. - -“Twenty miles an hour, on an average, will be mighty good time,” Dan -said to his brother. “Of course, we read about sixty, and seventy, and -eighty and even ninety and more miles an hour, in automobile racing. -We’ve traveled at the rate of ninety miles on our motorcycles—for a -mile, or so. But that isn’t what counts.” - -“Just the same, if a fellow could get ahead and keep his lead—” began -Billy. - -“Yes! Keeping it is what counts. But if any of these fellows start -racing over the sort of roads there are between Greenbaugh and Olin -City, for instance, they’ll shake their machines to pieces inside of -five miles. Remember, we’ve got to climb a mountain chain twice during -the run, and it will be a stiff pull each time.” - -“Don’t you fret. You’re the doctor,” grunted Billy. “I’m not going to -put in my oar. I’ll trust to your judgment every time, old man.” - -“Well, I may make a mistake,” admitted Dan. “But I’m glad for one that -Chance and Burton are not near us.” - -“No, they’re lucky to get away among the first—seven will be tacked onto -the hood of their car,” said Billy, who had been studying the advertised -list of entries. “And do you notice where Mr. Briggs’ maroon -Postlethwaite is? He’s running near us—forty-one.” - -“We’ll have good neighbors, then,” chuckled Dan. - -“I don’t suppose the cars will remain long in the order they start, do -you?” - -“I don’t know. We can leave when we please on the second day’s run. I -want, if possible, to make the Holly Tree Inn at Farmingdale on our -first day.” - -“Whew!” ejaculated Billy, after consulting his guide. “That’s three -hundred miles—nearly. Do you think we can do it?” - -“I don’t know. I mean to try.” - -“And you were the one who said that racing wouldn’t pay.” - -“And it won’t; but the roads are as good as any we shall have during the -entire run. Our car will be—is now, in fact—in perfect shape. If we have -any mechanical trouble, Billy, it won’t be on the first day. She can -stand thirty miles an hour. We’ll carry our eats with us, and our -biggest load will be gasoline. I don’t propose to stop but once a day to -buy juice—make up your mind to that, Billy-boy!” - -There was an element of chance in the race, however, which lent zest to -it. An accident might make even the best of the cars fail to win -laurels. Down to the evening before the start, and on the arrival of all -of the contestants at the Compton Motordrome, no one could say surely -which automobile, and which team, had the better chance of winning the -golden cup. - -The motordrome was gay with lights and red-fire. There were races, and -speeches, and a big crowd assembled and remained all night to see the -starting of the first cars. There was an all-night bicycle race for -amateurs in which Biff Hardy and Wiley Moyle carried off the honors for -the Riverdale Club; but although there were motorcycle races, too, the -Speedwells decided to keep out of them. They could not afford to risk an -accident. - -And there was another thing Dan did not risk. When they left their -Breton-Melville under the shed, to go to the big gate and watch the -first cars get under way, Dan left somebody to watch the drab auto—and -somebody whom he could trust. - -The Speedwells stood in the crowd and saw the first cars get away in the -light of the search-lamps. It was a cloudy morning and the string of -autos up the straight road soon looked like so many glow-worms. When -number seven rolled down to the starting line and the big placards were -fastened on, fore and aft, Dan and Billy made off for a house where they -had engaged a bed. They got five hours refreshing sleep and then had a -most excellent breakfast. - -When they went back to the motordrome at a few minutes past eleven, they -found their father and mother and the children waiting for them. Mr. -Speedwell had driven over and brought his boys a great box of lunch to -carry in their car. He had engaged a man to help him with the milk -routes while Dan and Billy were absent. - -There were plenty of Riverdale folk to cheer for the Speedwells as they -got away, too. Mildred Kent and Lettie Parker were in the Greenes’ auto -and the girls wished the team handling number forty-eight the best of -good luck as the drab car started. - -The boys waved their caps as the Breton-Melville slid smoothly out of -the motordrome gate and over the starter’s line. There was a big crowd -in Compton now to watch the remaining cars get under way. The police -kept the street open for some distance; then the road broadened and the -houses became few and far between. - -The shouts of the onlookers grew distant. The drab car began to purr -like a great cat. Behind they saw number forty-nine thrusting its -battleship prow out of a balloon of dust that traveled with it. Dan -advanced the spark. Right before them was number forty-seven, that had -started ten minutes earlier. The Breton-Melville, like a drab rocket, -curved out for this car and passed it as though forty-seven was at a -standstill! - -The great race had begun, and Billy, in his heart, secretly counted the -passing of this car as the first milestone on their way to victory. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - - THE FIRST TEN HOURS - - -This road race was much different from the usual test of speed on the -open highway. There were no guards lines, or men with flags at cross -roads to warn the unwary drivers of horses, or pedestrians. The cars in -this endurance run had to take all the chances, and suffer the delays -usual to an automobile run in the suburban districts. - -The Speedwells in their forty-eight were less than five miles out of -Compton when they passed forty-seven. On the edge of Pachusett, half a -mile farther on, they found forty-six in the ditch! A big load of hay -was overturned across the road, and the hay wagon had lost a wheel. - -How this wreck had occurred the Speedwells did not stop to ask. There -was a crowd of a couple of hundred persons around the scene of the -wreck, and it was plain that neither the automobilists nor the farmers -needed any help. - -There had been frost enough the night before to make the fields hard, -and this was a cloudy day. Dan made up his mind instantly to go around -the obstruction. He and Billy got out and removed a section of the -roadside fence and steered their drab car out into a turnip field. - -Number forty-nine was then in view; but the Speedwells got away quickly -and ran through Pachusett as fast as they dared. Two stern-looking -constables, with big tin stars on the breasts of their coats, held their -Waterbury watches on number forty-eight as it sung along Main Street; -but they evidently could not figure out just how fast the boys were -going. - -It had not rained for some time, and the roads were very dusty in -places. Where the roadway was lightly built the autos ahead of the -Speedwells had already cut deeply into the surface. It was soon hard -traveling, and the dust and sand sifted over them, and over the car, -until they looked like millers. - -“This is why the faster we get ahead this first day, and the more cars -we put behind us, the better off we will be for the rest of the run,” -said Dan. - -“I guess so! Lettie Parker hit it right the day we went to Karnac Lake. -The best place in a run of this kind is right up ahead,” agreed Billy. - -According to the road map there was a splendid piece of macadamized -highway between Bannister and City Ford, and it was thirty-eight miles -long. It was a piece of road greatly favored by automobilists, and it -was always well traveled. But this run had been so well advertised that -ordinary motor car drivers out for pleasure on this stretch of road -would give the right of way to the racing cars. - -It was a wide road and almost level. There was not a bridge or a -railroad crossing for the entire thirty-eight miles. When the Speedwells -struck the head of this piece of highway, Dan slipped out of the -chauffeur’s seat, and allowed his brother to get under the wheel. - -Billy was eager to feel the throb and jump of the mechanism under his -hand. They had stopped a few moments before, too, tried certain bolts, -filled the gasoline tank, and “watered her.” Everything seemed as taut -as when they rolled out of the Compton Motordrome. - -“Now, boy, go to it!” his brother said. “Show them what you can do.” - -And Billy was not backward in doing this. He had an ambition to be a -fast driver and all the conditions were in his favor. Number forty-eight -began to travel immediately, and soon he had brought her up to such -speed that—as Dan yelled in his ear—the telegraph poles beside the road -looked like a picket fence! - -They had passed number forty-five before this, and now, in quick -succession they overtook forty-four, thirty-nine and seventeen—the -latter having been held back by some slight breakage. But this was too -early in the game to be sure that they had passed these cars for good! - -Billy, however, gave his dust to several other cars in the race before -they traversed that thirty-eight miles of beautiful, hard road. And -their time was forty-three minutes! - -“Good boy!” cried Dan, as they slowed down to a twelve-mile speed as -they struck the head of Market Street in City Ford. “We have run a -hundred and five miles and our time is three hours and ten minutes.” - -“Why, at this rate,” cried Billy, “we’ll be able to get beyond the Holly -Tree Inn to-night. Don’t you think so?” - -“I have my doubts about it,” said Dan. “There is no other piece of road -like that we’ve just come over. There’ll be little racing for the rest -of the day, but just steady plugging along. And we’ve got to eat, old -man!” - -“Let me stick to the wheel while you take a bite, Dan,” begged the -younger boy, “and then I’ll eat. I wonder how far some of the head cars -will get to-day? Where’s Mr. Briggs’ car?” - -“Haven’t seen it yet. We haven’t passed that maroon baby, you may very -well believe!” - -“And Mr. Darringford’s car?” queried Billy. - -“Why, he’s behind. Didn’t you notice? His number is fifty-three.” - -“And number seven?” said Billy. “That’s the car I want to give the dust -of the road.” - -“You’ll wait a bit for that,” said his brother. “Chance and Burton -started too far in advance for us to think of passing them yet.” - -“You never can tell,” Billy observed, shaking his head. “Maybe they’ll -break down.” - -“I hope not,” returned Dan, quickly. “If we beat them I want them to -have the best chance possible.” - -“Say! I’d like to show ’em up right around Greenbaugh,” said Billy, -quickly. “You know, Chance went to Greenbaugh Seminary one year—before -his brother came to the Darringford shops.” - -“Well?” - -“Chance has been blowing around that the Greenbaugh Seminary fellows -will give him an ovation when he goes through the town. Of course, he’ll -want to be clear ahead of most of the crowd, so as to show ’em what a -great driver he is. I don’t care how far ahead he is of the other cars, -but when he parades down Greenbaugh’s High Street, I want him to be -taking the dust of number forty-eight,” concluded Billy with energy. - -“My! but you’re right vicious!” chuckled Dan, as they rumbled out upon -the river bridge and left City Ford behind them. - -Our heroes climbed hills and descended short, sharp runs; they passed -through forest and field; the “slow down” signs faced them frequently -and Billy chafed as they ran through the hamlets at what he considered a -snail’s pace. - -At some places crowds had gathered to watch the contestants pass. Then -again other automobiles joined in the procession and kept up with some -of the entries for miles. These incidents retarded speed, if anything. -The road race was much different from the track trials Dan and Billy had -seen. - -In some small towns there was little order as the automobiles came -through so close together. The constables were more interested in seeing -that the motorists did not exceed the speed limit than in keeping the -streets clear. Reckless boys would run back and forth across the -roadway. It was perilous even to travel at the legal rate. - -The Speedwells had passed several more cars. At one big, well-lighted -roadhouse there were a dozen of the contestants in the race, having put -their cars under the sheds for the night. Mr. Briggs’ big Postlethwaite -was just being backed into a stall as the Speedwells shot by. Henri -waved his hand to Dan and called good luck after them. It was some -satisfaction to the boys to know that they had gotten the best of at -least twenty of the other cars. They had then won on them from half an -hour to two hours in time. - -They had only an hour of their own time remaining, however, and the -Holly Tree Inn at Farmingdale was still forty miles away. The roads were -reported only fair. But comparatively few cars had been over them and -they would not be so badly cut up as were many which lay behind. - -And within that forty miles the map showed but two hamlets where it -would be necessary to slow down. Both were liberal towns—twelve miles an -hour was the limit. - -The Breton-Melville car was running smoothly. Not an hour before they -had oiled up and groomed her nicely. There was a possibility of making -the Holly Tree within the time stipulated. - -“And if we don’t, we’ll have to stop at Sharpe’s Crossroads to register -and stay for the night,” said Billy, nervously. “That’s the ticket, -isn’t it, Dan?” - -“That is the result of failure,” smiled his brother. “_But we’re not -going to fail!_” - -They had interchanged these remarks at a spot where they had to run -slowly. Once free again Dan let the car out with a suddenness that made -the machine leap like a horse under the spur. They shot along the -country road, overhung with trees which made the darkness deeper, their -head-lamps parting the gloom before them, and displaying objects with -clearness. The Speedwells had fitted their car with good lamps; but no -headlight will reveal an obstruction in the road far enough in advance -for a car to be brought to a stop, if it is running at top speed. - -They were taking chances, that was a fact. Dan Speedwell was not usually -reckless; but he had a double incentive in thus “running on his luck.” -Not alone did he desire to make the Holly Tree Inn within the ten-hour -limit; but car number seven had not yet been passed! - -Burton Poole’s auto was still ahead. Dan believed that Chance Avery -would drive Poole’s car at top speed this first day. And Billy himself -longed to beat car number seven no more than Dan did, although the -latter said less about it. - -When the clock, screwed under the wind shield, showed twenty minutes -after nine they had traveled seventeen of the forty miles. And right -ahead was the second village. For three miles and more they would have -to reduce speed—or, were supposed to. - -But it is a nice problem to run one of these racing cars at a twelve -mile an hour gait! - -When number forty-eight came to the head of Main Street, the lights -revealed a straggling row of houses on either side, a general store, or -two, a postoffice, and a clear street. If Dan reduced speed at all, -Billy never noticed it! - -They roared through the little town like a limited express going by a -flag station. There may have been constables in that town; but they were -not on hand. At least, Dan and Billy Speedwell never saw them as they -shot along the main thoroughfare and out into the country on the other -side. - -Faster and faster the machine seemed to fly. When they took the curves -Billy threw his weight upon the other side, leaning far off from the -step and doing his best to keep the tires on the ground. - -They flashed past the little collection of houses as Sharpe’s -Crossroads. The clock pointed to twenty minutes to ten. It was nine -miles to the Farmingdale Inn. - -The car took a curve and the wheels skidded; but Dan did not reduce -speed. He got back into the center of the road before they reached a -covered bridge over the river. - -The bridge was well lighted. Good fortune in that! - -As the car rushed down to the covered way Billy suddenly uttered a -frightened yell. There was a car stalled right in the path! - -The covered bridge was divided by a partition into two driveways. The -stalled machine was in the right-hand track—the way the Speedwells -should take according to all rules of the road. Its rear lamp was shut -off and the Breton-Melville would have crashed into it had not the -bridge lights revealed the danger. - -And even then it is doubtful if Dan could have braked in time. Indeed, -he did not try to. He swerved to the left and saw that that side of the -bridge was clear. - -The drab car shot across the bridge at terrific speed. The boys could -not halt to see what was the matter with the stalled auto. A few moments -only did they have to run into Farmingdale. And they would have to -reduce speed on the outskirts of the town. - -For several miles they had traveled more than a mile a minute! - -The day’s race was done, however; the lights of the Holly Tree Inn were -in sight. They rolled into the yard, where several autos were already -standing, with two minutes to spare. It was twelve minutes to ten. - -But as Dan and Billy threw aside their coats and got out to stretch -their legs, the younger boy said: - -“What car do you suppose that was in the bridge, Dannie?” - -“Give it up. Didn’t see any number on it.” - -“I know. And Mr. Briggs’ car is behind us—we passed it.” - -“Sure,” declared Dan, in surprise. - -“Well, that car in the bridgeway was a maroon auto; I didn’t know there -was more than one maroon car in the race; did you?” queried Billy, -seriously. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - - UNDERHAND WORK - - -Before Dan Speedwell could let this statement of his brother’s fairly -penetrate his mind the younger lad said, sharply: - -“And here’s another!” - -“Another what, Billy?” asked Dan. “Not another maroon auto?” - -“Bosh! no! But another car, just the same, that we’re interested in.” - -“Number seven!” cried Dan, seeing Burton Poole’s car standing under the -inn shed. - -“Chance is here, all right, all right!” exclaimed Billy. “We’ve caught -up to them.” - -“It doesn’t seem possible,” murmured Dan. - -“Golly! won’t Chance be sore!” - -“They must have met with an accident,” the older Speedwell declared. - -“We’ve made as good a run as anybody, I bet,” said Billy, joyfully. - -“We don’t know that,” remarked Dan, shaking his head. - -“Come on in! Let’s see what they’ve got to say about it.” - -“Now Billy,” urged Dan, stopping his younger brother, and speaking -seriously. “Don’t you stir up a rumpus. If Chance Avery turns up, you -let him alone. No heckling, mind!” - -“Aw, well——” - -“If we are running as good as he is we can afford to keep still about -it,” said Dan, wisely. “And if we’re not——” - -“Pshaw!” - -“If we’re not,” continued Dan, smiling, “he’ll know it fast enough. -Let’s not wrangle with him. I want to beat him as badly as you do—and I -hope we’ll beat him a plenty; but there’s no use crowing over him——” - -“Hullo!” exclaimed a voice behind them, and the brothers turned swiftly -to see Burton Poole arm in arm with Chance himself. By the look on -Avery’s face Dan feared that the fellow had heard at least a part of -what had been said. - -“How under the sun did you get here, Speedwell?” demanded Poole, in vast -surprise. “Is that a flying machine you’ve got? I declare, you have -beaten some of the best cars in the race!” - -“We don’t know that they are beaten yet—except one,” said Dan, quickly. -“That one’s in the ditch.” - -“But I don’t see how you could have got so far——” - -“But you got here,” snapped Billy. “I don’t see why you should expect to -run so much better than we do.” - -“Well, my car is a much better auto,” said Poole, with conviction; “and -we had a daylight run. What time did you get away? Almost noon, wasn’t -it?” - -“Ten minutes to twelve,” said Dan. - -Poole and Chance looked at each other quickly, and the former said: - -“I told you you were wrong, Chance. They got here on time.” - -“And with two minutes to spare,” said Billy, tartly. “Oh, I saw the man -taking our time on the inn steps as we came in. We’d have heard about it -before now if we had run over the schedule.” - -Chance growled something in Burton’s ear and they walked away. - -“Ha!” ejaculated Billy. “They both thought it would be a walk-over for -them. They never expected to see us during the run.” - -“Well, they’ve seen us now. Let’s get to work, Billy-boy. We’ve got to -overhaul this car before we sleep.” - -“If you say so, Dan,” said Billy, yawning wearily. - -“It’s best. We want to get away bright and early—by seven o’clock at -least. No running after dark again for us. The cars that started late -had that handicap.” - -“I know,” admitted Billy. - -“Now, in the morning, those cars that we have passed, and that have put -up short of this place, will be out on the road in good season. We want -to keep ahead of those we have already passed.” - -“And show some of those that are still ahead of us, our dust, too!” -interposed Billy. - -“Exactly. Therefore,” concluded his brother, “let’s put our car in -proper shape to-night.” - -And they did that, although it took them until nearly one o’clock in the -morning. But then Dan and Billy had the satisfaction of knowing that -their car was again in as good order as it was when it rolled out of the -motordrome at Compton the previous noon. - -They were weary enough when they went to bed. All the other contestants -who had put up at the inn were long since asleep; but some of them would -be obliged to spend an hour or two in the morning overhauling and -grooming their cars. - -Dan and Billy were eating an early breakfast—the clock stood at -6:15—when Burton Poole came into the dining room, yawning. - -“And here’s two more of ’em!” Poole cried. “My! but I didn’t want to get -up at all. Chance has been out an hour or more.” - -“Your car ready?” asked Billy, with his mouth full. - -“Yep. You know, we got in at three o’clock and had plenty of time.” - -“Then you’ll be getting under way soon?” suggested Dan. - -“We’ll give you a rub on the road, I reckon,” said Burton, lazily. “See -what Chance says about it. Oh! here he is.” - -Avery came in and, as usual, scowled at Dan and Billy. - -“We want to start when the Speedwells do, don’t we, Chance?” asked -Burton. “I’d like to see how that old car of theirs runs.” - -“We’ll start when we’re ready,” growled Chance. “I don’t want to know -anything about the Speedwell’s car—or when they start.” - -“Well!” began Billy, but Dan reached over and put a hand on his arm. - -“Drop it, youngster!” he commanded. - -Billy conquered his anger with an effort, and the brothers were very -soon done. They had their gasoline to get and they had already taken the -cans around to the nearest supply depot. They proposed to pick them up -after leaving the hotel. - -Dan reported their time after running the car out of the stable yard. -Chance and Burton could easily have been ready, but it was evident that -the former deliberately delayed their start until after the Speedwells -should get under way. - -The Breton-Melville car had sufficient gasoline in her tank to run -forty or fifty miles; so they stopped at the fuel station only long -enough to strap on the extra cans. It was exactly seven when the car -left the Holly Tree Inn, and they could run until five in the -afternoon—practically ten hours of daylight. - -It was a warm morning, and there was a fog in the valleys. The frost of -overnight had turned to patches of black damp upon the ploughed fields. -The roads were just moist enough to be treacherous. - -There was no car ahead of number forty-eight within sight, and she -steamed away from Farmingdale in fine shape. Dan did not try to get any -particular speed out of her. Beyond Farmingdale the roads were rather -bad for some miles and there were many turns and twists in the way. He -feared to travel fast, for the wheels of the drab car could easily skid, -and bring them to grief. - -Nevertheless, they beat out fifty-three miles in the first two hours. -Then they had to stop to feed her gasoline, and while Billy attended to -this duty Dan looked her over a little. - -“See who’s coming!” exclaimed Billy, looking back as he tipped the -contents of the can into the tank. - -“I see them. Chance has waked up. He’s going to pass us, I reckon, and -show us some fancy running.” - -“Oh I don’t know,” grunted Billy. “They’re slowing down.” - -“Huh!” said Dan. “All right there?” - -“Yep.” - -“Open her up a little more and we’ll see what we can do ourselves.” - -He cranked up and then got into the car. Billy was already there. The -car started slowly. Then she stopped! - -“What’s the matter now?” gasped Billy. - -They heard the exhaust of number seven behind them. Billy leaped out on -one side; Dan on the other. They could find nothing the matter, but it -was a fact that the Breton-Melville had stopped dead. - -Dan cranked up again and they were getting in when the car run by Chance -Avery and Burton Poole passed them slowly. The former was at the wheel; -the Speedwells could see his wide grin as he turned his begoggled face -toward them. - -“Want a tow?” shouted Burton. - -Dan waved his hand. He knew that there wasn’t an ounce of meanness in -Burton Poole. - -“Let’s show those fellow——” began Billy and then—to their -amazement—their engine stopped again. - -“Well, isn’t that the limit?” cried the younger Speedwell. “She never -acted so before.” - -“That’s no reason why she shouldn’t begin,” said Dan, grimly. “We’ve -been lucky heretofore.” - -“But what’s the matter with her?” - -“If I knew I’d tell you,” returned Dan, and went to cranking again. - -But this time the engine wouldn’t start at all. It was dead. - -“Do you suppose anybody got at this machine while we were away from it?” -cried Billy. - -“No. There were watchmen at the stables. I saw to that.” - -“Chance was up and out mighty early,” said the unconvinced Billy. - -“If he’d done anything to the mechanism it would have shown up before -now,” declared Dan. - -But that there was something wrong there could be no doubt. They were -stalled for fifteen minutes, and then one of the other racing cars went -by. - -“Get a horse!” the chauffeur yelled at them. - -Billy was getting anxious. But that would not help them. For some reason -the engine would not work. They were stalled between towns and—as far as -the Speedwell brothers could see—there was something the matter with -their car that they could not correct. - -“We might as well kiss our show for the gold cup ‘good-by’!” wailed -Billy. “And that Chance Avery will have the laugh on us. Did you see him -grin as he sailed by?” - -Dan was thoughtful. He began to pay more attention to his brother’s -suspicion of Avery. The fellow did go by them as though he had expected -the breakdown and knew it would be a fatal one! - -And Chance had held back in starting. It seemed that he wanted to be -behind the Speedwells and so overtake and enjoy their discomfiture. Dan -was not sure but that Billy was right. - -What could Chance have done to the machine? Nothing! Dan was positive of -that. Not alone were there watchmen in the stableyard, but the young -fellow knew from his own examination that no part of the mechanism of -the car had been tampered with. - -Yet Chance—— - -Dan suddenly turned on his heel and went to the gasoline tank. He opened -it; he looked in, he dipped in a stick and smelled of it. Then he opened -an auxiliary tank faucet, and let the fluid run upon the ground. - -_It was water mixed with gasoline!_ - -Billy ran to him when he heard his cry of rage. - -“What is it, Dan?” he asked, amazed by the look in his brother’s -countenance. - -Dan was not often in a rage. When he was really angry it was well to -“stand from under,” as Billy expressed it. - -And just now Dan was almost beside himself with sudden passion. He shut -off the faucet and sprang to the cans strapped on the running board of -the car. One after the other he opened. All water! - -“The scoundrel! The blackguard!” cried Dan. “If I had him here I’d make -him drink the stuff. Oh, the rascal!” - -Billy very quickly was made aware of the catastrophe. They were ten -miles from any gasoline supply station, without an ounce of the fluid, -and there was not a farmhouse, even, in sight. They could neither -telephone for a new supply, nor hire a wagon to bring it to them. - -“It will take till noon to get any—noon at the earliest,” groaned Billy. -“Dan, we’ve lost all chance of winning Mr. Briggs’ trophy.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - - QUEER ACTIONS OF NO. 41 - - -Dan stood silently, his teeth on his lower lip, his face heavy with -thought. Billy continued: - -“How ever did Chance do it?” - -“That’s where he went when he got up so early this morning at the inn. -He went to the gasoline station, bribed somebody there, and got the cans -filled with water. One thing is sure, we’ll make whoever helped him -suffer for it.” - -“But what good will that do?” demanded Billy, “when we have lost the -race?” - -“We haven’t lost the race!” snapped his brother. - -“We’re stalled here, I tell you!” cried Billy, waving his arms -excitedly. - -“I know it.” - -“What are you going to do for power? How you going to get to the next -station—fly? You say the word and I’ll run all the way to the nearest -town and buy the gasoline, and bring it back in a wagon. But it will -take oceans of time.” - -“I know it,” gritted Dan. “We’ve got to have it quicker than -that—listen!” - -“Another car coming. Another set of joshers,” complained Billy, who did -not like being made a target for fun. - -The car they heard was coming at full speed. Dan hesitated, and then -stepped around the drab car and looked up the road. The running -automobile appeared. - -“Hooray!” yelled Billy. “It’s Mr. Briggs’ car. He’ll help us.” - -The huge “forty-one” was plain upon the hood of the automobile. As it -came on, however, the chauffeur showed no intention of reducing speed. - -This was not a bad bit of road where the Speedwell boys were stalled. -Car forty-one was evidently striving to make up some of the miles it had -lost on the previous day. It came on like the wind! - -Dan and Billy both waved their hands. The car did not swerve, nor did -the chauffeur pay them the compliment of pulling down in the least. - -The huge Postlethwaite swept on, was guided around the stalled car with -skill, and rushed past and on around the next curve in the road—and all -so quickly that the boys were speechless for a moment with surprise. - -“Did you ever?” finally gasped Billy. - -“Henri never even winked at us,” growled Dan. - -“And if he had, you wouldn’t have seen that wink,” observed his brother, -with a nervous gasp. “Say! that was mean!” - -“Of course, they didn’t have to stop.” - -“No. But it wouldn’t have hurt Mr. Briggs to pull down for a moment.” - -“He never even looked at us.” - -“No. He sat in there beside Henri, ready to help him take the curves. I -never thought he’d be so mean,” complained Billy. - -“Here’s another!” exclaimed his brother. - -They turned to see a second automobile come around the bend in the road. -It was not going so fast. It was numbered thirty-seven. - -Before it reached the Speedwells it slowed down and the man at the wheel -demanded: - -“Did you see that maroon car just now?” - -“Of course!” exclaimed Dan and Billy together. - -“It was number forty-one, wasn’t it?” demanded the chauffeur of -thirty-seven, and he seemed very angry. - -“Yes.” - -“Well, we’re going to report that car. It ought to be barred out of the -race,” sputtered the man. - -“What’s that?” gasped Dan, while Billy looked, open-mouthed, at the -angry automobilist. - -“I tell you, it ought to be barred out,” cried the stranger, and his -companion agreed with a vigorous nod. “They come pretty near taking a -wheel off of us. Look at that scratch along the side of our car; will -you?” - -“I see it,” admitted Dan, vastly puzzled. - -“That maroon car did it,” cried the man. “It ought to be——” - -“But say!” blurted out Billy. “That was Mr. Briggs’ car—Mr. Briggs who -started this endurance test—the man who offers the gold cup!” - -“Mr. Raleigh Briggs!” cried the angry man. - -“That’s the number of his car—forty-one,” Dan interposed, quickly. - -“Well, he ought to be spoken to,” said the man, more mildly. “We were -giving him the right of the road as fast as possible; I never saw a man -drive so recklessly in all my life!” - -The angry automobilist was driving on, when Dan said: - -“By the way, can you let us have a gallon of juice? We are stalled——” - -“Haven’t any to spare!” snapped the man, as he threw on his speed. - -“Ha!” ejaculated Billy. “I wish Mr. Briggs had tipped him into the -ditch!” - -“If it was Mr. Briggs,” muttered Dan, but his brother did not hear him. - -“What’ll we do?” queried Billy again. “You don’t mean to stay here and -beg of every car you see, do you? They’ll all turn us down.” - -“All these cars aren’t driven by such fellows,” growled Dan. - -“But say! When Mr. Briggs himself would act so mean——” - -“Here’s another!” cried Dan, and this time he leaped into the very -center of the road, determined to make the coming car slow down, at -least. - -When it shot into sight Billy gave a sudden cheer. - -“Number fifty-three! Oh, Dannie! that’s Mr. Robert!” - -But at that word his brother stepped quickly out of the way. He could -not hold up Darringford, who had already been so kind to them. But the -young proprietor of the Darringford Machine Shops began to slow down as -soon as he saw that the drab car was in trouble. - -“What’s the matter, boys?” he shouted, craning his head out of the car -to see them. - -“Oh, Mr. Robert!” cried Billy, boldly. “Can you lend us a gallon of -gasoline?” - -“What! gone stale between towns?” laughed the young man. “I am surprised -at you, boys.” - -“It was not our fault, I assure you,” said Dan, quietly. “Somebody -played a trick on us. They filled our cans at Farmingdale with water -instead of gasoline.” - -“Why! that’s a despicable trick,” declared Mr. Robert, as Dan opened one -of the cans and poured the water into the road. - -“It has lost us nearly an hour already,” said Billy. - -“It shall lose you no more time. Give me that empty can,” said Mr. -Robert, quickly. “Take one of our full ones. That’s right. Now, come on, -boys, and show me what your Breton-Melville can do!” and, the exchange -being made, he waved to his chauffeur to go on again. - -And the Speedwells were not far behind him. They filled their tank after -draining out the water. They had to start slowly, and it took them -nearly an hour to run the next ten miles. Then they reached a gasoline -station and were very sure that the right fluid was run into their cans. - -The Breton-Melville worked like a charmed car after that one accident. -On the long grade which they struck about eleven o’clock—the climb over -the mountain range—she acted perfectly. But eighteen miles an hour was -her best speed going up. - -At the summit (they reached the Tip Top House at three) the boys halted -to overhaul their gear and oil up. They hoped to make Greenbaugh, in the -valley, before the end of their ten mile run; but they were eighty-seven -miles away. They had traveled already a hundred and forty-two miles from -the Holly Tree Inn. The trick Chance Avery had played them certainly had -set them back in this day’s running a good many miles! - -But several of the early cars to start—the small numbers—had been passed -by the Speedwells; as they figured it coming up the mountain there were -only fifteen cars ahead of them, including number seven. - -“And Mr. Briggs’ car,” added Billy. “She must be tearing down the -mountain already. Hey!” he called to one of the men working around the -stables, “has number forty-one passed on? Of course it has! How long -ago?” - -“Number forty-one?” repeated the man, referring to a list of the cars he -carried in his pocket. “No, sir. She ain’t showed up yet.” - -“Why, she passed us miles back!” cried Billy, and Dan looked up from his -work in surprise, too. - -“No. She hasn’t come,” said the man, with confidence. - -“Why—why—what does it mean?” gasped the younger Speedwell. “It can’t be -possible that we passed Mr. Briggs anywhere, and missed him.” - -“He must be ahead of us,” agreed Dan. - -“I know my list is right,” said the man. “I been noting every car that’s -in the race. You see how I’ve put a star against those that have got by. -Number forty-one ain’t one of ’em.” - -“A big maroon car—a Postlethwaite,” suggested Dan. - -“No, sir. Ain’t no maroon car gone through. I’m mighty sure of that!” - -“Well, what do you know about that?” murmured Billy, staring at his -brother. “Think that was a delusion back there on the road? Maybe we -didn’t see Mr. Briggs’ car, either?” - -“Maybe we didn’t,” replied Dan, gravely. “But I guess that man in -thirty-seven wouldn’t agree that it was a delusion that scratched up his -panels.” - -“Whew! I should say not.” - -At that moment the hostler with the checked list broke in on their -conversation. - -“How far did you come to-day?” he asked. - -“Hundred and forty miles,” grunted Billy. He wasn’t proud of their -speed. - -“Then you slept at Farmingdale?” - -“Yep.” - -“Hear about the robbery of the postoffice there before you started?” - -“No!” cried Billy. “Last night?” - -“Yes. Cleaned it out. Three or four thousand dollars’ worth of stamps, -registered mail, and thirteen hundred dollars in cash. Nice little haul -for some band of robbers,” said the hostler. - -He went away and Dan and Billy stared at each other for a moment. Billy -put his thoughts in words first: - -“The maroon car stood in that bridge over the Farmingdale River last -night, when we came through. No honest car would have hidden there.” - -“Where is Mr. Briggs and the real forty-one car?” demanded Dan. - -“Oh, Dan! that couldn’t have been him who drove by us so fast this -morning.” - -“And scratched number thirty-seven, too,” said Dan. - -“It’s the other maroon car,” declared Billy, excitedly. “It’s the bank -robbers.” - -“But where is Mr. Briggs?” demanded his brother, again. - -“Goodness only knows. Those thieves are onto the fact that their car is -the mate to Mr. Briggs’ auto. It’s plain they are using that fact to -hide their tracks.” - -“And meanwhile,” repeated Dan, for the third time, “what has happened to -Mr. Briggs?” - -“I give it up!” - -“I’m going to find out,” declared Dan. “Here! you ’tend to this. I want -to telephone.” - -But when he ran in to the hotel office he found one of the racing -timekeepers there and from him he learned that Mr. Briggs’ car was -reported about fifty miles back on the road. It had suffered a -breakdown. - -“Are you sure it’s his car?” demanded Dan. “I tell you that there is -another maroon car on the road.” - -“Not in the list of racers,” said the timekeeper. - -“No, sir. But are you sure it is Mr. Briggs that has broken down?” - -“I just spoke to him over the telephone. I know him personally. I know -his voice.” - -“Then there can be no mistake. But I believe that there is another -maroon car running under Mr. Briggs’ number,” and Dan explained briefly -what he knew about the car belonging to, or used by, the men who had -robbed Mr. Sudds and the Farmers’ Bank. - -“This robbery of the postoffice at Farmingdale last night,” continued -Dan Speedwell, “looks very much like the work of the same crowd, too. -Besides, my brother and I are quite sure that these men passed us on the -road this morning. It was not Mr. Briggs in that maroon car, that is -sure. He would have stopped and spoken to us when he saw that we were -stalled.” - -“I’ll send your information up and down the line,” promised the -timekeeper. “But there certainly has been no maroon car past here—in -either direction—to-day, or yesterday.” - -When Dan got back to the car, Billy already had her cranked up. They ran -swiftly out into the highway, reached the down grade, shut off power, -and began to coast. For some ten or fifteen miles the map showed that -the road into the valley was very crooked; they dared not put much power -to their car. And sometimes when she merely coasted, the speedometer -showed a forty-five and fifty mile an hour pace! - -Eighty-seven miles in an hour and three-quarters—that was the work cut -out for them. Half of it was down grade, at least; but it was only when -they were within twenty miles of the foot of the mountain that the -Speedwells were able to let her out and show just what the -Breton-Melville car could do on a gentle slope, and on a good road. - -They took that stretch of twenty miles in seventeen minutes! - -At the end of that sharp run Billy counted on his fingers and declared -that there were but eight cars ahead of them. - -It was four o’clock when they drove through New Hapsburg at a twelve -mile an hour rate. Suddenly they came upon a car around which there was -quite a crowd. It was one of the contesting machines, Dan and Billy -knew, and as they shut off their engine they heard several wrangling -voices in the crowd. - -“I tell ye I don’t care anything about no race!” cried one harsh voice. -“You’re under arrest for exceeding the speed limit through the streets -of this here city.” - -“Another Josiah Somes!” chuckled Billy. “What car is it that’s pinched?” - -“My goodness, that’s Burton Poole standing up there and waving his -pocketbook,” cried Dan. - -“Oh, glory!” shouted Billy. “It’s number seven.” - -Then they saw Chance Avery. His face was red, and he was too angry for -words. He saw the Breton-Melville car sliding past and he undoubtedly -had heard Billy’s joyous exclamation. If looks could burst a tire, Dan -and Billy would have had a bad blow-out right there! - -“It won’t hold them long,” said Dan, as their car pulled past the crowd. -“Burton will pay the fine and they’ll come after us. Their time isn’t -up, it’s likely, before half-past five. They will reach Greenbaugh if we -do.” - -“And we’re going to reach it,” acclaimed Billy, cheerfully. “Here’s the -town line, Dannie. Let her go!” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - - AN OBSTACLE RACE - - -They reached the station on High street, Greenbaugh, with a few minutes -to spare. There were four cars already standing at the Carpenter House, -the best hotel in the place. It was too expensive an inn for the -Speedwell boys, however, and they drove around to another hostelry on a -side street. - -Besides, the Carpenter House veranda, and the yard, and the street in -front of the hotel, were full of shouting, chaffing students from the -seminary. Whether Chance Avery was so very popular with his former -fellow students, or not, there was a great number interested in the -motor car race. - -“We want to keep away from them. Then we’ll be sure to escape trouble. I -don’t want to talk with Chance just now,” said Dan Speedwell. “For I’m -sore and I might say something I’d be sorry for later.” - -“He played us as mean a trick as ever was played,” declared Billy. - -“He did indeed. But we have caught up with him again. He won’t get past -the Carpenter House to-night.” - -Which was a fact, for after Dan and Billy had cleaned up their car and -had put their next day’s supply of gasoline under lock and key this -time, to be sure of it, they went out on High street and saw Chance and -Burton Poole with a crowd of college fellows, going to one of the -students’ boarding houses for supper. - -The Speedwells ate their own supper, and then walked about the town -quietly. They learned that forty of the racing cars had reached -Greenbaugh during the evening. The streets were crowded with -sight-seers. Late in the evening the seminary boys made a demonstration. - -They had fireworks on the campus and then paraded the streets in autos -and afoot, Burton Poole’s car in the lead with great placards on it. - -Red fire and a noisy demonstration accompanied the parade; but the town -police kept good order. There was a big, six-seated car that belonged in -the town, and was hired by the seminary boys. This had a prominent place -in the parade, and the next morning, when Dan and Billy got out at -daybreak, they saw this machine, loaded with noisy but sleepy-looking -fellows, rolling down to the High street. - -“They’ve made a night of it!” exclaimed Dan. “And I bet Chance and -Burton have been with them. They’ll feel just like running an auto -to-day—I don’t think!” - -“All right. If they want to give themselves a handicap,” returned Billy, -“I won’t complain.” - -“Let’s hurry and get away. I don’t want to see Chance Avery to-day if I -can help it.” - -“You mean to keep ahead of him, then?” chuckled Billy. - -“I’d like to.” - -But when they ran their car out to the front of the Carpenter House, -several of the contestants had already gotten under way, and among them -was Burton Poole’s machine. The big automobile crowded with students -accompanied it out of town. Number seven had nearly half an hour’s start -of the Speedwells’ car. - -But the Breton-Melville ran very easily. No cars passed the boys for the -first five miles. Then they saw a cloud of dust ahead and realized that -they were catching up with the students—and probably Poole’s car. - -The six-seated observation car could not run very fast, and it was so -broad and heavy that it occupied more than a fair share of the road. Dan -and Billy could not see beyond this elephantine car, and did not know -how near number seven was. - -The road was good and their motor had been running very nicely. As the -big car, with its cheering crowd, continued to fill the road, Dan was -obliged to pull down a little. - -“Hoot again,” said Billy. “We want to get by. If Chance and Burton want -to play horse along the way, let them. We’re out for the gold cup.” - -At that moment an auto came up behind them and slid by swiftly. It was -number twelve. When this car came up with the big omnibus, one of the -students on the back seat yelled something to the man managing the car, -and it swerved out just enough to let number twelve by. - -Dan tried to follow. But before he could get the nose of number -forty-eight into the opening, the omnibus swung back into the middle of -the road again. The highway was narrow. There was no sidewalk on either -hand. It was a typical country road and on either hand was a steep bank -down to a barbed wire fence. To go into the ditch would finish any car! - -“Hey there!” yelled Billy, standing up. “Let us by. Don’t hog the road, -fellows.” - -“Who are you, sonny?” returned one of the smart boys on the back seat. - -“Let ’em sit up and beg proper,” suggested another of the seminary -youths. - -“Take your turn, brother,” advised another of the students. “We’ve got -the road now and we mean to keep it.” - -“Be still, Billy,” advised Dan, quickly. “They can hold us back but a -little way. The road widens soon!” - -But Dan was not a good prophet that time. The students evidently -intended to hold back Chance Avery’s rival at any cost. Within five -minutes, after guying the Speedwells unmercifully, and holding them down -to a snail’s pace, the chauffeur of the heavy car suddenly brought it -square across the road, backed a little, and then halted. His car was an -effectual barrier to all traffic, going in either direction! - -“Oh! Oh! Oh! Some-thing’s-bust-ed!” yelled the gang in chorus. - -Dan and Billy then got a sight of the road ahead. It was empty. Chance -was perhaps ten miles ahead, or more. And the Speedwells were stalled. -The driver of the students’ car could claim that he could not move his -auto. There were no policemen about. The following contestants might be -held here for an hour, or more. - -Dan and Billy were helpless. And the students were having a fine time at -their expense. Dan had to fairly threaten his brother to keep Billy -silent; to enter into a wordy discussion with the fellows would only -have pleased the scamps too well. They were primed to make sport of the -Riverdale boys and undoubtedly would have handled them roughly had Dan -allowed Billy to loosen his tongue. - -For ten minutes the big car stood there, the chauffeur making believe -fumble with the mechanism. Then suddenly there sounded a warning -automobile horn from the direction of Greenbaugh. A car, in a cloud of -dust, was dashing over the road toward them. - -“Now, by jings!” exclaimed Billy, “they’ll have to do something.” - -“No reason why they shouldn’t hold up the whole string of contestants -for a while,” muttered Dan. “Wait.” - -But this car did not seem to be one of the racers. At least, it had no -placard on it. Suddenly Billy exclaimed: - -“Isn’t that Mr. Briggs’ car? He’s caught up with us!” - -“It’s not numbered,” objected Dan. - -“I don’t care! It’s maroon—and a big car——” - -Meanwhile the students on the omnibus did nothing toward pulling out. -The maroon car reduced speed abruptly. There were three men in it—a -small one at the wheel and two others in the tonneau. All were coated -and masked with dust goggles. - -“What’s the matter with you?” demanded one of the men in the tonneau, -standing up. - -Billy caught Dan by the hand, and whispered: - -“It’s him!” - -Dan needed no explanation. He knew what his brother meant at once. This -was the leader of the trio of bank robbers—the motor thieves. Billy knew -the fellow’s voice. - -A chorus of contradictory explanations were shouted by the seminary -boys. It was plain that they proposed to hold up this car, too, rather -than let the Speedwells by. - -“You can’t move your car, eh?” snapped the man in the maroon auto. - -He sprang out fearlessly and strode to the side of the huge machine. As -he started to climb up to the front seat one of the fellows tried to -push him back. - -That particular seminary student was instantly treated to the surprise -of his life. The man reached out, seized the boy’s collar, and ripped -him from his hold on the car. He pitched him bodily, with one fling, -into the ditch beside the road. - -He then vaulted into the chauffeur’s seat, seized the lever, and started -the machine. The engine was still running. Instead of starting it ahead, -the man deliberately backed the car into the ditch on the other side of -the road, and leaped down, leaving it there with its forward wheels in -the air! - -Half the students had tumbled off when the car bounced into the ditch. -The maroon machine was brought by the chauffeur past the disabled -omnibus, and the man who had wrecked it leaped into his own machine -again. - -“Quick, Billy!” whispered Dan. “We’ll get after them.” - -Their own car was ready. They ran right around the big machine, in the -wake of the maroon auto. The latter was speeding away along the narrow -road. - -“We must catch them, Dan!” cried Billy, as number forty-eight began to -hum again. - -“We will indeed,” agreed his brother. “It’s the robbers’ car—no doubt of -it. We must hang to them until we find an officer to make the arrest. -Whatever happens—whether we win the race for the golden cup, or not, we -must not let that maroon car escape this time!” - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - - THE CAR AND THE CUP - - -The Breton-Melville car, driven by the Speedwell brothers, was not forty -seconds behind the big maroon automobile at the start. The latter was -perhaps five hundred yards ahead; but she never gained on the Speedwells -a yard during the run that followed. - -Olin City was somewhere about a hundred and eighty miles from the spot -where the Greenbaugh Seminary boys had obstructed the road. The two -cars—the maroon and the drab—raced over the highways to Olin City in -just four hours. - -Just before reaching Olin City the two flying autos passed a machine -that had suffered a blow-out. It was number seven. Chance and Burton -Poole were out of the car working as rapidly as they could to adjust a -new tire. - -Billy had something else to think of, and he did not even yell at -Chance. The fact that they had passed number seven, after all Chance had -done to try and retard them, was a small matter now. - -The three desperate criminals ahead must be apprehended. They came to -the Olin City line and the maroon car still kept on with but slightly -reduced speed. The first policeman they saw held up a warning hand to -them. Then he leaped into the middle of the road as Dan and Billy roared -down upon him. - -“Get him aboard—quick, Dan!” advised the younger brother. “Then we’ll -see if we can’t overtake those scoundrels.” - -Dan was already shutting down. The car had not quite stopped when the -police officer leaped aboard. - -“Say, you boys! We’ll have to stop you if you can’t obey the law,” -declared the officer. - -“How about that car ahead?” demanded Dan. - -“They got away from me.” - -“We can catch it for you, if you say so,” said Billy, grinning. “And it -will be a great catch, too. Those fellows, I believe, robbed the -postoffice at Farmingdale night before last.” - -“You don’t mean it!” exclaimed the policeman. - -“Indeed I do,” said Dan, earnestly. “At least, my brother and I are -positive that they are the men who robbed the Farmers’ Bank of Riverdale -and committed another robbery in that town.” - -“The motor car thieves!” exclaimed the policeman. “You don’t mean it?” - -“We do. We’re sure of it.” - -“Wait! Let those two other men get aboard,” said the officer, beckoning -to two brother officers standing on the corner. When the men had hopped -into the tonneau, the first officer said: - -“Now let her go. If you can catch that big car, do it. Never mind the -law—smash it to flinders!” - -The maroon automobile had slowed down a good bit. The criminals were not -desirous of getting arrested for breaking the speed law. And when Dan -brought his car close up behind the maroon painted machine, and the -biggest policeman leaped into the thieves’ car, the latter believed they -were arrested merely for an infringement of the city ordinance. - -“We will fix this up all right with the judge, officer,” said the leader -of the gang. “The court is sitting—yes?” - -“I reckon so,” said the cop. “But we’ll run over to the chief’s office -first. I shouldn’t be surprised if _he’d_ like to see you.” - -The three criminals exchanged glances. They might have shown fight there -on the public street, but Dan steered his machine around the maroon car -and headed it off. The chauffeur had to stop. The three officers each -seized their man and—the arrest was made! - -It then became necessary for the boys to go to the office of the chief -of police, too. The delay was considerable, but after hearing the story -of the Speedwells the commander of the Olin City police force worked -quickly. - -He called up the Riverdale Bank over the long distance ’phone and Mr. -Crawley and Mr. Baird went sponsor for the Speedwell brothers. They were -therefore allowed to depart, for the criminals would have to be -extradited from this state to the one in which the first crime had been -committed. - -Burton Poole’s car—and others—had gotten ahead of the Speedwell boys by -this time and they had but an hour more to run that day. They whirled -out of Olin City, however, in a cloud of dust and made Breckenridge -Station, thirty-two miles on the road, in that hour. - -When they registered with the timekeeper in Breckenridge they were seven -hundred and forty-nine miles over the course. There were two hundred and -fifty-nine miles between them and the Compton Motordrome. - -“And the worst of the running yet to come,” said Dan. “How many cars did -he say were ahead of us?” - -“Thirteen have gone on, having from fifteen minutes to two hours to run -on to-day’s record. And here comes a slew of them up the street,” said -Billy. - -Indeed, there was a larger number of cars in Breckenridge that night -than there had been at Greenbaugh at the end of the previous day’s run. - -In the morning the cars had to be started ten minutes apart as they were -at the beginning of the endurance test. And it was raining—a fine, -penetrating drizzle—that made the traveling most unpleasant. The wheels -skidded, too, and the best car in the race could not make time over the -slushy roads. - -Besides, the second climb of the mountain chain was just ahead. The -Speedwells struck it an hour before noon. Half way up the steep ascent -they passed number seven—stuck in the muddy ruts. Chance and Burton were -floundering around, trying to pry out their heavy car. - -“This isn’t any fun!” shouted Poole, recognizing the Speedwells. “But -how did you manage to catch up to us again?” - -“We never would have escaped Chance Avery’s friends outside of -Greenbaugh if he’d had his way!” cried Billy in reply. “But now I tell -you what it is, Burton: It looks to me as though we were seeing you for -the last time in this race. Fare thee well!” he added with a mocking -smile. - -“You’d better not crow too loud, youngster,” growled Dan. “We don’t know -what may happen to us yet.” - -But nothing could convince Billy now that they hadn’t got Poole’s car -beaten. Their own lighter machine worked much better on the heavy road. - -There were ten cars in advance of them when the Speedwells reached the -pass through the hills and started down the incline which ended at the -plain on which Riverdale, Compton, and neighboring towns were built. -With seven of these cars they caught up at Lorillord at the end of their -fourth day’s run. They were then seventy-two miles from Compton. The -three cars ahead were respectively sixty-eight miles, fifty-nine miles, -and fifty-six miles from the end of the endurance run. - -“If it clears off before morning, we’re beaten,” said Dan, with -confidence. “But our car is a regular mudlark. If it keeps on raining we -may plough through and catch up to all three of those other cars.” - -“Suppose they wait till it clears off before they start to-morrow?” -suggested Billy. - -“If you’ll read your little book you’ll find that isn’t allowed. There’s -only fifteen hours’ recess allowed between the end of one day’s run and -the beginning of another.” - -The boys were first up in the morning. The weather bureau reported no -hope of a change in the falling weather; but the other autoists at the -hotel hesitated to set forth early. - -Not so, however, Dan and Billy. They had overhauled their car as usual -the night before. They were well acquainted with the stretch of road -before them. At seven o’clock they wheeled out before the hotel, took -the time from the starter, and whirled away, spraying the mud on either -side from under their wheels, in a wide fan. - -Only one of their rivals was on the road before them, and Dan and Billy -raced and passed that car within the first fifteen minutes, and did not -see it again until it reached the Compton Motordrome. - -There was one car, however, that kept close on their trail. They heard -it frequently and sometimes caught glimpses of it; but it was so far -away that neither Dan nor Billy could identify it. They, however, feared -this speedy car. Indeed, although they knew now that they would arrive -first at the end of the run, they were not sure that they would have won -this glorious race. - -It was with fear and trembling that they passed over the line, ran into -the big arena and saw their time marked up on the board: A thousand and -eight miles in forty-three hours and four minutes. - -The car behind them shot into the motordrome and proved to be Mr. -Darringford’s. - -“I believe I’ve beat you, boys!” he cried, leaping out of his car. - -But the time keeper announced his time as forty-three hours, fifteen -minutes, twenty-four seconds. - -“I declare!” laughed the gentleman, “it will be nothing to brag of, no -matter who wins the gold cup. The weather was against fast running -yesterday and this morning. Here comes another!” - -It was number seven. The heavy car rolled in beside the Speedwells’ and -came to a groaning halt. It was nearly shaken to pieces. Chance had -certainly punished his partner’s auto hard during those last few miles. - -But to no purpose. Their time was forty-four hours flat, and there were -several cars that beat number seven. Burton came and shook hands warmly -with Dan and Billy, while Chance sneaked away. - -“I just found out about what Chance did to you back at Farmingdale,” -Burton said. “I want you to know that I had nothing to do with any such -mean business—nor did I know he put his friends at the seminary up to -holding you back on the road. Mr. Briggs was at the hotel we stopped at -last night and he had the whole story—and about your capturing the motor -car robbers, too. I hope you’ve won the race. I’d like to have beaten -you if I could have done so fairly; but Chance and I get through with -each other right here and now—believe me!” - -It was some time before the uncertainty regarding who had captured the -race was over. Finally however, it was shown beyond doubt that the -Speedwell boys were the winners. The nearest car to their record had -made the distance in forty-three hours, nine and one-half minutes. Among -the first few cars it had been a remarkably close race. - -Dan and Billy went home by train and carried the handsome gold cup with -them. The little speech Mr. Briggs made, praising their pluck, and -particularly their bravery, made the ears of the boys burn. Their -capture of the motor and bank robbers had been printed in the papers and -Dan and Billy were lionized not a little when they got home. - -The Riverdale _Star_ again had a long story in it about them. And the -editor ran a picture of their Breton-Melville car, too. The boys could -have sold the auto at a fancy price had they so desired. - -“I don’t know but we’re foolish not to take the offer,” said Billy. “We -might get a cheaper car, and own a motor launch beside. And I would love -to have a launch by next spring.” - -But one day Mr. Baird, the bank cashier, sent for them. The boys learned -that the three motor thieves had been convicted of the robbery of the -bank, and had received sentences aggregating thirteen years. - -“The Farmers’ Bank has put to your joint account, boys, the sum of five -hundred dollars,” the cashier told them. “We do not claim that that -entirely repays you for your work in identifying the robbers and causing -their arrest. Mr. Crawley and I both feel we are still your debtors,” -and he shook the boys’ hands warmly. - -This unexpected windfall perhaps explains why our readers who have -become interested in the adventures of Dan and Billy can follow their -history further in the next volume of this series, to be entitled, “The -Speedwell Boys and Their Power Launch; Or, To the Rescue of the -Castaways.” - -Dan and Billy remain true to their speedy automobile and to their -beautiful Flying Feather motorcycles; but they have conquered swift -locomotion on the land; now they long to try their fortunes on the -water. And having proved themselves to be courageous, industrious and -honorable we may believe thoroughly in their future success. - - - THE END - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE BOYS’ OUTING LIBRARY - _12 mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full color. - Price, per volume, 65 cents, postpaid._ - - THE SADDLE BOYS SERIES - BY CAPT. JAMES CARSON - -[Illustration] - - The Saddle Boys of the Rockies - The Saddle Boys in the Grand Canyon - The Saddle Boys on the Plains - The Saddle Boys at Circle Ranch - The Saddle Boys on Mexican Trails - - THE DAVE DASHAWAY SERIES - BY ROY ROCKWOOD - - Dave Dashaway the Young Aviator - Dave Dashaway and His Hydroplane - Dave Dashaway and His Giant Airship - Dave Dashaway Around the World - Dave Dashaway: Air Champion - - THE SPEEDWELL BOYS SERIES - BY ROY ROCKWOOD - - The Speedwell Boys on Motorcycles - The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto - The Speedwell Boys and Their Power Launch - The Speedwell Boys in a Submarine - The Speedwell Boys and Their Ice Racer - - THE TOM FAIRFIELD SERIES - BY ALLEN CHAPMAN - - Tom Fairfield’s School Days - Tom Fairfield at Sea - Tom Fairfield in Camp - Tom Fairfield’s Pluck and Luck - Tom Fairfield’s Hunting Trip - - THE FRED FENTON ATHLETIC SERIES - BY ALLEN CHAPMAN - - Fred Fenton the Pitcher - Fred Fenton in the Line - Fred Fenton on the Crew - Fred Fenton on the Track - Fred Fenton: Marathon Runner - - _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._ - - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE WEBSTER SERIES - By FRANK V. WEBSTER - - --------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - Mr. WEBSTER’S style is very much like - that of the boys’ favorite author, the late - lamented Horatio Alger, Jr., but his tales - are thoroughly up-to-date. - - Cloth. 12mo. Over 200 pages each. Illustrated. - Stamped in various colors. - - Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid. - - Only A Farm Boy - _or Dan Hardy’s Rise in Life_ - The Boy From The Ranch - _or Roy Bradner’s City Experiences_ - The Young Treasure Hunter - _or Fred Stanley’s Trip to Alaska_ - The Boy Pilot of the Lakes - _or Nat Morton’s Perils_ - Tom The Telephone Boy - _or The Mystery of a Message_ - Bob The Castaway - _or The Wreck of the Eagle_ - The Newsboy Partners - _or Who Was Dick Box?_ - Two Boy Gold Miners - _or Lost in the Mountains_ - The Young Firemen of Lakeville - _or Herbert Dare’s Pluck_ - The Boys of Bellwood School - _or Frank Jordan’s Triumph_ - Jack the Runaway - _or On the Road with a Circus_ - Bob Chester’s Grit - _or From Ranch to Riches_ - Airship Andy - _or The Luck of a Brave Boy_ - High School Rivals - _or Fred Markham’s Struggles_ - Darry The Life Saver - _or The Heroes of the Coast_ - Dick the Bank Boy - _or A Missing Fortune_ - Ben Hardy’s Flying Machine - _or Making a Record for Himself_ - Harry Watson’s High School Days - _or The Rivals of Rivertown_ - Comrades of the Saddle - _or The Young Rough Riders of the Plains_ - Tom Taylor at West Point - _or The Old Army Officer’s Secret_ - The Boy Scouts of Lennox - _or Hiking Over Big Bear Mountain_ - The Boys of the Wireless - _or a Stirring Rescue from the Deep_ - Cowboy Dave - _or The Round-up at Rolling River_ - Jack of the Pony Express - _or The Young Rider of the Mountain Trail_ - The Boys of the Battleship - _or For the Honor of Uncle Sam_ - - --------------------------------------------------------- - - CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE BOMBA BOOKS - BY ROY ROCKWOOD - _12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket_ - -[Illustration] - - _Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_ - -_Bomba lived far back in the jungles of the Amazon with a half-demented -naturalist who told the lad nothing of his past. The jungle boy was a -lover of birds, and hunted animals with a bow and arrow and his trusty -machete. He had a primitive education in some things, and his daring -adventures will be followed with breathless interest by thousands._ - -1. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY _or The Old Naturalist’s Secret_ - -In the depth of the jungle Bomba lives a life replete with thrilling -situations. Once he saves the lives of two American rubber hunters who -ask him who he is, and how he had come into the jungle. He sets off to -solve the mystery of his identity. - -2. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE MOVING MOUNTAIN _or The Mystery of the -Caves of Fire_ - -Bomba travels through the jungle, encountering wild beasts and hostile -natives. At last he trails the old man of the burning mountain to his -cave and learns more concerning himself. - -3. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE GIANT CATARACT _or Chief Nascanora and -His Captives_ - -From the Moving Mountain Bomba travels to the Giant Cataract, still -searching out his parentage. Among the Pilati Indians he finds some -white captives, and an aged opera singer who is the first to give Bomba -real news of his forebears. - -4. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON JAGUAR ISLAND _or Adrift on the River of -Mystery_ - -Jaguar Island was a spot as dangerous as it was mysterious and Bomba was -warned to keep away. But the plucky boy sallied forth and met adventures -galore. - -5. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN THE ABANDONED CITY _or A Treasure Ten -Thousand Years Old_ - -Years ago this great city had sunk out of sight beneath the trees of the -jungle. A wily half-breed and his tribe thought to carry away its -treasure of gold and precious stones. Bomba follows. - - _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_ - - --------------------------------------------------------- - - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE BOY RANCHERS SERIES - BY WILLARD F. BAKER - _12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_ - _Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_ - -[Illustration] - -_Stories of the great west, with cattle ranches as a setting, related in -such a style as to captivate the hearts of all boys._ - - 1. THE BOY RANCHERS - _or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X_ - Two eastern boys visit their cousin. They - become involved in an exciting mystery. - - 2. THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP - _or The Water Fight at Diamond X_ - Returning for a visit, the two eastern lads learn, with delight, that - they are to become boy ranchers. - - 3. THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL - _or The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers_ - Our boy heroes take the trail after Del Pinzo and his outlaws. - - 4. THE BOY RANCHERS AMONG THE INDIANS - _or Trailing the Yaquis_ - Rosemary and Floyd are captured by the Yaqui Indians but the - boy ranchers trailed them into the mountains and effected the rescue. - - 5. THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK - _or Fighting the Sheep Herders_ - Dangerous struggle against desperadoes for land rights brings out - heroic adventures. - - 6. THE BOY RANCHERS IN THE DESERT - _or Diamond X and the Lost Mine_ - One night a strange old miner almost dead from hunger and hardship - arrived at the bunk house. The boys cared for him and he told - them of the lost desert mine. - - 7. THE BOY RANCHERS ON ROARING RIVER - _or Diamond X and the Chinese Smugglers_ - The boy ranchers help capture Delton’s gang who were engaged in - smuggling Chinese across the border. - - _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_ - - --------------------------------------------------------- - - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES - BY LESTER CHADWICK - _12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid_ - -[Illustration] - - 1. BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS - _or The Rivals of Riverside_ - Joe is an everyday country boy who loves to - play baseball and particularly to pitch. - - 2. BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE - _or Pitching for the Blue Banner_ - Joe’s great ambition was to go to boarding - school and play on the school team. - - 3. BASEBALL JOE AT YALE - _or Pitching for the College Championship_ - In his second year at Yale Joe becomes a varsity pitcher. - - 4. BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE - _or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher_ - From Yale College to a baseball league of our Central States. - - 5. BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE - _or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggles_ - From the Central League Joe goes to the St. Louis Nationals. - - 6. BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS - _or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis_ - Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay. - - 7. BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES - _or Pitching for the Championship_ - What Joe did to win the series will thrill the most jaded reader. - - 8. BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD - _or Pitching on a Grand Tour_ - The Giants and the All-Americans tour the world. - - 9. BASEBALL JOE: HOME RUN KING - _or The Greatest Pitcher and Batter on Record_ - Joe becomes the greatest batter in the game. - - 10. BASEBALL JOE SAVING THE LEAGUE - _or Breaking up a Great Conspiracy_ - Throwing the game meant a fortune but also dishonor. - - 11. BASEBALL JOE CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM - _or Bitter Struggles on the Diamond_ - Joe is elevated to the position of captain. - - 12. BASEBALL JOE CHAMPION OF THE LEAGUE - _or The Record that was Worth While_ - A plot is hatched to put Joe’s pitching arm out of commission. - - 13. BASEBALL JOE CLUB OWNER - _or Putting the Home Town on the Map_ - Joe develops muscle weakness and is ordered off the field for a - year. - - _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_ - - --------------------------------------------------------- - - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE COLLEGE SPORTS SERIES - BY LESTER CHADWICK - _12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors_ - _Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid_ - -[Illustration] - - _Mr. Chadwick has played on the diamond and on the gridiron - himself._ - - 1. THE RIVAL PITCHERS - _A Story of College Baseball_ - - Tom Parsons, a “hayseed,” makes good on the scrub team of - Randall College. - - 2. A QUARTERBACK’S PLUCK - _A Story of College Football_ - - A football story, told in Mr. Chadwick’s best style, that is - bound to grip the reader from the start. - - 3. BATTING TO WIN - _A Story of College Baseball_ - - Tom Parsons and his friends Phil and Sid are the leading - players on Randall College team. There is a great game. - - 4. THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN - _A Story of College Football_ - - After having to reorganize their team at the last moment, - Randall makes a touchdown that won a big game. - - 5. FOR THE HONOR OF RANDALL - _A Story of College Athletics_ - - The winning of the hurdle race and long-distance run is - extremely exciting. - - 6. THE EIGHT-OARED VICTORS - _A Story of College Water Sports_ - - Tom, Phil and Sid prove as good at aquatic sports as they - are on track, gridiron and diamond - - _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_ - - --------------------------------------------------------- - - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Transcriber's Notes - - - Italicized phrases are presented by surrounding the text with - _underscores_. Boldface phrases are presented by surrounding the - text with =equal signs=. Small capitals have been rendered in full - capitals. - - Punctuation has been standardized. Minor spelling and typographic - errors were corrected silently, except as noted below. - - Table of contents, chapter 1 title - changed "Manoeuvers" to - "Manœuvers" to be consistent with other usage in the book - - page 28 - changed "re-action" to "reaction" - - page 80 - changed "re-painted" to "repainted" to be consistent with - other use of "repainting" and "repainted" in the book - - page 167 - changed "XII" to "XXII" - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing -Auto, by Roy Rockwood - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPEEDWELL BOYS *** - -***** This file should be named 50282-0.txt or 50282-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/2/8/50282/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rick Morris and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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