SPEEDWELL 
 BOY5 
 
 
 
 ROY 
 ROCKWOOD J 
 
ROSE K. GOLDSEN 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 3535.016R2 
 
 The Speedwell boys and their racing auto 
 
 3 1924 012 650 945 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012650945 
 
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 
 
 AOTBOR OP "the speed WEI,I, BOYS ON M0T0RCYC18S," TBt 
 
 SHAW AY SERIES," " TI 
 MASVEI, SERIES," ETC. 
 
 ILI^USTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CXJPPLES & LEON COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
BOOKS FOR BOYS 
 
 BY ROY ROCKWOOD 
 
 THE SPEEDWEIili BOYS SERIES 
 
 i2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. 
 
 THE SPEEDWELL BOYS ON MOTOR- 
 CYCLES 
 
 THE SPEEDWELL BOYS AND THEIR 
 RACING AUTO 
 
 THE SPEEDWELL BOYS AND THEIR 
 POWER LAUNCH 
 
 THE SPEEDWELL BOYS IN A SUB- 
 MARINE 
 
 THE DAVE DASHAWAY SERIES 
 l2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. 
 
 DAVE DASHAWAY THE YOUNG AVI- 
 ATOR 
 
 DAVE DASHAWAY AND HIS HYDRO- 
 PLANE 
 
 DAVE DASHAWAY AND HIS GIANT 
 AIRSHIP 
 
 DAVE DASHAWAY AROUND THE 
 WORLD 
 
 THE GREAT MARVEIi SERIES 
 j2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. 
 
 THROUGH THE AIR TO THE NORTH 
 POLE 
 
 UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH 
 POLE 
 
 FIVE THOUSAND MILES UNDER- 
 GROUND 
 
 THROUGH SPACE TO MARS 
 
 LOST ON THE MOON 
 
 CuppLES & Leon Co. Publishers, New York 
 
 Copyrighted 1913, by 
 CupPLES & Leon Company 
 
 Thb SpEEDWELt Boys and Their Racing Auto 
 
 Printed in U. S. A. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPtSE 
 
 I. The Manoeuvers of Maxey 
 II. Dan Speedwell at His Best 
 
 III. Mystery of the Maroon Car 
 
 IV. Billy Acts on Impulse , 
 
 V. The Robbery of the Bank . 
 VI. A First Difficulty . 
 VII. The Hand in the Dark . . 
 
 VIII. On Watch 
 
 IX. Thieves in the Night . 
 
 XI. On a Hot Trail . . . 
 XII. A Great Run . . . 
 
 XIII. A Sharp Turn . . . 
 
 XIV. A Failure and a Success 
 XV. Secret Service 
 
 79 
 '84 
 
 93 
 
 99 
 
 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 . . 
 XX. On the Endurance Test 
 
 135 
 145 
 

 CON.TENTS 
 
 
 eB*rrtx 
 
 
 PACK 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The First Ten Hours . , 
 
 . 156 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Underhand Work . . 
 
 .T I. .167 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Queer Actions of No. 41 , 
 
 • 177 
 
 XIV. 
 
 An Obstacle Race . ,. 
 
 ■ • IS9. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The Car and the Cup . . 
 
 • 197 
 
THE SPEEDWELL BOYS 
 AND THEIR RACING AUTO 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE MANCEUVERS OF MAXEY 
 
 " Say, fellows I Look at what's coming! " 
 
 " Oh, my eyes 1 See him wabble I 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," ad- 
 mitted the older Speedwell lad, gazing down the 
 road, as were his friends, at a drab-painted auto- 
 mobile which was approaching them. 
 
 They were five boys, all members of the River- 
 dale 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. 
 
2 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 wheels 
 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 manceuvers of the 
 drab car and its owner. Shaving the stone wall, 
 Maxey came back into the^middle of the road and 
 
THE MANOEUVERS OF MAXEY, 3 
 
 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 ap- 
 proached 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 ajt the mo- 
 ment, 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. 
 
4 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 Surely the reckless driver of the machine must 
 slow down to round this curve. Dan Speedwell 
 could see him plainly — a little, goggled-eyed fel- 
 low, 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. 
 
THE MANOEUVERS OF MAXEY, 5 
 
 iTHat erratic youth beheld the maroon car coming 
 and literally " threw up his hands I " 
 
 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 
 
6 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 chauffeur of the maroon automobile swerved his 
 car again, but only slightly. His heavier 
 machine, running fast, charged down upon poor 
 IMaxey 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 im- 
 possible 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 tour- 
 ing 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 un- 
 fortunate 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 
 {R^as plainly no intention on the part of the 
 
 7 
 
8 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 let- 
 ting 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 motor- 
 drome, 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 pro- 
 duced by the Darringford Machine Shops, in 
 Riverdale, had been given to the brothers by 
 Robert Darringford whose life Dan and Billy 
 
DAN SPEEDWELL AT HIS BEST 9 
 
 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 dol- 
 lar motorcycles. Mr. Speedwell owned some 
 dairy cows and a few acres of land on the out- 
 skirts 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 Speed- 
 well 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 
 Ifrom the scene of the collision. The youth set- 
 tled himself firmly in his seat, opened his engine 
 to almost its highest speed, and dashed away 
 along the road. 
 
 The lad did not si^t 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 Riv- 
 
10 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTQ 
 
 erdale 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 posi- 
 tive 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 auto- 
 mobile 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 de- 
 liberately made it impossible for anyone to read 
 the numbers on the license behind the car. They 
 were evidently of that reckless class of automobil- 
 
PAN SPEEDWELL AX HIS BEST 11 
 
 ists 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 con- 
 siderable, 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 pedes- 
 trians 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, ha 
 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. 
 
12 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 of- 
 ficer 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 Bar- 
 negat. 
 
 *' 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 auto- 
 mobile. Then they drove on, full tilt, and I 
 followed them." 
 
 " Nonsense, Danl 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 
 
DAN SPEEDWELL AT HIS BEST 13 
 
 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 cume to a 
 halt and the excited boy leaped off. 
 
 "I don't care who they are! " declared Speed- 
 well, 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 I " 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 gentle- 
 men! 
 
 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. 
 
 14 
 
THE MYSTERY OF THE MAROON CAR 15 
 
 " What does the young man want, Polk? " in- 
 quired 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 trust- 
 worthy. 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 ma- 
 chine," said Dan, hastily. " The men who ran 
 down Maxey Solomons have escaped by some 
 means. They must have taken a cross road to- 
 ward the other side of the county." 
 
16 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTQ 
 
 " You did not get thir number? " 
 Dan quickly related the incidents whldJ had 
 brought him to this place, and in such haste. The 
 gentlemen in the car were sympathetic and Inter- 
 ested. 
 
 "Gomel" said, Mr. Armltage, "this matter 
 inust be looked Into. The rascals should be ap- 
 prehended. They are getting farther and far- 
 ther away each minute, It is likely. Come, 
 Briggs, what do you say? You have been brag- 
 ging about the speed of this car. Let's see what 
 Henri can get out of her." 
 
 "I am with you, Armltage," 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. Armltage 
 looked at Dan, who stood by his motorcycle. 
 
 " The boy had better go with us," said Mr. 
 Armltage. "He Is evidently an observant lad, 
 and he will not be likely to make a second mis- 
 take 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. 
 
 / 
 
r-HE MYSTERY OP! THE MAROON CAK ^ 
 
 " 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 quicE to obey these suggestions. 
 His Flying Feather he stood upright on the run- 
 ning 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 I'll go right down with ye t' th' 'squire's 
 
18 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTQ 
 
 office, an' I guess, fie'U 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 con- 
 niption 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 I " 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 auto- 
 mobile through these roads to the endangering 
 of life and limb of good citizens." 
 
 "Wa'all" ejaculated the puzzled Mr. Jack- 
 son, " it was a car jest the same color as yours, 
 Mr. Armitage." 
 
 "And how many men were in it, Mr. Jack- 
 son? " interposed Polk. 
 
 " Come to think on't, there warn't but three," 
 admitted the farmer. 
 
THE MYSTERY OF THE MAROON CAK 19 
 
 "Did you see the license number?" 
 
 " Not much 1 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 8e 
 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 di- 
 rections. 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 
 
20 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 at- 
 tention, and the occupants of the house had been 
 too far from the road to note the color of the ma- 
 chine, or the number of men in it. 
 
 Mr. Briggs' car was certainly fast, and Mn. 
 Briggs' chauffeur was the most marvelous mani' 
 pulator of an automobile that Dan Speedwell had 
 ever seen. And to sit directly beside the French- 
 man and observe the skill and art with which he 
 handled the levers and the wheel was a sheer de- 
 light to the boy. 
 
 He thought to himself: 
 
 " Ah I if Billy and I only owned an auto 1 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 French- 
 man 1" 
 
THE MYSTERY OP! THE MAROON CAR 21 
 
 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. 
 
22 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 I " cried Mr. Armitage. " Look at this 
 delay 1 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 
 
THE MYSTERY OF. THE MAROON CAR 25 
 
 iRiverdale. 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 gQ 
 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 con- 
 sulted with Henri for a moment, said: 
 
 " My chauffeur tells me that you are quite able 
 to run our car back to HoUiday's garage at 
 IRiverdale. 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, de- 
 lighted 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 ob- 
 
24 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 served another car bearing down upon him from 
 lahead, 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 
 iand, 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 I " 
 
 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 Fanners' National Bank 
 at Riverdalel" 
 
CHAPTER I¥ 
 
 BILLY ACTS ON IMPULSE 
 
 The sight of Maxey Solomons and his auto- 
 mobile tossed over the embankment and out of 
 view — as a mad bull might toss a dog — fright- 
 ened Billy Speedwell and his mates; at the 
 moment they did not, like Dan, think of bring- 
 ing 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 
 
 t?22S. 
 
 2S 
 
26 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 1 '* 
 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 muifled voice reached their 
 ears, and startled them all. 
 
 " Help 1 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 
 lout?" 
 
 "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 
 
BILLY, ACTS ON IMPULSE 27 
 
 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 I " 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 I" 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 sup- 
 posed — 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 
 
28 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 in- 
 fluenced, 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 River- 
 dale Club, felt the re-action. The peril threaten- 
 ing the owner of the wrecked automobile had in- 
 deed 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 
 
BILLY ACTS ON IMPULSE 29 
 
 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 : " Accord- 
 ing to your own tell, Maxey, she isn't worth any- 
 thing." 
 
 " 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?" de- 
 manded Billy, still in earnest. 
 
 Monroe Stevens looked at Speedwell suddenly, 
 iand 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 Darring- 
 fords offered for the apprehension of the fellow 
 who set the shops afire. Now, Maxey, if you 
 
30 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 be- 
 fore. 
 
 Young Solomons looked at Billy thoughtfully. 
 Something seemed to be working in his mind. 
 
 " You came down and saved me, Billy Speed- 
 well," 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 any- 
 thing for it, do you, Maxey? I don't believe you 
 «an get it out of the tree." 
 
 But Billy had made up his mind already about 
 
BILLY ACTS ON IMPULSE 31 
 
 that phase of the matter. And how he wanted 
 to own that racing carl 
 
 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 / 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 dol- 
 lars. 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 1 " 
 
 *' Surrender ! " cried the man with the weapon, 
 and then Dan realized that his captor was Josiah 
 Somes, one of Riverdale's constables, and a pom- 
 pous, officious little man. 
 
 " Surrender, in the name of the law ! " re- 
 peated 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 con- 
 stable. "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 I " cried Dan. 
 
 32 
 
THE ROBBERYj AX iTHE BANK 33 
 
 " 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 I" 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 ex- 
 pect," 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 al- 
 
34 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 most smothered before the president came back 
 and found him there." 
 
 This garbled account of a very interesting hap- 
 pening 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, curi- 
 ously. 
 
 " 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 
 
THE ROBBERY AX THE BANK 35 
 
 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 w^," 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. Balrd. "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 in- 
 to Mr. Crawley's machine here, and let us fol- 
 low the trail Dan has told us of. Perhaps Mr. 
 
36 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 Armitage and Mr. Briggs have caught up with 
 the thieves." 
 
 Dan was much excited by the story of the rob- 
 bery. 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 des- 
 perate 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 de- 
 livered 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 inter- 
 est. 
 
 "What's the matter with you, boy?" de- 
 
THE ROBBERY AT THE BANK 2,7 
 
 manded 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 
 put Billy Speedwell. 
 
 "You've done what'i^^ 
 
 Billy repeated his statement, gloomily enough. 
 Dan stared at him in the light of the bam lantern 
 and remarked: 
 
 " Well, you don't look any crazier than com- 
 mon. 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 
 
38 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 me," said Dan, rubbing his head. " By the way, 
 there's the machine? " 
 
 " Up in the air," returned Billy, with a grin. 
 
 " Huh 1 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 I " 
 
 Billy blurted all this out in a hurry. The in- 
 formation 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 be- 
 lieve 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 
 svas overturned. The thing Is wrenched some, I 
 
 39 
 
40 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 suppose, and dented and marred. That's kll. 
 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 evi- 
 dently 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 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," ex- 
 plained 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 
 
A FIRST DIFFICULTY 41 
 
 divide tHe cost of repairing the machine between 
 
 us." 
 
 " Bully I " 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. Ap- 
 pleyard'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, seri- 
 ously, " that Maxey's machine was wrecked, and 
 I got a chance to buy it." 
 
 The Speedwell family numbered but six — be- 
 sides 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 
 
42 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 were, in spite of their somewhat straitened cir- 
 cumstances, a very happy family. Mr. Speed- 
 well 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 motor- 
 cycles 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 Darringfod 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. Speed- 
 well. 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 im- 
 pulsive 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 
 
A FIRST DIFFICULTY 43 
 
 ito 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 dol- 
 lars 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." 
 
44 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 *' 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 unload- 
 ing 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 com- 
 paratively 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 came ! " 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 part- 
 nership with that old lumber wagon." 
 
 Chanceford Avery, who was considerable older 
 than most of the club members, was a dark com- 
 
A FIRST DIFFICULTY 45 
 
 plexioned, sharp featured young man, not much 
 liked by the boys of Riverdale, but who made him- 
 self 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 Darring- 
 ford 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-go- 
 ing 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 (Ad. 
 
46 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 hulk of a car up here," sneered Chance Averjr. 
 " 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," de- 
 clared 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 I " 
 
 " We've been able to beat you before now, 
 Chanceford Avery," snapped Billy. " Now go 
 along 1 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 1 " exclaimed an un- 
 
A FIRST DIFFICULTY 47 
 
 pleasant 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 1 " 
 
 "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 ar- 
 rest 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 oiEcious 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 I where you going? " demanded the con- 
 stable. 
 
 48 
 
THE HAN1> IN THE DARK 49 
 
 " 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 ex- 
 plained quickly what he and Billy were doing 
 down there beside the river road. 
 
 " Digging a hole to set a post? Well, go 
 ahead 1 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 difliculty. 
 
 " Pshaw ! Josiah ought to be in better busi- 
 ness," declared the clerk, and he hastily filled out 
 a permit, headed "Highway Department" and 
 gave it to the youth. " Show that to Justice Eng- 
 lish," 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 re- 
 turned to the sidewalk. He had got out of the 
 carriage and hitched his horse. 
 
 " Here ! you come along with me, Dan Speed- 
 well!" 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 him- 
 self that he had got the Speedwells into trouble. 
 
 They went into 'Squire English's office. The 
 
50 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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, hav- 
 ing 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 hand- 
 some. 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 wrath- 
 fully. 
 
 " 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 per- 
 mit I " cried the chagrined constable. 
 
 "You never gave me a chance to tell you," de- 
 clared Dan. 
 
THE HAND IN THE DARK 51 
 
 "Get out of here — the whole of you I" 
 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 I 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. 
 
52 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " But she means for you boys to come," Mil- 
 dred 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. Th^y went 
 around to several other farmers to pick up the 
 evening's milk before going home. Tnen, when 
 their chores were all done and they had supper, 
 Dan and Billy mounted their motorcycles and 
 dashed away through the town anjd out the river 
 road toward the farmhouse which was the scene 
 of the evening party. 
 
 While within the immediate confines of River- 
 dale they had to run raaderately; but it was al- 
 ready after half-pasteight, they wanted to reach 
 Mayberry's before the fun was all over, and 
 therefore " Ipt out " the motors when they got 
 upon the rj^er road. 
 
 The ■vmite highway before them was deserted 
 clear down to the bend at which Dan Speedwell 
 had first seen the maroon car of the bank rob- 
 
THE HAND IN THE DARK 53 
 
 bers on Saturday afternoon. That trio of crim- 
 inals 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 ma- 
 chine at racing pace ; yet Billy gained some partic- 
 ular 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 Eng- 
 lish," cried Billy, 
 
54 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 The candy-pull broke up at an early hour, foff 
 iall hands had to face lessons on the morrow. 
 iThe 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 ad- 
 vance of the rest of the riders, and led the com- 
 pany by several hundred yards. They were very 
 good friends, Dan havmg 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 compara- 
 tively 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," re- 
 sponded Dan, chuckling. "Just at present it 
 looks like a joke, for, as Billy says, the machine 
 is up in the air." 
 
 " Do tell we what you have done," urged Mil' 
 Idred. 
 
 " 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 
 
THE HAND IN JHE DARK 55 
 
 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 Mlidred 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 con- 
 trivance had disappeared! 
 
 " Stop ! " shouted Dan, and shut off his power 
 and leaped from his saddle. He san to the side 
 
56 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 fall- 
 ing derrick had crashed upon the automobile in 
 the tree-top. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ON WATCH 
 
 "Oh, Dan! wha'c Is it?" cried Mildred, dis- 
 mounting 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 stor- 
 age 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. 
 "Ahl here's Billy. 
 
 The remainder of the party came up swiftly 
 and stopped their cycles. 
 
 57 
 
58 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " What's happened? " cried Billy, first to reach 
 his brother's side. 
 
 Dan pointed to the post, chopped ofE fit the 
 ground. All could see it. 
 
 "The car — is it hurt?" questioned Billy. 
 
 *' I don't think so," replied his brother. 
 
 " The rascal I I'd like to pitch him over that 
 wall myself," declared the younger Speedwell, ia 
 la 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 ac- 
 cepted 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 
 fhe 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 1 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 
 
ON WATCH 59 
 
 Kent, earnestly, "that the person — ^whoever he 
 was — did not manage to utterly ruin the automo- 
 bile. Suppose he comes here before you can get 
 the derrick erected again, and throws these boul- 
 ders down upon the car?" 
 
 "He'll not do thatl " 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 1 " 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 de- 
 lay." 
 
 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 un- 
 til morning so that the mean-spirited person 
 whom he suspected of cutting down the pole, 
 should not return and do ahy damage to the 
 motor car. 
 
 Billy heard dogs barking in the distance — they 
 seemed to start far down the road toward the 
 IMayberry farm at which he and his young friends 
 
60 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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. " Com- 
 ing 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 dould 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 head- 
 light 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. 
 
ON WATCH 61 
 
 "I — don't — know," returned the other, in a 
 low voice. " It looks so different by night." 
 
 " Hang it I you and I were past here on Satur- 
 day." 
 
 "Well! we went so fast that I couldn't tell 
 what the place looked like. I know that Sudds 
 lives here somewhere. Ha 1 " 
 
 "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 sus- 
 picion. It was too dark for him to see the color 
 of the automobile exactly; but he was apprehen- 
 sive. 
 
 " 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 
 
62 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 be- 
 side the road, was in sight, although he could not 
 see it. 
 
 The car purred on. Billy clung desperately, 
 Safraid to drop off now, for he would be revealed 
 the instant he came out of the shadow of the au- 
 tomobile'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 evi- 
 dently 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 
 
ON WATCH 63 
 
 neck arounu the corner of the car to look, saw the 
 light flash upon the shiny varnish. 
 
 The car was painted maroon I 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. B-iggsI 
 
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 sud- 
 denly. 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 recog- 
 nized their comrade. 
 
 *' Come on ! " the new-comer said, command- 
 ingly. " 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 ter- 
 races. The couple of strangers were up three 
 
 64 
 
THIEVES IN THE NIGHT 65 
 
 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 ma- 
 roon car Dan had chased on his motorcycle on 
 Saturday — the car that had thrown Maxey Solo- 
 mons and his auto over the embankment. And 
 the men in it had robbed the Farmers' Bank of 
 Riverdale of fifteen thousand dollars 1 
 
 They had dared come back into the neighbor- 
 hood. 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. 
 
66 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO, 
 
 But, if the other two came down to the automo- 
 bile, would not they seen Billy clinging behind the 
 car? The thought gave young Speedwell cour- 
 age 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 im- 
 pulsive, 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 es- 
 cape! 
 
 He heard the chauffeur moving about for a few 
 moments. He undoubtedly looked over his ma- 
 chine; 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 com- 
 rades 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 ex- 
 clamation. Then a voice in the distance began- 
 
THIEVES IN THE NIGHT 6)^ 
 
 to shout; but it was so far away that Billy could 
 not distinguish the words uttered. 
 
 It was an alarm, however. He heard a police- 
 man'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 ap- 
 peared. One carried a bundle; the other held 
 onto his arm and seemed to be in pain as he stum- 
 bled 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 chauf- 
 feur: 
 
 "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 crim- 
 inals were aiming to go, it seemed that the boy 
 was forced to accompany them I 
 
 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 
 
68 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 got- 
 ten 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 ad- 
 vertised to cater to the trade twenty-four hours 
 in the day, and Billy knew there would be at least 
 one man on duty here. 
 
THIEVES IN THE NIGHT 69 
 
 The trio of robbers knew this, too, it was evi- 
 dent. One of them hopped out of the car the 
 moment it stopped and rapped on the office win- 
 dow. 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 him- 
 self to the trio of thieves. 
 
 He knew that one of the Upton Falls con- 
 stables was supposed to patrol the streets of the 
 town at night; but he did not show up at this junc- 
 ture. 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, aggres- 
 sive man, and seemed to have the other two un- 
 der his thumb. 
 
 " I tell you we burned a lot of gas running up 
 and down, waiting for you," was the chauffeur's 
 reply. 
 
70 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 (( ' 
 
 Well I 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 I" 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 ma- 
 chine 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. 
 
THIEVES IN THE NIGHT 71 
 
 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 
 
 72 
 
JOSIAH SOMES ON THE WARPATH 73 
 
 mariced several other oak trees of practical use in 
 this emergency. 
 
 " We'll not go to school in the morning," de- 
 cided 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 tim- 
 ber 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. 
 
7J SPEEDWELLS' RACIl^G AUTO 
 
 " 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," ex- 
 plained Dan, coming out to the bars. 
 
 " Hullo 1" rejoined the same voice. "Isn't 
 that young Speedwell?" 
 
 " I thought I recognized your voice, Mr. Armi- 
 tage," 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 
 
IJOSIAH SOMES ON THE WARPATH 75 
 
 ^voods, 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 Mead- 
 ville 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 
 ia good road going into the swamp which branches 
 from the Port Luther turnpike." 
 
 *' I know it ! " cried Mr. Armitage. " I re- 
 member 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 travel- 
 ing fast. And the road back here passes within 
 half a mile of our house, although there is no 
 
7e SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 
 
JOSIAH SOMES ON THE WARPATH 17 
 
 his foot on the clutch pedal, he brought the beau- 
 tiful 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 al- 
 most 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 ih 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. Armi- 
 tage. " 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?" de- 
 manded Briggs. 
 
 "Josiah must be on the war-path," chuckled 
 Mr. Armitage. " He's out holding up automo- 
 
78 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 bHists 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, wrathfuUy. 
 
 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 I Pile out of that carl 
 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 '4 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 im- 
 pulsive 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, Josiahl you're the only man who could 
 possibly make the same mistake twice, hand-run- 
 ning. 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 I 'Twarn't half an hour ago they 
 
 79 
 
80 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 telephoned to me from Sudds' house that they'd 
 been robbed; then come another message saying 
 to stop a maroon car; that the man in it had rob- 
 bed Mr. Sudds, and was also suspected of being 
 the bank robbers. I remembered that them rob- 
 bers 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 re-painted." 
 
 " Tell me I " interrupted Dan Speedwell, 
 eagerly, " who telephoned you, Mr. Somes ? " 
 
 " Man at Rebo's Garage," said the constable, 
 shortly. \ 
 
 " Rebo's I That's at the Falls," observed Mr. 
 Armitage. 
 
 " Sure enough 1 " 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 ! " 
 
ON A HOT TRAIL 81 
 
 "OE, 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 evenings — so they 
 thought. He was a stranger, and made out he 
 had some business with the colonel." 
 
 Mr. Sudds was a " colonel " by courtesy, hav- 
 ing 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 stop- 
 ped 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 
 
82 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 ma- 
 roon car, headed that way. Men in her have rob- 
 bed 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? " 
 
 " Waitl " cried Dan, again, as the constable 
 dropped the rope. " Tell me one thing." 
 
 " Wal, what is it? " returned Josiah, grudg- 
 ingly. 
 
 " 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," 
 
/ 
 
 ON A HOT TRAIL 83 
 
 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 ma- 
 roon 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 rob- 
 bers — 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 con- 
 nection 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 in- 
 to 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 gentle- 
 man. "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, in-| 
 stead 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." 
 
 ^4 
 
A GREAT RUN 85 
 
 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 I " 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 Dar- 
 ringford 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. 
 
§6 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 "What is it now?)" demanded Mr. Briggs, 
 guickly. 
 
 " 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 ap- 
 proaching from the right direction— and it's ap- 
 proach 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 sud- 
 denly 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 in- 
 to view. The members of Dan's party leaned for- 
 
A GREAX RUN 8;^ 
 
 warH, straining their eyes to catch the first glimpse 
 of the car. Was it the mate to this one which 
 iMr. 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. Armi- 
 tage 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. 
 
88 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 One of these lattelr 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. 
 1 don't believe the scoundrels know they are be- 
 ing spied upon." 
 
 "Turn around, boy, and get after them ! " 
 cried Polk. "We'll rescue him!" 
 
 It was not yet one o'clock. The leading ma- 
 chine 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. 
 
A GREAT RUN 89 
 
 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 ma- 
 chine. 
 
 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 disap- 
 pearance of the rear light of the fugitive auto- 
 mobile, 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, understand- 
 ing 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 radi- 
 
90 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 ance of the car's lights. If the tires of the ma- 
 chine 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 re- 
 duce 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 River- 
 dale, 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 I 
 
 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 
 Peclcham'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. 
 
A GREAT RUN 91 
 
 " Running without lights," was Dan Speed- 
 well'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 rob- 
 bers. 
 
 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 fur- 
 ther 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 
 
92 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 I" 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 I " 
 
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 ma- 
 chine 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, 
 
 93 
 
94 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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. Some- 
 how, 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 dis- 
 tance 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 some- 
 thing right beside the highway. 
 
 " Switch on the lights quick I " whispered the 
 
A SHARP TURN 95 
 
 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 coun- 
 try 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 brc^ught it down to a creep- 
 ing 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. 
 
96 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 hunt- 
 ing 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 conceal- 
 ment, that the three robbers were extremely busy 
 
A SHARP TURN 97 
 
 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 automo- 
 bile 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 ob- 
 ject of the stranger. 
 
 "Look out, there I" he cried. "Yqu'll have 
 that tree down across the road," 
 
98 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 ex- 
 cellent 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 Speed- 
 well. 
 
 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 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 min- 
 ute Billy knew he would be shaken off. Why 
 didn't some of those 'coon hunters take a hand 
 in the proceedings? 
 
 99 
 
100 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 rob- 
 bers. Mr. Sudds had lost anywhere from ten 
 
A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS lO!! 
 
 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 dis- 
 creetly 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 permis- 
 sion 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 en- 
 sued. Billy's motorcycle was hidden down there 
 on the river road, too. 
 
 The brothers got the new post Dan cut at mid- 
 night, and another stick for the arm of the der- 
 rick, hurried to the place, and raised a new lift- 
 ing apparatus. The auto and the motorcyde 
 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. 
 
102 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 some- 
 thing will catch — we mustn't break or mar it any 
 more than possible," declared Billy, quite 
 nervously. 
 
 " Look out for yourself, old man," Dan re- 
 turned, 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 stop- 
 ped the team. Billy was flung off his unstable 
 footing; but he had presence of mind enough to 
 
A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS 103 
 
 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 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. Up- 
 on that they lowered it carefully. 
 
 It was safe! And as far as Billy and Dan 
 could see, it was not much damaged — not ma- 
 terially 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 auto- 
 mobile 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 pur- 
 chased of Maxey Solomons, and more than one 
 Intimated that the Speedwells had spent their 
 good money for something that neither they — f 
 nor anybody else — could make use of ! 
 
 The boys knew that they would have to take 
 
104 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 the wrecked car to the Darrlngford 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 sev- 
 eral 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 hdndred 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 ingenu- 
 ity 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 with- 
 out cause, and was slow in forming his judg- 
 ment. 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 wheh 
 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 re- 
 pairs we can make, the expense of putting ber 
 in first-class shape and repainting her — ^if yow 
 
 105 
 
106 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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," re- 
 turned Mr. Speedwell, smiling at their en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 But he pointed out again that there would be 
 many things besides the re-painting of the car that 
 they could not do. And so, after school the next 
 afternoon, Dan and Billy went over to the Dar- 
 ringford shops to see what kind of an arrange- 
 ment they could make for the repair of the drab 
 car. 
 
 The boys had a friend In Mr. Robert Dar- 
 ringford, who was really the head of the con- 
 cern; 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 
 
SECRET SERVICE 107 
 
 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 super- 
 intendent 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 de- 
 
108 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 posltors. 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." 
 
 " Weil, 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 — ^wIU 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 knoiw them anywhere. And the chauffeur, 
 George, I believe I should know by his figure." 
 
 " I couldn't be sure myself," said Dan, doubt- 
 fully. " 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." 
 
SECRET SERVICE 109 
 
 " 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 
 
110 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 costs, In time, trouble, or money. And, boySj 
 you will lose nothing yourselves if you bring 
 about the arrest of the thieves." 
 
 The Speedwells went forth considerably ex- 
 cited. "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 1 " 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 I " 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 der- 
 rick." 
 
 " 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 
 
SECRET SERVICE 111 
 
 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 Apple- 
 yard'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 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 stand- 
 ing 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 
 
112 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 rather a decent fellow, and took an elder-broth- 
 erly interest in his sister's boy. 
 
 " G'wan 1 " returned Teddy Berry, who had 
 begun to run with a pretty rough set of young- 
 sters, and resented his young uncle's interference. 
 *' You didn't pay for this smoke." 
 
 " Let me get my hands on you 1 " 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 shoul- 
 der. 
 
 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 I 
 
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 I Fire I " 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." 
 
 113 
 
114 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 Applet 
 yard's, where the cement walk was being repaired. 
 Dan seized the shovel from his brother, and be- 
 gan heaving the sand in a shower upon the blaz- 
 ing 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 fel- 
 low." But Avery kept his face averted and 
 examined the damage done 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. 
 
INGRATITUDE OF CHANCE AVERY 115 
 
 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 run- 
 ning 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 presi- 
 dent and captain of the club, despite his unpopu- 
 larity 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 sis- 
 ter, 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 
 
116 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 I You and Billy have a car? " 
 
 " So we suppose," returned Dan, rather rue- 
 fully. "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," re- 
 turned 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 
 
INGRATITUDE OF CHANCE AVERY 117 
 
 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 
 iWlth 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 n«\l** 
 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 superin- 
 tendent of the Darringford shops was quite 
 capable of giving Chance great help in his at- 
 tempt to " get even " with anybody whom he dis- 
 liked. 
 
 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 be- 
 fore. Chance had been picked by the superin- 
 tendent 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 Speed- 
 well, 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 
 
 ii8 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 119 
 
 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 com- 
 plained; he never knew just what Dan would 
 finally do. 
 
 He was not surprised, however, the next after- 
 
120 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 noon 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 discom- 
 posed. 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 I 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. 
 
A FRIEND, IN NEED 121 
 
 " 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? ,Yonr car will wait it's 
 turn ^" 
 
 "You gave it's turu to Poole's car," declared 
 
122 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 automo- 
 bile coat thrown back, his Norfolk jacket un- 
 belted, and cap and goggles pushed back from 
 his pleasant face. He was just drawing off his 
 gauntlets. 
 
 "What's the matter, Mr. Avery?" he re- 
 peated, as the flaming face of the superintendent 
 was turned toward him. 
 
 " These young rascals have become im- 
 pudent I " 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" 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 123 
 
 "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 de- 
 partment is working overtime. All outside work 
 must take it's chance. We cannot do this now." 
 
 "And the boys are impatient, are they?" de- 
 manded 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 favor- 
 itism. 
 
124 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " 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 posses- 
 sion of a Breton-Melville car, this year's type, 
 racing rig, and apparently one that has been mis- 
 used, 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 watch- 
 ing the " young boss." 
 
 " It's a great chance for you, boysl " declared 
 Mr. Robert. " Why, do you know, I'm going to 
 enter for Briggs' endurance test myself. I be- 
 lieve 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 
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 125 
 
 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 humor- 
 ous 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 at- 
 tention and complained to him of the unfair treat- 
 ment they had received at the hands of the super- 
 intendent 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 
 126 
 
ON THE ROAD TO KARNAC LAKE 127 
 
 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 Postle- 
 thwaite if he expects to beat you boys in that en- 
 durance 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 fur- 
 nished, 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 be- 
 ing stripped down to the very skeleton of a car. 
 
 The Stetson's run to Karnac Lake was ar- 
 ranged for Friday afternoon, immediately after 
 
128 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 accom- 
 pany 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 auto- 
 mobile 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 ma- 
 chine of Burton's," declared Dan Speedwell, af- 
 ter 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, any- 
 way. 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." 
 
ON THE ROAD TO KARNAC LAKE 129 
 
 " 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 oc- 
 
130 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 casion 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 run- 
 ning 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 our- 
 selves 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?" de- 
 manded Chance Avery, in no pleasant tone. 
 
ON THE ROAD TO KARNAC LAKE 131 
 
 " 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 run- 
 ning 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 mak- 
 ing a man of him. I reckon that would-be chauf- 
 feurs 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 cere- 
 monies, 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 I " cried the bronze-haired girl. 
 
 " Oh, I believe you ! " responded Billy, who 
 was nothing if not a tease. " And then we'll see 
 
132 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 1 
 
 "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. Pd rather be some- 
 where up near the head of the procession," said 
 the teasiug 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, an'd 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." 
 
ON THE ROAD TO KARNAC LAKE 133 
 
 The Greene autamobile, 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 
 
134 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 di- 
 rection 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 River- 
 dale Club was not going to be beaten so easily. 
 He forced the Poole car ahead, and Dan im- 
 mediately 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-Mel- 
 ville car had shown what she could do for a few 
 moments, and that satisfied Billy, as it did his 
 
 135 
 
136 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 brother. The Speedwells knew that of the three 
 cars, their drab machine was running the 
 smoothest, with less cost, and was as easily gov- 
 erned 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 Speed- 
 well 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 part]^ 
 broke up. The neighboring guests went home 
 and the members of the party sought their sev- 
 eral 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." 
 
AN EXCITING RUN 137 
 
 " 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 — Harring- 
 ton 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 bor- 
 rowed uncle's car without saying ' by your leave', 
 and started off with it. They caught him, how- 
 ever, in time." 
 
 "What's the matter with him? " asked Billy. 
 
 ««\Yhy — 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 noWj I tell 
 you." 
 
,138 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " But running an automobile is no job for a fel- 
 low who may have a fit at any moment," said 
 Billy. 
 
 " I believe you," said Jim. " Well, you're 
 off!" 
 
 " Bye-bye I " 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 1 " 
 
 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 River- 
 dale. 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 
 
AN EXCITING RUN 139 
 
 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 bohs, 
 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 I 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?" 
 
140 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " 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 
 11." 
 
 " 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?" sug- 
 gested 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. Yf*ur 
 
AN EXCITING RUN 141 
 
 mother and I did not hear you come in. And 
 how does the car run?" 
 
 "Dandy and good, Dad I" cried Billy, while 
 Dan said: 
 
 " Now, there wasn't any need oi- 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 mid- 
 night; 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 
 
142 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 run- 
 ning? " 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 ma- 
 chine 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: 
 
AN EXCITING RUN 143 
 
 " Get out of that, Harrington I Drop it! " 
 
 At the moment the car began to pop and they 
 all saw it move away from the curb. A slight fel- 
 low in a blazer coat, and without a hat, was at 
 the wheel. He was a pasty-faced fellow, thin, un- 
 healthy-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 Stet- 
 son. " Oh, that boy will do some damage to that 
 car!" 
 
 " He'll wreck It, or break his own neck," de- 
 clared 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. 
 
144 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 "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 
 ihe 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 Harring- 
 ton 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 I 
 
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 
 thon did the pitiful condition of young Harring- 
 ton M'Kim. 
 
 The car was rushing down toward the Stet- 
 son 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 im- 
 portant 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 
 
146 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 reckless attempt to halt the career of the auto- 
 mobile. 
 
 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. Mil- 
 dred Kent called to him. 
 
 "Dan I Dannie! You'll be killed!" 
 
 And it did seem an utterly reckless and use- 
 less 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 
 
off: on the endurance test 147 
 
 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 Bur- 
 ton Poole, first to seize his hand. " I suppose I'm 
 selfish to not think more of M'Kim — but the car 1 
 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 un- 
 fortunate youth. 
 
 The pleasant day by the lake passed without 
 incident after that. They rode home in the eve- 
 ning, a merry party indeed. Mildred Kent 
 elected to sit beside Dan in the front seat. 
 
148 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 be- 
 fore Thanksgiving week came around. Chance 
 Avery allowed no opportunity to pass wherein he 
 could belittle the Speedwell's 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 Comp- 
 
OFF ON THE ENDURANCE TEST 149 
 
 ton 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 Breto'n-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 gen- 
 erally 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 
 
150 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 ob- 
 structions on the route, and the weather, of 
 course, could not be arranged to suit the con- 
 testants. 
 
 The rules were that any contestant could run 
 ten hours in each twenty-four — consecutively, not 
 otherwise; time lost on repairs or stoppages be- 
 yond 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 
 
OFF ON THE ENDURANCE TEST 151 
 
 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. "Oi 
 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 rat« 
 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 I 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 
 
152 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 Gar," said Billy, who had been studying the ad- 
 vertised 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 I" 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 aicident 
 
OFF ON THE ENDURANCE TEST 153 
 
 might make even the best of the cnrs 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 motor- 
 cycle 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 
 
154 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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. Mil- 
 dred Kent and Lettie Parker were in the Greenes' 
 auto and the girls wished the team handling num- 
 ber forty-eight the best of good luck as the drab 
 car started. 
 
 The boys waved their caps as the Breton-Mel- 
 ville 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 on-lookers grew distant. 
 The drab car began to purr like a great cat Be- 
 hind 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 
 
off: on the ENDURA.NCE TEST 155 
 
 started ten minutes earlier. The Breton-Mel- 
 ville, like a drab rocket, curved out for this car 
 and passed it as though forty-seven was at a 
 standstill 1 
 
 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 automombile 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 auto- 
 mobilists 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 
 
 is6 
 
THE FIRST TEN HOURS 157 
 
 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-look- 
 ing constables, with big tin stars on the breasts of 
 their coats, held their Waterbury watches on num- 
 ber 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 Speed- 
 wells 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 bet- 
 ter 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 Ban- 
 nister and City Ford, and it was thirty-eight miles 
 
158 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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- 
 
THE FIRST TEN HOURS 159 
 
 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. 
 
160 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 "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 Green- 
 baugh'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 I " chuckled 
 
THE FIRST TEN HOURS 161 
 
 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 automo- 
 biles joined in the procession and kept up with 
 some of the entries for miles. These incidents re- 
 tarded 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 
 
;i62 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 re- 
 maining, however, and the Holly Tree Inn at 
 Farmingdale was still forty miles away. The 
 roads were reported only fair. But compara- 
 tively 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 
 
THE FIRST TEN HOURS 163 
 
 trees which made the darkness deeper, their head- 
 lamps parting the gloom before' them, and dis- 
 playing objects with clearness. The Speedwells 
 had fitted their car with good lamps ; but no head- 
 light 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 be- 
 lieved 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, 
 
,164 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 tooTc 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 
 
THE FIRST TEN HOURS 165 
 
 should take according to all rules of the road. 
 Its rear lamp was shut off and the Breton-Mel- 
 ville 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 th«» 
 bridge, Dannie? " 
 
 " Give it up. Didn't see any number on it." 
 
 " I know. And Mr. Briggs' car is behind us^ 
 we passed it." 
 
166 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " Sure," declared Dan, in surprise. 
 
 " Weil, 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 XII 
 
 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 I " ex- 
 claimed 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, shak- 
 ing his head. 
 
 " Come on in I Let's see what they've got to 
 
 say about it." 
 
 167 
 
168 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " Now Billy," urged Dan, stopping his yofinger 
 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, Speed- 
 well?" 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 — ex- 
 cept one," said Dan, quickly. " That one's in the 
 ditch." 
 
 " But I don't see how you could have got so 
 far " 
 
UNDERHAND WORK 169 
 
 " 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 
 
170 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 ■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 I " 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 I " Poole cried. 
 " My ! but I didn't want to get up at all. Chance 
 has been out an hour or more." 
 
UNDERHAND WORK 171 
 
 " Your car ready? " asked Billy, with his moudi 
 Ml. 
 
 " Yep. You know, we got In at three o'clock 
 Sand had plenty of time." 
 
 " Then you'll be getting under way soon?, " sug- 
 gested Dan. 
 
 " We'll give you a rub on the road, I reckon," 
 said Burton, lazily. " See what Chance says 
 iabout 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 1 " began Billy, but Dan reached over 
 and put a hand on his arm. 
 
 " Drop it, youngster 1 " 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 
 
172 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 treach- 
 erous. 
 
 There was no car ahead of number forty-eight 
 within sight, and she steamed away from Farm- 
 Ingdale 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 I " exclaimed Billy, looking 
 back as he tipped the contents of the can into the 
 tank. 
 
UNDERHAND WORK 173 
 
 *' I see them. Chance has waked up. He's go- 
 ing to pass us, I reckon, and show us some fancy 
 running." 
 
 " Oh I don't know," grunted Billy, " They're 
 islowing 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. Theni 
 she stopped 1 
 
 *' 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. 
 
174 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " 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 hereto- 
 fore." 
 
 " 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 1 " 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. 
 
UNDERHAND WORK 17§ 
 
 " We might as well kiss our show for the gold 
 cup ' good-by ' I " 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 ex- 
 pected 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 Speed- 
 wells and so overtake and enjoy their discom- 
 fiture. 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. 
 
176 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 I 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 gas- 
 oline 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'. 4 1 
 
 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 youl" 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 near- 
 est 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 — Glisten! " 
 
 177 
 
17§ SPEEDWELLS' ILA.CING AUTO 
 
 "Another car coming. Another set of josh- 
 ers," 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 auto- 
 mobile 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 Speed- 
 well boys were stalled. Car forty-one was evi- 
 denty 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. 
 
QUEER ACTIONS OF, NUMBER 41i 173 
 
 " And if he had, you wouldn't have seen that 
 iwink," observed his brother, with a nervous gasp. 
 " Say! that was meanl " 
 
 " 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 I " 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 I " exclaimed Dan and Billy to- 
 gether. 
 
 "It was number forty-one, wasn't It?" de- 
 manded 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 
 
180 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 stranger, and his companion agreed with a vigor- 
 ous nod. " They come pretty near taking a wheel 
 off of us. Look at that scratch along the sid« 
 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'U we do?" queried Billy again. "You 
 
QUEER ACTIONS OF NUMBER 41! 181 
 
 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, deter- 
 mined 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 1" 
 
 But at that word his brother stepped quickly 
 out of the way. He could not hold up Darrlng- 
 ford, who had already been so kind to them. But 
 the young proprietor of the Darrlngford 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, cran- 
 ing his head out of the car to see them. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Robert ! " cried Billy, boldly. " Can 
 you lend us a gallon of gasoline ? " 
 
 "What I 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." 
 
182 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 "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-Mel- 
 ville can do I " 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 go- 
 ing 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 Green- 
 baugh, 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- 
 
QUEER ACTIONS OI^ NUMBER 41! 183' 
 
 two miles from the Holly Tree Inn. The tricE 
 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 Speed- 
 wells ; as they figured it coming up the mountain, 
 there were only fifteen cars ahead of them, in- 
 cluding 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, re- 
 ferring 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 
 
184 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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," Sug- 
 gested Dan. 
 
 " No, sir. Ain't no maroon car gone through. 
 I'm mighty sure of that! " 
 
 " Well, what do you know about that?" mur- 
 mured 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 I " cried BiUy. " Last night? " 
 
 " Yes. Cleaned it out. Three or four thou- 
 sand dollars' worth of stamps, registered mail, 
 and thirteen hundred dollars in cash. Nice little 
 haul for some band of robbers," said the hostler. 
 
QUEER ACTIONS OF NUMBER 41 185 
 
 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 Da'p. 
 " Here 1 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 
 liim he learned that Mr. Briggs' car was re- 
 
186 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 ported 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 time- 
 keeper. 
 
 " 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 postofSce at Farming- 
 dale 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 cer- 
 tainly has been no maroon car past here — in 
 either direction — to-day, or yesterday." 
 
QUEER ACTIONS OF NUMBER 41 187 
 
 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 fif- 
 teen 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-quar- 
 ters — 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-Mel- 
 ville car could do on a gentle slope, and on a 
 good road. 
 
 They took that stretch of twenty miles in seven- 
 teen 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 con- 
 testing machines, Dan and Billy knew, and as 
 they shut off their engine they heard several 
 wrangling voices in the crowd. 
 
188 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " I tell ye I don't care anything about no race I '* 
 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 un- 
 doubtedly 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, how- 
 ever, 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, chaiEng 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. 
 
 189 
 
190 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 " 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 Green- 
 baugh 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 accom- 
 panied the parade; but the town police kept good 
 order. There was a big, six-seated car that be- 
 longed 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. 
 
AN OBSTACLE RACE 19i 
 
 "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 contest- 
 ants 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 elephant- 
 ine car, and did not know how near number seven 
 was. 
 
192 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 
 
AN OBSTACLE RACE 193 
 
 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 I " 
 
 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 1 " 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 con- 
 testants 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 
 
194 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 mechan- 
 ism. Then suddenly there sounded a warning 
 automobile horn from the direction of Green- 
 baugh. 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. Sud- 
 denly Billy exclaimed: 
 
 " Isn't that Mr. Briggs' car? He's caught up 
 with us I " 
 
 " 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 re- 
 duced 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. 
 
AN OBSTACLE RACE 195 
 
 " 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 1" 
 
 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 
 fthey 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, 
 
196 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 I " whispered Dan. " We'll get 
 ^fter 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 I " 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE CAR AND THE CUP 
 
 The Breton-Melville car, driven by the Speed- 
 well 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. 
 
 197 
 
198 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTQ 
 
 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 1 " 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 1 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 post- 
 office at Famingdale night before last." 
 
 "You don't mean it!" exclaimed the police- 
 man. 
 
 *' 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 River- 
 dale and committed another robbery in that town. 
 
 " The motor car thieves I " exclaimed the 
 policeman. " You don't mean it? " 
 
THE CAR AND THE CUP 19? 
 
 " 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 hop- 
 ped 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 1 " 
 
 The maroon automobile had slowed down a 
 good bit. The criminals were not desirous of get- 
 ting arrested for breaking the speed law. And 
 when Dan brought his car close up behind the 
 maroon painted machine, and the biggest police- 
 man leaped into the thieves' car, the latter be- 
 lieved they were arrested merely for an infringe- 
 ment 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 sur- 
 prised 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 1 
 
 It then became necessary for the boys to go to 
 
200 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 hun- 
 dred 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. 
 
THE CAR AND THE CUP 201 
 
 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, recogni- 
 zing 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 hap- 
 pen to us yet." 
 
202 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 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 neigh- 
 boring 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. 
 
 " It it clears ofE before morning, we're beat- 
 en," 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 ony 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 earh^. 
 
THE CAR AND THE CUP 203 
 
 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 Motor- 
 drome. 
 
 There was one car, however, that kept close on 
 their trail. They heard it frequently and some- 
 times caught glimpses of it; but it was so far 
 away that neither Dan nor Billy could identify 
 it. They, however, feared this speedy car. In- 
 deed, 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. 
 
204 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTO 
 
 "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 an- 
 other! " 
 
 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 
 
THE CAR AND THE CUP 205 
 
 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 regard- 
 ing 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 
 
206 SPEEDWELLS' RACING AUTQ 
 
 for them. They boys learned that the three 
 motor thieves had been convicted of the robbery 
 of the bank, and had received sentences aggrega- 
 ting 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 identi- 
 fying 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 m the ad- 
 ventures of Dan and Billy can follow their his- 
 tory further in the next volume of this series, to 
 be entitled, " The Speedwell Boys and Their 
 Power Launch; Or, To the Rescue of the Cast- 
 aways." 
 
 Dan and Billy remain true to their speedy auto- 
 mobile and to their beautiful Flying Feather 
 motorcycles; but they have conquered swift loco- 
 motion on the land; now they long to try their 
 fortunes on the water. And having proved them- 
 selves to be courageous, industrious and honor- 
 able we may believe thoroughly in their future 
 success. 
 
 THE END 
 
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 Rosemary and Floyd are captured by the Yaqui Indians but the 
 boy ranchers trailed them into the mountains and eflfected 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 hard- 
 ship arrived at the bunk house. The boys cared for him and he told 
 them of the lost desert mine. 
 
 7. THE BOYIRANCHERS ON ROARING RIVER 
 
 or Diamond X and the Chinese Smugglers 
 The boy ranchers help capture Delton's gang who were engaged ia 
 smuggling Chinese across the border. 
 
 Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue 
 
 GUPPLES & LEON COfVSPANY, Publishers 
 
 New Yorb 
 
THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES 
 
 zsmo. 
 
 By LESTER CHADWICK 
 
 Illustrated. Price per volume, $i.oo, postpaid 
 
 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. 
 
 § ^^S^ 3. BASEBALL JOE AT YALE 
 
 'vL__ 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 P-itcher 
 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. 
 U. 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 Mapl 
 Joe developes muscle weakness and is ordered off the field for • 
 
 Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue 
 
 CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers 
 
 New York 
 
THE COL LEGE SPORT S SERIES 
 
 By LESTER CHADWICK 
 
 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors 
 Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid 
 
 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 o£ Randall College. 
 
 2. A QUARTERBACK'S PLUCK 
 
 A Slory 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, Randal] 
 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 eap* 
 tremdiy 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 
 «)a track, gridiron and diamond. 
 
 Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue 
 
 CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY. Publishers 
 
 New York