CHAPTER XXIV
AN OBSTACLE RACE
They reached the station on High street, Greenbaugh, with a few minutesto spare. There were four cars already standing at the Carpenter House,the best hotel in the place. It was too expensive an inn for theSpeedwell boys, however, and they drove around to another hostelry on aside street.
Besides, the Carpenter House veranda, and the yard, and the street infront of the hotel, were full of shouting, chaffing students from theseminary. Whether Chance Avery was so very popular with his formerfellow students, or not, there was a great number interested in themotor car race.
“We want to keep away from them. Then we’ll be sure to escape trouble. Idon’t want to talk with Chance just now,” said Dan Speedwell. “For I’msore and I might say something I’d be sorry for later.”
“He played us as mean a trick as ever was played,” declared Billy.
“He did indeed. But we have caught up with him again. He won’t get pastthe Carpenter House to-night.”
Which was a fact, for after Dan and Billy had cleaned up their car andhad put their next day’s supply of gasoline under lock and key thistime, to be sure of it, they went out on High street and saw Chance andBurton Poole with a crowd of college fellows, going to one of thestudents’ boarding houses for supper.
The Speedwells ate their own supper, and then walked about the townquietly. They learned that forty of the racing cars had reachedGreenbaugh during the evening. The streets were crowded withsight-seers. Late in the evening the seminary boys made a demonstration.
They had fireworks on the campus and then paraded the streets in autosand afoot, Burton Poole’s car in the lead with great placards on it.
Red fire and a noisy demonstration accompanied the parade; but the townpolice kept good order. There was a big, six-seated car that belonged inthe town, and was hired by the seminary boys. This had a prominent placein the parade, and the next morning, when Dan and Billy got out atdaybreak, they saw this machine, loaded with noisy but sleepy-lookingfellows, rolling down to the High street.
“They’ve made a night of it!” exclaimed Dan. “And I bet Chance andBurton have been with them. They’ll feel just like running an autoto-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 Ican help it.”
“You mean to keep ahead of him, then?” chuckled Billy.
“I’d like to.”
But when they ran their car out to the front of the Carpenter House,several of the contestants had already gotten under way, and among themwas Burton Poole’s machine. The big automobile crowded with studentsaccompanied it out of town. Number seven had nearly half an hour’s startof the Speedwells’ car.
But the Breton-Melville ran very easily. No cars passed the boys for thefirst five miles. Then they saw a cloud of dust ahead and realized thatthey were catching up with the students—and probably Poole’s car.
The six-seated observation car could not run very fast, and it was sobroad and heavy that it occupied more than a fair share of the road. Danand Billy could not see beyond this elephantine car, and did not knowhow near number seven was.
The road was good and their motor had been running very nicely. As thebig car, with its cheering crowd, continued to fill the road, Dan wasobliged to pull down a little.
“Hoot again,” said Billy. “We want to get by. If Chance and Burton wantto 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 wasnumber twelve. When this car came up with the big omnibus, one of thestudents 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 numberforty-eight into the opening, the omnibus swung back into the middle ofthe road again. The highway was narrow. There was no sidewalk on eitherhand. It was a typical country road and on either hand was a steep bankdown 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 seminaryyouths.
“Take your turn, brother,” advised another of the students. “We’ve gotthe road now and we mean to keep it.”
“Be still, Billy,” advised Dan, quickly. “They can hold us back but alittle way. The road widens soon!”
But Dan was not a good prophet that time. The students evidentlyintended to hold back Chance Avery’s rival at any cost. Within fiveminutes, after guying the Speedwells unmercifully, and holding them downto a snail’s pace, the chauffeur of the heavy car suddenly brought itsquare across the road, backed a little, and then halted. His car was aneffectual barrier to all traffic, going in either direction!
“Oh! Oh! Oh! Some-thing’s-bust-ed!” yelled the gang in chorus.
Dan and Billy then got a sight of the road ahead. It was empty. Chancewas perhaps ten miles ahead, or more. And the Speedwells were stalled.The driver of the students’ car could claim that he could not move hisauto. There were no policemen about. The following contestants might beheld here for an hour, or more.
Dan and Billy were helpless. And the students were having a fine time attheir expense. Dan had to fairly threaten his brother to keep Billysilent; to enter into a wordy discussion with the fellows would onlyhave pleased the scamps too well. They were primed to make sport of theRiverdale boys and undoubtedly would have handled them roughly had Danallowed Billy to loosen his tongue.
For ten minutes the big car stood there, the chauffeur making believefumble with the mechanism. Then suddenly there sounded a warningautomobile horn from the direction of Greenbaugh. A car, in a cloud ofdust, 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 contestantsfor a while,” muttered Dan. “Wait.”
But this car did not seem to be one of the racers. At least, it had noplacard on it. Suddenly Billy exclaimed:
“Isn’t that Mr. Briggs’ car? He’s caught up with us!”
“It’s not numbered,” objected Dan.
“I don’t care! It’s maroon—and a big car——”
Meanwhile the students on the omnibus did nothing toward pulling out.The maroon car reduced speed abruptly. There were three men in it—asmall one at the wheel and two others in the tonneau. All were coatedand masked with dust goggles.
“What’s the matter with you?” demanded one of the men in the tonneau,standing up.
Billy caught Dan by the hand, and whispered:
“It’s him!”
Dan needed no explanation. He knew what his brother meant at once. Thiswas the leader of the trio of bank robbers—the motor thieves. Billy knewthe fellow’s voice.
A chorus of contradictory explanations were shouted by the seminaryboys. It was plain that they proposed to hold up this car, too, ratherthan 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. Ashe started to climb up to the front seat one of the fellows tried topush him back.
That particular seminary student was instantly treated to the surpriseof his life. The man reached out, seized the boy’s collar, and rippedhim 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 startedthe machine. The engine was still running. Instead of starting it ahead,the man deliberately backed the car into the ditch on the oth
er side ofthe road, and leaped down, leaving it there with its forward wheels inthe air!
Half the students had tumbled off when the car bounced into the ditch.The maroon machine was brought by the chauffeur past the disabledomnibus, and the man who had wrecked it leaped into his own machineagain.
“Quick, Billy!” whispered Dan. “We’ll get after them.”
Their own car was ready. They ran right around the big machine, in thewake of the maroon auto. The latter was speeding away along the narrowroad.
“We must catch them, Dan!” cried Billy, as number forty-eight began tohum again.
“We will indeed,” agreed his brother. “It’s the robbers’ car—no doubt ofit. 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, wemust not let that maroon car escape this time!”