CHAPTER II
DAN SPEEDWELL AT HIS BEST
Billy Speedwell, at the head of the other lads, leaped into the road andsprinted to the spot where Maxey’s automobile had been thrown over theembankment. They saw that the unfortunate youth had clung to his wheel;but he had gone out of sight with the wreckage.
Their interest in and sympathy for Maxey blinded them to the furtheractions of the maroon car and the three men in it. But Dan Speedwell,coming back toward the scene of the catastrophe, noted well the conductof these men.
The chauffeur had made no proper attempt to avoid the collision; and nowhe neither slowed down nor glanced back to see what had become of thedrab car and its driver.
When Dan Speedwell reached the place where his motorcycle rested besidethe road, in company with those of the other boys, the maroon car was amile away along the straight highway. There was plainly no intention onthe part of the three men to stop and inquire as to the damage their carhad done.
The other boys thought only of Maxey and his machine. Dan, angered bythe indifference of the other automobilists, had no intention of lettingthem escape if he could help it. His mind was made up on the instant. Heseized his wheel and rolled it out into the road.
The balloon of smoke which trailed the flying maroon car was already fardown the road. It seemed impossible for a boy on a motorcycle to seek toovertake that flying vehicle. But Dan knew that farther on theautomobile could not safely maintain its present pace, and he knewlikewise 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 thebest. Both at the Compton motordrome, and in the Riverdale baseball parkthe Speedwell boys had won high place in trials of speed. These racesare narrated in the first volume of this series, entitled: “TheSpeedwell Boys on Motorcycles.”
Their Flying Feathers, the newest model produced by the DarringfordMachine Shops, in Riverdale, had been given to the brothers by RobertDarringford whose life Dan and Billy had saved from a fire that haddestroyed a part of the machine shop plant.
Their parents were not in circumstances to give the boys such expensivegifts as two hundred dollar motorcycles. Mr. Speedwell owned some dairycows and a few acres of land on the outskirts of Riverdale, and Dan andBilly delivered the milk to their customers in town, even during theschool terms. When this story opened it chanced to be a Saturdayafternoon, or the Speedwell brothers would not have been idling herewith their friends on the river road.
What Dan knew he could do under favorable conditions with his FlyingFeather urged him to start in pursuit of the heartless trio who had leftMaxey Solomons and his wrecked car to their fate.
Before the other boys missed him, Dan’s machine was popping like theexplosion of an automatic gun, and he was several rods away from thescene of the collision. The youth settled himself firmly in his seat,opened his engine to almost its highest speed, and dashed away along theroad.
The lad did not sight that car, however, for some time. The river roadfollowed the winding course of the stream itself, and it was fringedwith woods for a good part of the way. There were few dwellings on thehighway between Riverdale and Upton Falls. The men in the car could havechosen no better stretch of road in the county for escape. There werelikely to be few vehicles, and no constables at all at this hour of theday.
It was perilous to run so fast on a public road, even when the way wasas smooth and well kept as this highway to Upton Falls. But the act ofthose men in the racing automobile had roused Dan Speedwell’sindignation. For all he knew, Maxey Solomons had met serious injury inthe 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 firstfew miles Dan was positive that the maroon car had not gone into anyby-way. In fact, there were no by-ways save into private estates, andthose offered no escape for the fugitives.
The youth was quite sure that the men were strangers in the vicinity; hewas confident that the car was not familiar to the locality, at least,for he and Billy were so much interested in the automobile game thatthere was not a car in this end of the county that they did not know.
The three men were strangers. They had deliberately made it impossiblefor anyone to read the numbers on the license behind the car. They wereevidently of that reckless class of automobilists who ride through thecountry districts with regard for neither law nor safety.
A few moments only had elapsed since Dan started after the car when hereached the first public cross-road—a highway turning away from theriver. But this road was macadamized, too, and offered no trace of theautomobile’s wheels. However, Dan did not believe the trio in the maroonauto would turn aside, and he kept straight on.
Although the distance to Upton Falls was considerable, the pace of themotorcycle ate up the miles speedily. Dan and his steed of steel camesoon to the outskirts of the town. The pedestrians he passed lookedafter the flying boy with wonder. Dan reached the head of Main streetand, as he began its descent toward Market Square, and the hotel, he sawan automobile standing before the wide porch of the latter building.
The maroon car! Dan was sure of it even at that distance. The trio ofreckless men who had perhaps injured Maxey Solomons had stayed theirflight at the Falls hotel.
Even as Dan sped down the street, however, he observed that the men hefollowed were climbing into their car again. The blanket had been drawnin over the back seat of the car and the movements of the three wereleisurely enough. They were probably convinced that there was nopursuit.
The boy saw several men in the square whom he knew. One was a deputysheriff and this officer stepped quickly out into the street and held uphis hand for Dan and his Flying Feather to reduce speed.
Dan shut off his engine. The maroon car was just starting. The short manat the wheel guided the auto carefully out into the road, and turnedtoward the highway that led to Barnegat.
“Stop them!” cried Dan, waving his hand at the departing auto. “Arrestthose men, Mr. Polk!”
“What do you mean, Dan?” demanded the deputy, running along by the boy’sside as the Flying Feather slowed down.
“Do as I say! They’ve perhaps killed a boy up the road. At any rate,they smashed his automobile. Then they drove on, full tilt, and Ifollowed them.”
“Nonsense, Dan! Not those men,” cried Mr. Polk.
“Yes they did. I tell you it was a maroon car, with three men in it. Iwas close enough.”
“To see the license numbers?” interrupted the deputy sheriff.
“They had the sign covered. But they came this way and I have followedthem too closely to be mistaken. Stop them, I say!”
“Dan! you don’t know who these men are,” gasped Mr. Polk, as themotorcycle came to a halt and the excited boy leaped off.
“I don’t care who they are!” declared Speedwell, his righteousindignation still inspiring him. “I saw what they did——”
“Are you sure? Can’t you be mistaken?”
“Didn’t they just come from Riverdale?”
“Ye-es. They came from that direction.”
“And I have been chasing them. There was no other car.”
“But the gentlemen are beyond suspicion of any such act as you relate,Dan!” cried the deputy sheriff. “One of them is Thomas Armitage, ofCompton, and the other is Raleigh Briggs, who has offered the prize forthe cross-country run of a thousand miles which is to be arranged nextmonth—you’ve heard of it. Why, Dan, neither of them would allow hischauffeur to commit such an act of violence as you relate.”