ON THE TRAIL
Their hearts oppressed with a sense of foreboding which they could not
fathom, Tom Swift and Ned Newton hurried down the broad front steps
of the old mansion, out into the wind and rain, and hurried toward
the clearing where they had left the warm, lighted, and cozy House on
Wheels. For a moment they hoped that perhaps the lighting system had
failed and that they could not see the big auto because it was shrouded
in darkness.
But as they lighted their way by means of their pocket flashlights and
reached the spot, near two large, distinctive trees where they had
halted the big auto, there was no question about it. Their car had been
taken away! It could not have rolled downhill, for it had been stopped
on a level spot, and Tom had taken pains to set the brakes.
"Some one came and got it!" exclaimed Tom, when it was certain that
the machine had vanished.
"Who was it?" came from Ned.
"Hard to say. But I guess we weren't wrong, Ned, in suspecting that we
were being spied upon by unseen eyes in that old house."
"I'm forced to believe that."
"While some watched us inside, to make sure we wouldn't come out and
interrupt the theft, others stole the House," declared Tom.
"Looks so," commented Ned. "Gee, but this is tough luck! What are we
going to do now?"
"We've got to hit the trail, of course, and see if we can't get it
back," was Tom Swift's prompt answer.
Though they were hungry and tired, the two young men did not hesitate.
In fact, they could not. Much depended on prompt action, for the House
on Wheels could not long have been taken away. Luckily Tom and Ned had
on rubber boots and rain coats, and their little electric flashlights
enabled them to see the trail. Without them they would have been at a
great disadvantage.
But with these gleams, flashing occasionally so as not to wear out the
batteries too fast, the two first made sure where the big auto had
stood and then began to trail it.
"They first swung around in a half circle and then went off this way,"
said Tom, pointing to the peculiar marks in the mud left by the tires
of the House on Wheels. They were tires especially made for heavy duty
and marked with ridges designed to prevent skidding, so the trail was
easily followed, particularly as the wet ground took a deep impression.
"It ought to be a cinch to trace her," remarked Ned, as the two young
men hurried on, their weariness and hunger forgotten in the excitement
of the chase.
"Yes, for a way, anyhow," agreed Tom. "But we may not always have soft
dirt roads like this to retain the marks. Though I don't believe there
are any concrete stretches in this neighborhood," and he motioned
toward Dismal Mountain, up the trail of which the House on Wheels
clearly had been driven.
"The ground will be soft for a couple of days after this rain, and we
can keep on following," suggested Ned.
"They may get too far ahead of us to leave us a Chinaman's chance,"
said Tom, with a sigh. "Remember, we're walking, and if the House only
crawled it could do ten miles to our one. Besides, they may run her
down off this mountain and onto a hard road, and then the tire marks
won't be one, two, six!"
On they splashed in the rain and darkness. The road taken by the House
on Wheels, as evidenced by the tire marks, led up the mountain and the
deserted house, with its gloom, its secrets and its spying eyes, was
soon left in the rear of the young men who pressed on, now and then
flashing their torches to make sure they were still on the right trail.
"Hark!" exclaimed Tom suddenly, when they had been thus going for
several minutes.
"What is it?" asked Ned, coming to a halt.
"Let's listen and try to hear the motor," suggested the young inventor.
"I have an idea those fellows, whoever they are, won't push the machine
too hard. They may run her only a little way and then lay over for the
night."
Accordingly, the two stood there with the rain dripping on them,
listening. But the only sounds that came to their ears were those of
the storm--the wind and rain, the clattering of tree branches, and the
swish of wet leaves.
"No use trying to hear anything," stated Ned, after a pause.
"No, I guess there isn't. We'll keep on."
Again the two plunged forward along the muddy road. They blessed their
lucky stars that had given them the forethought to put on rubber boots
and coats before venturing around and into the old house.
Tom, also, was glad he had equipped his car with those heavy and
peculiarly marked tires, for they were very easy to follow, even under
the adverse circumstances of rain and darkness.
In spite of the fact that the noise of the storm would seem to preclude
their hearing any sound made by the car ahead of them, Tom and Ned
stopped several more times and listened for any faint echo of a motor
ahead of them. But they heard nothing.
"Maybe I'm wrong, Ned," said Tom, after a while, pausing at a sandy
stretch in the road, where the wheel marks were very plain, "but
doesn't it strike you that these tire impressions are fresher than they
have been for some time back?"
"Fresher? Anybody would think we were trailing an elephant or some wild
animal."
"Well, we are, in a way. But you see the rain has the effect of washing
out the marks after a certain time. Now these marks here are sharp and
fresh."
"Yes, I admit it," said Ned. "But what of it?"
"Well," and Tom's voice had a note of triumph in it, "to me this means
that my House has passed here within a short time--minutes I should
say--otherwise the hard rain would have washed down some of the tire
ridges."
"Tom, you're right!" cried Ned. "She ought to be close now."
"That's what I think. Come on!"
Once more the two plunged forward. The tire marks continued to become
ever fresher until the seekers reached a place where a small road
branched off the main highway.
"They went up here!" cried Tom, indicating the trail that led up the
branch road.
"Sure enough!" assented Ned, flashing his light on the marks.
Up the road the two fairly ran until, so quickly that it was startling,
they came upon the big auto at a standstill in the middle of the
highway. The House on Wheels was in darkness, but there it was.
"We've found her!" exulted Tom, but he had the caution to speak in low
tones.
"Sure enough," agreed Ned and his voice was hardly more than a whisper.
"But what's the game, I wonder?"
That remained to be seen.