THE CHASE.
Bob and Jack were a few feet ahead of the others, when the former
suddenly stopped.
"Don't you hear that motor, Jack?"
"I do now, and I believe it's a car coming out that woods road."
The rest of the party had now joined the boys, and the sound of the
approaching car was plainly audible.
"That must be them," said Bob in a low voice. "Now what'd we better
do?"
"We'll hide in the bushes on each side of the road," proposed Mr.
Switzer, "and when they come along, we'll jump out and stop 'em. You
all got guns?"
It turned out that only the policemen had revolvers, so the chief, Mr.
Golden and Uncle Ben hid on one side of the woods road, while the
other two policemen and the boys concealed themselves on the other.
"Now," whispered the chief, "don't make a sound till I tell 'em to
stop, then you cover 'em with your guns and if they try to get away,
let 'em have it, but don't shoot to kill if you can help it 'cause we
want to get those fellows alive if we can."
Nothing more was said and in a few minutes the car was near at hand,
as they could tell by the sound, and, peering through the bushes, Bob
spied a large car coming slowly along the road. Two men were on the
front seat.
"I believe that's King driving," whispered Bob, "though he's shaved
off his beard."
At that instant, Chief Switzer sprang out into the middle of the road
in front of the car, closely followed by Mr. Golden and Uncle Ben,
while the other policemen and the boys followed suit from their side.
"Halt, in the name of the law," shouted the chief, flourishing his
revolver.
The car was about ten feet from them as the order was given, and
instead of obeying, the driver suddenly put on high speed and the car
shot toward them. So quickly was it done that they had barely time to
save themselves from being run down by jumping to one side as the car
shot by and turned into the main road heading toward Oakland.
"Gosh, they'll get away sure as thunder," shouted Switzer, as he fired
his revolver after the vanishing car. "Come on, we've got to chase
them."
It took them but an instant to reach the road and, to their delight,
they found that Sandy, seeing the car come out, had brought their
machine up.
"Pile in, quick," shouted the chief, but although they obeyed as
quickly as possible, the fugitives were nearly a half mile ahead when
they started.
The boys rushed to where they had left their wheels, about a hundred
feet away, and by the time they reached them and mounted they were
quite a distance in the rear.
"Now, let 'em out," shouted Jack, as he sprang into the saddle, and
turning on the power, fairly flew down the road closely followed by
Bob, and before they had gone a mile, they were up with their father's
car.
"I'm afraid we're going to lose 'em," they heard the chief say, as
they drew up, one on each side of the car. "We're not gaining an inch.
Getting all the speed you can out of her, Sandy?"
"I've got her wide open," was the reply.
Bob knew that there was a long, steep hill to ascend a little farther
on and hoped that they would gain on them there, as his father's car
was a splendid hill climber and he had a few weeks before taken that
same hill on high gear. A moment later, as they swung round a curve,
the hill was at hand, and Bob shouted to Sandy telling him not to
shift.
They could see the robber's car about half way up the hill, and going
slowly, evidently on low gear. Sandy hit the foot of the hill at a
terrific pace and, as the car went up on high gear, they could see
that they were gaining rapidly. But the robbers had too great a start
and reached the top several hundred yards ahead. The road was now
slightly down hill for a mile or more, and they could see that, under
the reckless driving of the robber, whose car must have been making
nearly seventy miles an hour, they were rapidly losing ground, for Mr.
Golden had told Sandy not to go faster than he considered safe.
"I want to catch them as badly as any one, but I'm not going to risk
killing all of us to do it," he declared.
"He'll wreck his car and break their necks, sure as fate, if he don't
slow up," thought Bob.
But the robbers reached the foot of the hill in safety and had gained
all the ground they had lost in climbing the hill. For a number of
miles now, the road was fairly level and the race continued without
much change in their relative distance.
The two boys were now riding a little behind the car, and suddenly
Jack turned to Bob, saying:
"I say, Bob, we're never going to catch 'em at this rate."
"Don't look like it. They've sure got some speedy car, and of course
they're reckless about driving."
Just then they reached the outskirts of Oakland, and, as they had to
stop to inquire which way the robbers had gone, they lost still more
ground. Quickly learning, however, that they had taken a road which
would probably lead them, by a round-about way to Portland, they told
their informant to tell the police to telephone to the latter city to
be on the watch for them, and again took up in the chase.
As they started off, Bob said to Jack:
"Say, Jack, we could catch 'em easily on these wheels."
"Sure we could, we've been running only about half speed, but what
good would it do? We couldn't stop 'em, could we?"
"Perhaps not, but my idea is this. Let's get a couple of revolvers
from the policemen and ride up behind them and see if we can't put a
hole in one of their tires."
"Good," shouted Jack, "Come on, let's go get em."
Putting on more power, as they had lagged behind a little, while they
were talking, they quickly overtook the car.
"Hey, there," shouted Jack, as they rode up along side, "Give us a
couple of your revolvers and we'll try to shoot a hole in their tire."
"Think you can do it?" asked the chief, leaning out of the car.
"Don't know, but we can try it. You'll never catch 'em at this rate
and it's the only chance I see."
"All right, here you are," answered the chief, leaning out and handing
each of the boys a revolver. "Go get 'em. But you look sharp, now.
Those fellows are probably armed and won't hesitate to shoot if they
are cornered."
"Yes, boys," joined in Mr. Golden, "don't you get too close to them."
"We'll be careful," replied Bob. "Come on, Jack, now let her out and
we'll show them some real speed," and as they turned on the power,
they rapidly left the car behind.
But they had lost more ground than they thought, and they rode for
fully six miles before catching sight of the robbers, and had begun to
fear that they had lost them. But, finally they caught sight of the
car about a half mile ahead, and giving the motors a little more
current, they rapidly crept up till they were within two hundred yards
of them.
Suddenly, they saw the man who was not driving, turn his head, and as
he saw them, he said something to his companion, and then, turning in
his seat, he drew his revolver.
"He is going to shoot," shouted Jack, and the next instant a shot rang
out followed by several others. But, the swaying car made accurate
shooting impossible, and he emptied the chamber without doing any
harm, although Bob heard one bullet whiz past his head.
"He couldn't hit a barn at the rate he's going," shouted Jack. "Come
on, let's get a little nearer and then we'll try our hand at it."
They waited till they were within about one hundred and fifty feet and
then Bob fired, followed a moment later by Jack. They were both good
shots with the revolver, but, under the condition, they knew that it
would be more good luck than anything else if they succeeded in
hitting a tire. By this time, the man they supposed to be Reed,
although he now wore a mustache, had his gun loaded again and began
firing, but, fortunately, with no effect.
Jack had but one shot left when a ball from Reed's revolver passed
through his hat.
"Gee, that's getting a little too close for comfort," he muttered.
Taking careful aim, he slowly pressed the trigger and this time a loud
report followed the bark of the revolver.
"Got 'em," he shouted as both turned off the power and pressed on the
brakes.
He had indeed got 'em more thoroughly than he supposed, for as the air
left one of the rear tires, they saw the car suddenly swerve to the
right, and before the driver could regain control, it had turned
turtle into the ditch by the road side.
"Gracious, I guess that ends them," cried Bob, as they brought their
wheels to a standstill not more than seventy feet from the overturned
car.