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’ve got him! Help!”
The fellow struggled to get up. He was able to lift the boy’s weight
with ease. In half a minute Billy knew he would be shaken off. Why
didn’t some of those ’coon hunters take a hand in the proceedings?
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 robbers. Mr. Sudds had lost
anywhere from ten 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 discreetly 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 permission 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 ensued. Billy’s motorcycle was hidden down there on the
river road, too.
The brothers got the new post Dan cut at midnight, and another stick for
the arm of the derrick, hurried to the place, and raised a new lifting
apparatus. The auto and the motorcycle 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.
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 something will catch—we mustn’t
break or mar it any more than possible,” declared Billy, quite
nervously.
“Look out for yourself, old man,” Dan returned, 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 stopped the team. Billy was flung
off his unstable footing; but he had presence of mind enough to 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’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. Upon that
they lowered it carefully.
It was safe! And as far as Billy and Dan could see, it was not much
damaged—not materially 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 automobile 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 purchased of Maxey Solomons, and more
than one intimated that the Speedwells had spent their good money for
something that neither they—nor anybody else—could make use of!
The boys knew that they would have to take the wrecked car to the
Darringford 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 several
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
hundred dollars that remained of their savings-bank hoard. But they said
nothing to each other regarding these doubts.