Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto; Or A Run for the Golden Cup by Rockwood Roy
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 934 lines and 49320 words, and 19 pages
Even as Dan sped down the street, however, he observed that the men he followed were climbing into their car again. The blanket had been drawn in over the back seat of the car and the movements of the three were leisurely enough. They were probably convinced that there was no pursuit.
The boy saw several men in the square whom he knew. One was a deputy sheriff and this officer stepped quickly out into the street and held up his hand for Dan and his Flying Feather to reduce speed.
Dan shut off his engine. The maroon car was just starting. The short man at the wheel guided the auto carefully out into the road, and turned toward the highway that led to Barnegat.
"Stop them!" cried Dan, waving his hand at the departing auto. "Arrest those men, Mr. Polk!"
"What do you mean, Dan?" demanded the deputy, running along by the boy's side 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 I followed 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. I was close enough."
"To see the license numbers?" interrupted the deputy sheriff.
"They had the sign covered. But they came this way and I have followed them too closely to be mistaken. Stop them, I say!"
"Dan! you don't know who these men are," gasped Mr. Polk, as the motorcycle came to a halt and the excited boy leaped off.
"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, of Compton, and the other is Raleigh Briggs, who has offered the prize for the cross-country run of a thousand miles which is to be arranged next month--you've heard of it. Why, Dan, neither of them would allow his chauffeur to commit such an act of violence as you relate."
THE MYSTERY OF THE MAROON CAR
Dan Speedwell was completely taken aback by this statement of the deputy sheriff. He knew that Mr. Polk must have surety for his words. The men in the maroon automobile were well known and perfectly responsible citizens.
Indeed, as Dan wheeled his motorcycle nearer to the car he saw that the two in the tonneau of the auto were much different-looking individuals from those he expected to find. The men who had wrecked Maxey Solomons' auto, and perhaps killed the young man himself, would certainly not possess the personal appearance of these gentlemen!
Mr. Briggs Dan knew by reputation. He was the most enthusiastic motorist in Crandall County. The thousand mile endurance test which he had suggested, and to the winner of which he had promised a gold cup, interested Dan and Billy Speedwell not a little, although they owned no automobile, and at this time had no immediate expectation of getting a car.
"What does the young man want, Polk?" inquired Mr. Armitage, a gray-mustached man with a ruddy face and pleasant smile. "He asked us to stop; didn't he?"
"What for?" asked the gentleman, quickly.
"Because of something that happened up the road. He says that the automobile he followed wrecked another machine and hurt the driver."
"Our auto?" cried Mr. Armitage.
"Why, Dan says it was a maroon car, like yours, and that it came direct from Riverdale."
"The river road," said Dan. "I was sure I had followed the right car--there was no other all the way."
"But we did not come to the Falls that way," said Mr. Briggs. "We traveled by the pike, and we stopped at Mr. Maury's place for some minutes."
"Oh, I know it could not have been your machine," said Dan, hastily. "The men who ran down Maxey Solomons have escaped by some means. They must have taken a cross road toward the other side of the county."
"You did not get their number?"
Dan quickly related the incidents which had brought him to this place, and in such haste. The gentlemen in the car were sympathetic and interested.
"Come!" said, Mr. Armitage, "this matter must be looked into. The rascals should be apprehended. They are getting farther and farther away each minute, it is likely. Come, Briggs, what do you say? You have been bragging about the speed of this car. Let's see what Henri can get out of her."
"I am with you, Armitage," declared his friend. "Hop aboard, Polk. You are a county officer. Those men must be arrested, if possible, and held until we learn what damage they have done."
"I'll go with you, Mr. Briggs," said the deputy.
He leaped into the tonneau. Mr. Armitage looked at Dan, who stood by his motorcycle.
"The boy had better go with us," said Mr. Armitage. "He is evidently an observant lad, and he will not be likely to make a second mistake in the automobile."
"Yes! let the boy come," said Mr. Briggs. "If he was a witness to the accident he speaks of, we will need his testimony if we overtake the guilty ones."
"But my machine?" said Dan, doubtfully.
"Lift it right up here," commanded Mr. Briggs. "We'll fasten it on the running board. Then, young man, you get in beside Henri, and we'll be off."
Dan was quick to obey these suggestions. His Flying Feather he stood upright on the running board of the car, and he saw that it was fastened securely. In five minutes they were off, after Mr. Polk left word at the sheriff's office for the officers to watch for the mysterious car and its three occupants.
The auto dashed off along the pike toward Riverdale. There were three cross roads that the offenders against law might have taken, as long as they did not complete their run to Upton Falls. But there were by-roads, too, on which they might have hidden and the deputy sheriff advised stopping to inquire at every farmhouse, and of every teamster whom they met. It was some time, however, ere they picked up the trail of the maroon car, and then they obtained the clue in quite a strange way.
As they came to the lane leading up to a barn, the farmer came running out with a pitch fork in his hand. Before Mr. Polk could speak, the man demanded:
"Hold on, Mr. Jackson!" exclaimed the deputy. "You're getting your dates mixed, I guess. These gentlemen certainly have done you no harm."
"I swan!" exclaimed the farmer. "I voted for him for Congress."
"Much obliged to you, I am sure," said Mr. Armitage. "And I hope that you will not think I so illy deserved your vote as to race an automobile through these roads to the endangering of life and limb of good citizens."
"Wa'al!" ejaculated the puzzled Mr. Jackson, "it was a car jest the same color as yours, Mr. Armitage."
"And how many men were in it, Mr. Jackson?" interposed Polk.
"Come to think on't, there warn't but three," admitted the farmer.
"Did you see the license number?"
"Not much! They went so quick I couldn't see much but the color of the car."
"And in which direction did they disappear?" asked the deputy.
The farmer pointed up the side road, away from the river.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page