The Auto Boys' Vacation Part 16

Before I was half awake they had me down out of that car trying to gag and bind me."

"Who, Billy? Just what do you mean?"

"I mean those two chaps that caught me fast asleep under Paul's rug on the back seat, taking forty winks when I ought to have kept wide awake."

"Two men?" Instantly Phil's thoughts ran back to the two strangers they had seen at Feeney's who seemed so anxious to get away as soon as the boys arrived with Nan.

"Would you know them if you saw them? Were they the two strangers we saw at Feeney's? Think hard, Billy!"

"Confound 'em--they had on handkerchiefs that covered their faces, so I could hardly tell. I didn't get more'n a glimpse or two along at first.

Then they pulled something over my head after gagging me so tight it hurt. My mouth is sore now." Billy dubiously fingered the corners of his mouth. "One thing I'm sure of. One of the men we saw at Feeney's had on a visored gray cap and gray clothes. The other wore something darker. I feel sure the gray-clad man was one of 'em. Of course I never got half a glimpse of their faces."

"Recognize these handkerchiefs?" asked Phil, showing the ones used in binding and gagging. "Two of 'em are bandanas: the others of a soiled, nondescript variety that might have belonged to tramps of any sort."

By this time Billy was more himself, being pretty well recovered from his recent manhandling. He was the first to think again of the Big Six.

"I'm all right now, fellows. Let's see what went with the car. They stopped with me some distance from this old rookery. Gos.h.!.+ If it wasn't for the car, I'd like to take a look around!"

But, like Worth, whom they were most glad to have with them again, all hated to feel that the pride of their hearts, their new car, was gone.

But where?

At this juncture they were joined by MacLester, who after greeting Billy very effusively for one who had seen him just two hours before, turned to the others, interrupting Worth's brief recital of what had happened to him.

"Boys," Dave began, "I followed those tracks about thirty yards or so; then they turned towards the railroad; right through the woods, too.

Rough going for a car like ours. I bet she's all scratched up by now, if nothing worse happens to her."

"Did you go any further, Dave?" This from Paul eagerly.

"Why, yes! Presently the car struck another old trail that led towards the road, and I picked up this."

Mac held out the visored cap Worth had mentioned to Paul and Phil. At sight of it Billy grabbed it and turned it over in his hands as he said:

"That's the one the chap in gray wore, I'm sure."

"Must 'a' got knocked off going through the woods," said Dave. "I think they were in a hurry or they'd never have plunged along the way they did over such rough places."

"Well, if we're through here, let's get on." Thus spoke Phil, ever mindful of the lost car. "I took a look into a back room of the old tavern, and I saw a queer outfit--looked as if they'd been camping and working there. Saw tools, and what looked like a sort of forge or fireplace. But we've no time now for anything but to look after the car.

Come on!"

Rapidly now the four lads pushed through the woods along the old road, then into the woods again along the open trail that led recklessly over rocks, through thick undergrowth and over fallen saplings, with here and there uneven rifts and rises, showing that nothing but superior motor power could have propelled the machine thus far.

"Bust their dirty hides!" said Paul wrathfully. "Those two ain't fit to drive cattle to water! h.e.l.lo! What's that?"

Jones, being in the lead, was pointing at a tumbled ma.s.s of their own outfit that had been dumped overboard during a rapid downward course, the end of which was not in sight owing to the thicker screen of bushes beyond, which the partially denuded car somehow had crashed through.

Paul and Billy paused to gather up the suitcases, bags of bedding, and the wicker hamper containing their present supply of food, while Dave and Phil hurried ahead, their route roughly descending now until, reaching the thick screen where the car had crashed through, they came unexpectedly to a low embankment. At the bottom was the dry bed of a small brooklet, with a further sh.o.r.e that sloped gradually up into second-growth timber again.

But this was not all. Right below the two boys was the Big Six; not upright, but lying on its side, two wheels in the air, yet apparently uninjured. Uttering a shout of joy at sight of the beloved car, Dave jumped down the declivity, the irregular projections of which had doubtless caused the Six to turn over under the reckless driving it had been subjected to ever since it had been seized.

CHAPTER XIV

UNDER THE CAR

Rea.s.sured as to the fate of the car, Phil was about to turn back to where Paul and Billy were still picking up the things, when Dave's voice was heard:

"Oh, Phil! Here's trouble! Come on down here--quick!"

Shouting back to the two lads behind that the car was found, Phil jumped down and ran round to where Dave was staring at something on the ground.

Meantime catching the meaning of Phil's words, Paul and Billy hurried forward with the loads they already had.

"Geemineddy!" This was of course by Paul, always emphatic and exclamatory. "If I ever get my hands on that old Six again, I bet she don't go out of my reckoning soon!"

"I know just how you feel, Paul. I was to blame, but--oh, don't I wish we had the chaps that did it!"

The two, their hands filled with sundry belongings, were hastening after Phil who had vanished from their view. Down the slope, over the jagged embankment they hurried, giving a yell as they saw the Big Six upturned, but apparently safe. The tops of Dave's and Phil's heads bobbed up and down on the further side of the car.

Reaching the spot, what was their surprise to see the body of a man lying p.r.o.ne on the ground, his legs and part of his body fairly under the car. Billy, after one look, gave a gasp of amazement. The man was bareheaded, his face half turned under and pressed against the ground.

"Here, boys," began Phil. "Drop everything and let's turn the car off his body!"

By the united efforts of all the Big Six was lifted at the forward end so that the weight of the car no longer rested on the dead or insensible man.

"Boys," said Billy, "that's the man in gray who wore the visored cap we found back yonder. I'll swear to that. Is he dead?"

Phil and Dave, stooping closely, examined the man, and in so doing turned his head to one side. There, near the temple, was a purplish blot, from which a few drops of blood were trickling. At the same time certain movements, not unlike muscular tremors, were evident in body and limbs.

"Why, he's alive!" said Paul. "Let's get him more comfortably placed."

While this was being done Worth picked up a tin cup, ran to a rocky puddle in the dried brooklet where some water was left, and returning with the filled cup bathed the fellow's face and head, very gently now that they knew life was not extinct.

This, aided by the more comfortable position in which he had been placed, had such effect that the man's eyes soon opened. He groaned as he breathed, while with one hand he attempted to feel his head near what was now seen to be a bullet wound. Paul, wiping his head, felt a protuberance under his hair, and directly thereafter drew forth a small pointed bullet, such as is much used with pocket pistols of the Smith & Wesson type.

"Well, well!" exclaimed that lively youth. "If here ain't a regular twenty-two pistol ball. It must have glanced along under the skin near the temple and come out again. Who could have done it?"

When the man felt Paul's hand extracting the ball from his ma.s.s of touzled hair, he clutched at the place, saying:

"I always--told--Dippy--that gun--was no--good--" A scuffling sigh, and the fellow was again in a swoon.

What had they better do now? Here was their car, all right except for some scars and bruises incurred during the last flight after Billy was captured and stowed away in the old tavern. Where was the other man? As usual in such stress, Phil again took command of the situation.

"This man's not dead. He may recover. He's either been shot by someone or he's shot himself, which isn't likely."

Here the man struggled into a half sitting position, as he murmured:

"Didn't sh-shoot myself! Dippy shot--me! Dippy always--poor--shot--"