CHAPTER XIV
A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS
A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS
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.