Mr. Hollis, who had listened to the last part of the story with as much interest as the boys, thanked Dave for the pleasure he had given them, but could not keep back a smile as Shorty voiced the general sentiment, "You ought to be ashamed, Dave Ferris, for handing us such a lemon."

CHAPTER XIV

WITH DEATH BEHIND

Pop! Pop! Bang! The "Red Scout's" motor gave a few preliminary explosions, and then started off with a sound like a whole battery of field guns going off at once. A cloud of black smoke issued from the exhaust, and in a few seconds had enveloped the car so that it could hardly be seen. Some of the boys came running up with consternation written in their faces, evidently thinking that the automobile was about to explode, or run away, or do some equally disastrous thing. They were rea.s.sured by Bert's broad grin, however, and Bob Ward gave a relieved laugh.

"Gee!" he exclaimed, "what's the matter with the old machine, anyway, Bert? You had us scared stiff there for a few minutes. I thought that after this when we wanted to get anywhere we'd have to walk, sure. It looked as though the old 'Scout' were on fire."

"It sure did," confirmed Frank. "What _was_ the matter, Bert?"

"Oh, nothing to speak of," replied Bert airily. "I had just washed the engine out with a little kerosene oil, and, when I started it, why, of course that burned, and gave out the smoke you saw. I don't wonder that you thought something was up, though," he continued, laughing. "It certainly did look like the 'last days of Pompeii' for a few seconds, didn't it?"

"That's what it did," broke in Shorty, "and seeing all that smoke reminded me of a riddle I heard a little while ago."

"Go on, Shorty, tell us the riddle and get it out of your system,"

laughed Bert. "If you don't it might grow inward and kill you. Some brands of humor are apt to work that way, you know."

"Well, the riddle is this," said Shorty. "Why is it that an automobile smokes?"

Many were the answers to this, but at each one Shorty shook his head.

Finally he said, "Well, do you give it up?"

"I guess we'll have to, fellows," grinned Bert. "Go on and tell us, Shorty; why _is_ it that an automobile smokes?"

"Because it can't chew," crowed Shorty triumphantly, and dodged just in time to avoid a piece of greasy waste that Bert threw with unerring aim at his head. Amid cries of "Lynch him!" and "This way out!" and "Don't let him escape alive, fellows," Shorty took nimbly to his heels and skipped behind a tree. After the excitement had subsided Bert returned to his grooming of the "Red Scout," and soon had matters fixed to his entire satisfaction.

It was a hot, sticky afternoon, and the boys had nothing particular to do outside of the routine duties of the camp. They had been lying around on the gra.s.s, lazily talking and listening to the drowsy hum of an occasional locust, when one had said:

"Gee, I wish to goodness there was a little wind stirring. I feel as though in about five minutes I would become a mere grease spot on the landscape."

"Well," Bert had replied, "if you feel that way about it, why not manufacture a little wind of our own?"

"Manufacture it," had come a chorus of surprised protest, "how in time can you manufacture wind?"

"Oh, it's very simple when you know how," Bert replied, in an offhand manner. "What's to prevent us from piling into the auto and taking a spin? When we get out on the road I think I can promise you all the breeze you want. What do you say, fellows? Want to try it?"

The answer was an uproarious shout of approval, and accordingly Bert had been getting the machine in shape.

In a short time they were ready to start, and as they were getting in they discerned Shorty's stocky form emerging from the trees. He signaled frantically for them to wait, and soon came up panting.

"Say, you weren't going without me, were you?" he asked reproachfully.

"Well," laughed Bert, "you deserve almost anything after springing a thing like that on us, but I guess we can forgive you, if we try real hard. Shall we take him along, fellows?"

"I don't see what Shorty needs to come for, anyway," said Ben, slyly.

"It seems to me that a fellow that can run as fast as Shorty did a little while ago can make all the wind he needs himself. He doesn't have to get in an automobile to get swift motion."

"That's so," agreed Bert, with a serious face, "still, probably Philip has other views, and so we might as well give him the benefit of the doubt. Jump in, old scout."

This was easier said than done, however, as the big red auto was already literally overflowing with perspiring boys, but they managed to squeeze in, and started off, singing three or four different songs all at the same time, and each one in a different key.

n.o.body seemed to be bothered much by this, however, and they soon reached the hard, level, macadam high road. Bert "opened her up" a few notches, as he expressed it, and they were soon bowling along at an exhilarating pace. The breeze that Bert had promised them soon made itself felt, and you may be sure it felt very grateful to the overheated boys.

"This beats lying around on the gra.s.s and whistling for a wind, doesn't it?" asked Frank, and, needless to say, all the rest of the boys were emphatically of his opinion.

They had been going along at a brisk pace for several miles when they heard the purr of another motor car in back of them, and glancing back saw a handsome-looking blue auto creeping up to them. A flashily dressed young man, smoking a cigarette, was driving it, and three girls were sitting in the tonneau. The blue machine overtook them steadily, and soon was abreast of them.

"Gee, Bert," exclaimed Frank, excitedly, but in a low voice, "you're not going to let them pa.s.s us, are you?"

"Oh, let them, if they want to," replied Bert; "we didn't come out for a race, and I feel just like loafing along and taking things easy. What's the use of getting excited about things on a hot day like this? Besides, I don't think those people are looking for trouble, anyway."

At this point the blue car pa.s.sed them, however, and as it did so one of the girls in the tonneau looked back and called, "How does the dust taste, boys? Like it?" The fellow driving it laughed at this sally, and shouted, "Hey, youse, why don't you get a horse?"

All the boys looked at Bert to see how he would take this. He said never a word, but his grip tightened on the steering wheel, and the "Red Scout" gave a lunge forward that almost jerked some of the boys out of their seats. Faster and faster the powerful car flew, and it was evident that they would soon overtake the blue car. The latter was also a first rate machine, however, and the boys could see one of the girls in the tonneau lean over and speak to the driver. The blue car started to draw slowly away, and Bert opened the throttle a few more notches. The motor took on a deep, vibrating note, and the hum of the gears rose to a higher pitch. Soon they began to overtake the car in front, and now it became evident that the latter was doing its best. The "Red Scout"

fairly "ate up" the intervening s.p.a.ce, and in a few moments had come up to within a few yards of the laboring blue car. The driver looked back, and seeing that the big red car in back of him would surely pa.s.s him in another few seconds, swerved his own car over so that it was squarely in the middle of the narrow country road. There was a shallow ditch on each side of the road, and the only way Bert could pa.s.s him was to take a chance of overturning and run two wheels in this ditch. Usually he would not have thought of exposing the boys to such a risk, but now he threw caution to the winds. Amid hoa.r.s.e and excited cries from the boys he "gave her the limit," to use his own expression, and the "Red Scout"

seemed fairly to leap ahead.

He swerved the big machine into the ditch, and the wheels b.u.mped and pounded over the uneven surface. The big car fairly shot by the blue machine, however, and amid a triumphant shout from the frenzied boys regained the smooth road and hid the defeated challenger in a cloud of dust.

Then Bert slowed it down a little, but kept well in the lead. The blue machine had evidently given up in despair, however, and gradually dropped back until a turn in the road hid it from their view. The boys broke into an excited discussion of the recent "brush," and all were enthusiastic in their praise of the staunch old "Red Scout." They also had many flattering things to say in regard to Bert's driving, until he was forced to protest that he would have to buy a hat about five sizes larger, as he could fairly feel his head swelling.

Finally the excitement subsided somewhat, and the boys had time to look around them and get their bearings. It did not take them long to find that they were in unfamiliar surroundings. They had gone at such a fast pace that they had covered more ground than they would have believed possible. Bert consulted the odometer, or distance recording instrument, and announced that they had covered almost thirty-five miles!

"Say!" he exclaimed, "we'll have to do some tall hustling to get back to the camp in time for lunch. We'll keep on a little way, until we get to a place where the road is wide enough to turn around in, and then we'll beat it back as fast as possible."

As he finished speaking, they rounded a sudden turn in the road and a gasp arose from every boy in the car. Not fifteen feet ahead of them was a railroad crossing, and giving a lightning-like glance up and down the track Bert saw that there was a train approaching from both directions.

It was obvious that the automobile would not be able to get across in time, and at the brisk rate at which they were traveling, it was equally impossible to stop the machine. It seemed inevitable that the auto would be struck by one or both of the ponderous locomotives, and it and its occupants be crushed to atoms.

The boys turned sick with horror, and gripped the sides of the automobile without being able to say a word. Their eyes gazed without winking at the two rushing locomotives, and they were unable to move.

But Bert saw that they had one, and only one, bare chance of life. He did not try to apply the brakes, which would have been useless and fatal, but as the big auto reached the railroad tracks he wrenched the steering wheel around and headed it directly up the track in front of the northbound train. As he did this he opened the throttle, and bent over the wheel in a desperate and almost hopeless attempt to beat the flying locomotive until the engineer, who of course was using every means in his power to stop his train, could check its momentum and give them a chance to escape.

The "Red Scout" b.u.mped and swayed wildly over the uneven ballasting and ties, and the boys breathed heartfelt prayers that nothing on the staunch car would break. In spite of all Bert could do, the fast express train gained on them, although sparks were streaming from the wheels where the brakes were clamped against them. The engineer had reversed the locomotive, and the great driving wheels were revolving backward.

The momentum of a fast and heavy express train is not a thing to be checked in a moment, however, and the boys in the rear of the automobile could feel the heat from the locomotive boiler.

But the powerful automobile had gotten "into its stride" by this time, and was fairly flying over the uneven roadbed, and to the boys it felt as though it were only hitting the high places, as Frank afterward expressed it. For a hundred or two hundred feet the train failed to gain an inch, and then the brakes began to tell and it gradually fell to the rear.

Shorty leaned over and thumped Bert on the back and yelled: "Slow up, Bert, slow up! We're out of danger now, I guess."

Bert glanced back, and saw that Shorty was right. They were drawing rapidly away from the locomotive, so he reduced speed, and the automobile gradually attained a safer pace, and at the first opportunity Bert swung it up off the tracks and onto a country road. This done, he stopped the machine, and leaning on the steering wheel, buried his face in his hands.

He said not a word, and the boys could see that he was trembling like a leaf. In a few moments he recovered himself, however, and the boys began to overwhelm him with questions: