FUN WITH OLD RICKS
It was a moment of extreme peril. Sam brought the automobile to a stop. Had the roadway been wider he might have sheered to one side, but the highway was too narrow for that, and with a ditch on either side, to carry off rain water, he did not want to take a chance of going over.
"Go pack! Go pack!" shrieked Hans Mueller. He was crouching down, looking with staring eyes through the lowered wind shield of the touring car.
Suddenly Sam acted. While the biplane was still a hundred feet away he threw his lever into the reverse and allowed the gears to connect with the engine. Then the automobile began to move backwards, slowly at first and then faster and faster, as the youngest Rover put on the power.
"He's coming! He's coming! Ve peen busted up in a minit!" roared Hans, who was shaking as with the ague. "Oh, vy tidn't I sthay home ven I come to pay dis visit!"
The biplane had slowed down, for Tom had shut off the engine. But the Dartaway still had headway enough to catch up to the automobile and it came up like some bird of ill-omen, that made even stout-hearted Sam quail. But he stuck to his post, sending the automobile backward as fast as he dared. He knew the roadway behind was straight, so he simply steered by keeping the wheel as it was.
"Tom, Tom, can't you do something?" he yelled. "Turn her aside!"
"I'm trying!" yelled back his brother. "The steering outfit is jammed!"
Backward went the automobile and on and on came the big biplane, until the forward part of the machine was almost over the hood of the touring car.
"Maybe you had better jump out!" cried Sam to Hans.