"Out of the way, or I'll hurt you with Driggs's knife!" panted the fleeing boy.
In that instant Abner Dexter proved Dick's suspicion that he was at bottom a coward. Ab. drew up close to the wall, and Dick, with the speed of the hunted deer, dashed from the house.
"It may take Ab. a little while to find that I haven't got Driggs's knife," grinned the boy.
For more than a quarter of a mile Dick Prescott ran at the best speed that he could summon. Then, after glancing back, he slowed down to a walk, breathing hard. It was fortunate that he knew these forests so well, or he might have been at a loss to find the path leading in the most direct way to Gridley.
Finally he came out on a more traveled road. After keeping along for another half mile or so he heard a horse behind him and the sound of wheels as well.
"I won't take any chance on that," muttered the boy. Bounding over a stone wall he lay low until the vehicle came up. Peering between the stones of the wall Dick made out an unmistakable farmer.
"Hey, there!" cried Dick, leaping up and bounding over the wall. "Give me a ride, please, mister!"
"Well, I swan! Who are ye—dropping from the skies that-a-fashion?" demanded the astounded driver, reining up.
"Grammar School boy from Gridley," Dick replied. "Going that way?"
"I guess I've seen you before," murmured the farmer, as Prescott went closer. "Your pa runs a bookstore, don't he?"