“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! Hello! What’s that?”
Jones, being in the lead, was pointing at a tumbled mass 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 shore 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