“They’re hanging around this section, and it’s up to us to watch out. Forewarned is forearmed, you know. Golly! That moon is so bright I’ll bet I could run without any glims. Look—” He switched off the headlights for a moment. The road stretched before him like a silvered path. Each rut and depression in it was clearly defined, so that Teddy had no trouble in guiding the car.
“Better turn ’em on again,” Roy suggested, after a minute. “If the moon should slide under a cloud you’d be ditched in a second. I wonder—”
Just at that moment the very thing Roy had anticipated came to pass. The silvery glow was cut off as suddenly as a flashlight that is switched out. The wind, blowing at a fair rate of speed, had tossed a cloud between the prairie and the moon. Roy gave a yell.
“Jam on the brakes! Never mind the lights! Stop!”
Teddy obeyed, and with a screeching of brakebands the car came to a halt. Then Teddy threw the lights on once more. The front of the car was nearly off the road.
“Good thing the brakes held,” Teddy remarked, grinning.
“I’ll tell a maverick it is!” Roy retorted. “I suppose you just wanted to try ’em out, hey? After this you’d better leave the lights on, unless you want to haul this boiler out of a ditch.”
“Yes, sir!” Teddy answered, with mock humility. “Anything you say, sir. We strive to please. Say—” He stopped and lowered his voice. “Listen! You hear anything?” He reached forward and turned off the ignition switch, killing the motor.
For a moment both boys sat in silence. The face of the moon was still clouded, so that darkness surrounded them. Then, in the distance, the boys heard the sound of a horseman—clickety-click, clickety-click, clickety-click—
“In a hurry,” Roy said wonderingly. “Seems to be coming this way, too. Well—”