"What's the matter?" asked Daddy Bunker.
"There's a bad piece of road just after you cross the white bridge," was the answer. "It's clay, and clay is slippery when it's wet. Watch out!"
"We will," promised Captain Ben, and he drove slowly along. They soon came in sight of the white bridge. It went over a canal, and there was a hill on either side of the bridge, which was raised high over the canal to allow boats to pass under it.
"I should say it was a bad, slippery road!" said Captain Ben, as the machine started down the slope after crossing the bridge. "I'll just have to crawl."
He shut off all power and put on the brakes. For a little way the car went down well, and it seemed as if nothing would happen. Then, suddenly, the wheels slipped in the slimy clay and Daddy Bunker shouted:
"Look out!"
But, even as he spoke, the automobile slid to one side, and the next moment there was a crash and the four little Bunkers and their father and Captain Ben were almost standing on their heads inside the automobile, which slid into a deep ditch partly filled with water at the side of the road.
CHAPTER X
THE BAD RAM
There was silence for a moment, following the crash of the big touring car in the ditch, and then Violet piped up in her shrill voice asking, as of course you have guessed, a question.