The next moment Phillips was sitting by the side of Patsy, while Chick was at Nick’s right hand, and the car began to surge along the narrow pathway, with the throttle well open.
CHAPTER VIII.
A RACE WITH A ROCK.
The car that Nick Carter drove was good for a mile a minute on any sort of road. He did not push it to anything like that speed now, with a yawning precipice only a few yards away from him on one side, and numbers of stones, gaps, and rough places under the wheels.
He moved at a good, comfortable pace, however, for he knew that the six bandits who had left the cave could not be far away, and that they would start in pursuit as soon as Gaspara knew what had happened.
“Gaspara was away when you got out, I suppose?” asked Chick.
“Yes. If he had been there, it would not have been possible to escape at all, I think.”
“We’ll get him later, I suppose?”
“If it seems worth while,” replied Nick, letting out an extra link on the speed of the automobile.
“We’ll make the little town of Paron, where Mala is, in about an hour, even at this speed,” observed Patsy, settling back comfortably in his seat. “Shall we have time to give Mala his, chief?”
“I do not expect to have leisure for Mala,” returned Nick Carter. “My business now is to get to Penza in as short a time as possible.”