“This piece of road we are reaching now is in full view of the hill where the cave is,” observed Chick.
“I see it is. We’ll go through in a hurry.”
Nick Carter opened the throttle still wider, and the great machine leaped forward like a mettlesome horse that had been spurred.
“Gee! We’re in the open now, for fair!” shouted Patsy.
“There’s the rest of the gang up there,” added Chick.
“They are getting ready to shoot,” remarked Phillips.
They could hear the distant crack of rifle shots, and they could make out the heads of the bandits as they lay behind a ridge and took as careful aim at the automobile as they could.
But Nick Carter had seen their intention, and he realized that there was one chance to dodge the rifle bullets, and only one.
He took that chance when he speeded up the machine to about fifty miles an hour.
The rough road bounced the car up in the air, and always it was even betting whether it would come down right side up or not.