“Say, fellows,” called out Hanky Panky just then, “there’s a car whirling along right now in a cloud of dust, with two men aboard. Wouldn’t it be a joke on us if that was the Jules Baggott the woman spoke of, and that he was chasing after us, bent on making us give up the paper she entrusted to Rod here?”
CHAPTER III.
THE PURSUIT.
Of course when Hanky Panky made this astonishing statement both his chums commenced to send anxious glances back along the road over which they were spinning so grandly.
“What d’ye think of it, Rod?” demanded Josh quickly.
“They act as if they meant to overtake us, all right,” the boy in the van declared, without hesitation; “but I couldn’t say for certain whether one of them is the scheming Jules or not. You remember I only thought I had a glimpse of him at the time we talked with Jeanne on the Antwerp street.”
“Shall we let them come up, and have it out?” questioned Josh belligerently, for Josh was something of a fighter in his way, and always had a “chip on his shoulder.”
“We are looking for no scrap, if it can be helped,” said Rod; “so first of all we can try letting out a little more speed.”
“And if they follow suit, then what?” asked Hanky Panky, with a vein of anxiety in his voice; for being in the rear he imagined he would necessarily be the target for any stray leaden missiles that might come that way.
“In the first place we’ll feel pretty certain they’re meaning to overtake us,” Rod called back, as he increased his pace considerably, an easy thing to do, although he knew the danger of going at headlong speed over an unknown road, where at any minute they might rush upon a hay-wagon blocking the whole thoroughfare, and concealed by some bend.