THE CAR AND THE CUP
The Breton-Melville car, driven by the Speedwell brothers, was not forty seconds behind the big maroon automobile at the start. The latter was perhaps five hundred yards ahead; but she never gained on the Speedwells a yard during the run that followed.
Olin City was somewhere about a hundred and eighty miles from the spot where the Greenbaugh Seminary boys had obstructed the road. The two cars—the maroon and the drab—raced over the highways to Olin City in just four hours.
Just before reaching Olin City the two flying autos passed a machine that had suffered a blow-out. It was number seven. Chance and Burton Poole were out of the car working as rapidly as they could to adjust a new tire.
Billy had something else to think of, and he did not even yell at Chance. The fact that they had passed number seven, after all Chance had done to try and retard them, was a small matter now.
The three desperate criminals ahead must be apprehended. They came to the Olin City line and the maroon car still kept on with but slightly reduced speed. The first policeman they saw held up a warning hand to them. Then he leaped into the middle of the road as Dan and Billy roared down upon him.
“Get him aboard—quick, Dan!” advised the younger brother. “Then we’ll see if we can’t overtake those scoundrels.”
Dan was already shutting down. The car had not quite stopped when the police officer leaped aboard.
“Say, you boys! We’ll have to stop you if you can’t obey the law,” declared the officer.
“How about that car ahead?” demanded Dan.