“I reckon so,” said the cop. “But we’ll run over to the chief’s office first. I shouldn’t be surprised if he’d like to see you.”
The three criminals exchanged glances. They might have shown fight there on the public street, but Dan steered his machine around the maroon car and headed it off. The chauffeur had to stop. The three officers each seized their man and—the arrest was made!
It then became necessary for the boys to go to the office of the chief of police, too. The delay was considerable, but after hearing the story of the Speedwells the commander of the Olin City police force worked quickly.
He called up the Riverdale Bank over the long distance ’phone and Mr. Crawley and Mr. Baird went sponsor for the Speedwell brothers. They were therefore allowed to depart, for the criminals would have to be extradited from this state to the one in which the first crime had been committed.
Burton Poole’s car—and others—had gotten ahead of the Speedwell boys by this time and they had but an hour more to run that day. They whirled out of Olin City, however, in a cloud of dust and made Breckenridge Station, thirty-two miles on the road, in that hour.
When they registered with the timekeeper in Breckenridge they were seven hundred and forty-nine miles over the course. There were two hundred and fifty-nine miles between them and the Compton Motordrome.
“And the worst of the running yet to come,” said Dan. “How many cars did he say were ahead of us?”
“Thirteen have gone on, having from fifteen minutes to two hours to run on to-day’s record. And here comes a slew of them up the street,” said Billy.
Indeed, there was a larger number of cars in Breckenridge that night than there had been at Greenbaugh at the end of the previous day’s run.
In the morning the cars had to be started ten minutes apart as they were at the beginning of the endurance test. And it was raining—a fine, penetrating drizzle—that made the traveling most unpleasant. The wheels skidded, too, and the best car in the race could not make time over the slushy roads.