One of the four men in the machine leaped out and, to Dan’s amazement, stepped into the front of the maroon car beside him.
“Hold up your hands!” commanded this man, in excited tones. “We’ve got you, at least, if your pals have escaped. Hold up your hands!”
Dan shrank back and demanded a reason for threatening him in this savage way.
“You know what I want,” said the man. “You are in the hands of the law. I arrest you, for the robbery of the Farmers’ National Bank at Riverdale!”
CHAPTER IV
BILLY ACTS ON IMPULSE
The sight of Maxey Solomons and his automobile tossed over the embankment and out of view—as a mad bull might toss a dog—frightened Billy Speedwell and his mates; at the moment they did not, like Dan, think of bringing the three men in the maroon motor car to account for their rashness.
With cries of fear they ran along the road to the broken place in the stone wall. Motor car and driver had disappeared over the brink of the chasm. The tops of several trees, the roots of which were embedded in the soil of the river bank, were visible above the wall. The motor car had crashed into these tree-tops; but the boys did not dream, at first, that the branches would stay such a heavy object.
When they came to the break in the stone wall and leaned over it, they saw the drab automobile hanging in the air, not more than twenty feet below the road. It was upside down and it had stuck in the crotched branches of two of the tall trees.
At first they saw nothing of Maxey; but of course, they could not see to the ground at the foot of the fifty-foot precipice over which young Solomons and his automobile had fallen.