“The fellow at the wheel?”
“Yes.”
“I couldn’t help seeing him; but I’m not sure who it was. The car I know,” responded Dan.
“Poole’s?” asked Billy, eagerly.
“That’s what it was—Burton Poole’s car,” said the older brother.
“Then I’m sure I made no mistake. My eyes didn’t fool me. That’s Chance Avery in the car alone, running without a light. It would be a good joke to report him for breaking a town ordinance and have him up before Judge English,” cried Billy.
The candy-pull broke up at an early hour, for all hands had to face lessons on the morrow. The girls had come out on motorcycles, too, and they were a gay party that started for Riverdale after bidding the Mayberrys, and those guests who lived near the farm, good-night.
Dan and Mildred Kent got off a little in advance of the rest of the riders, and led the company by several hundred yards. They were very good friends, Dan having dragged Mildred to school on his sled when they were both in the primary grade, and the fact that Doctor Kent was wealthy and the Speedwells were comparatively poor never made the least difference in their friendship.
“I heard the boys saying something about you and Billy buying an auto, Dan,” said Mildred Kent. “Is it a joke?”
“We can’t tell about that yet, Milly,” responded Dan, chuckling. “Just at present it looks like a joke, for, as Billy says, the machine is up in the air.”