Nothing occurred to alarm Billy, or to spur his wit to any action, until the car suddenly took the turn into the lane, where the second maroon machine was in hiding. The short turn surprised Billy quite as much as it surprised his brother and those with him.
Billy heard the shouting, saw a light flashed, and realized that the car he was with had barely grazed another touring automobile standing without lights in the narrow roadway. Then he recognized his brother’s voice as Dan shouted his name!
Billy could do nothing but wave his hand—and he did not know that the signal was seen. He realized on the instant, however—as did the three robbers—that they were pursued. Somehow, Billy’s written information had reached Dan Speedwell’s ear, and he—with others—were out to catch the men who had looted the Sudds’ house and who (so Billy believed) had robbed the Riverdale bank.
Billy knew quite well the direction in which he was traveling. In a very few minutes they would pass a spot in the big swamp which lay less than half a mile from his own home. And Billy Speedwell very much wished that he was safe in his home at that moment!
Lights flashed beside the road, but at some distance ahead. Billy knew that they were already in the thick woods lying behind his own home. The flaring of the lights assured him that they had come upon a hunting party.
Indeed, as George shut off the power, and the noise of the engine ceased, the yelping of the dogs could be plainly heard. They had treed something right beside the highway.
“Switch on the lights quick!” whispered the man who seemed to command the trio. “They are too busy to have seen us yet.”
“But can’t we take some side road?” asked the wounded one.
“There is none, I tell you; I know the country like a book. We have got to pass that crowd of fools.”
The lamps were already alight; the chauffeur spun the flywheel and the car moved on. It might have seemed to any of the party of hunters, who noticed at all, that the automobile had only then flashed around the curve in the road.