Mr. Briggs wanted to run back and take the Speedwells home; but there was a path through the woods right here to their house, and the boys refused to cause any trouble. The hunters cut up the tree and cleared the roadway so that the maroon car could go on; but the automobile driven by the men who had robbed Mr. Sudds and the bank was then far, far out of reach.
Everywhere in town there was talk of the robbers. Mr. Sudds had lost anywhere from ten to a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry, so gossip said. But the Speedwell boys did not add to it, although they might have told some interesting particulars of the robbery and how the thieves had gotten away.
Josiah Somes, having been able to do nothing but annoy Mr. Briggs and his friends, was discreetly silent regarding the telephone message he had received from Rebo’s garage at Upton Falls. So nobody stopped Dan, or Billy, to ask them about the midnight race of the automobiles.
The boys hurried home and begged permission to remain away from classes that morning. They would make the time up on their lessons later; it was quite important that they should get the car out of the tree before further trouble ensued. Billy’s motorcycle was hidden down there on the river road, too.
The brothers got the new post Dan cut at midnight, and another stick for the arm of the derrick, hurried to the place, and raised a new lifting apparatus. The auto and the motorcycle were both safe, nor did anybody come to trouble them while they worked.
There was a steep path down to the shore of the river, and up this Billy lugged the tangle of rope and chain, with the hoisting tackle, that had fallen with the derrick when their enemy had cast the apparatus over the precipice.
Meanwhile, Dan dug a hole for the new post, and it was set up, and the derrick re-rigged. It was Billy who climbed down to the overturned auto again. He fastened it in a strong sling, brought the ends of the rope in a loop over it, and hooked the falls into it, which Dan pulled taut.
The latter had already unhitched the horses from the wagon, and now had them rigged to the second pulley, ready to start the weight of the wrecked car out of the tree. Billy refused to come up.
“I must see her start, Dan. Perhaps something will catch—we mustn’t break or mar it any more than possible,” declared Billy, quite nervously.
“Look out for yourself, old man,” Dan returned, and then spoke to the horses.