"They mean business, all right," said Chub grimly, "but if they've a notion they can overhaul us on a couple of cayuses, they've got another guess coming."
"Look!" shouted Matt suddenly; "there, ahead!"
Chub stared, and instinctively a shout of despair escaped his lips.
Ahead of the boys was a long, straight slope. At the foot of the slope there was a break in the road, a gap crossing it at right angles and seven or eight feet wide.
"There were planks across that gap!" cried Chub. "Those scoundrels have taken them away. They've got us, Matt!"
For a moment Motor Matt did not answer. He was gazing sharply at the break. The chasm seemed deep, even if it was not very wide, and was evidently the course of a small stream. Just before the edge of the gap was reached, heavy freighting over the road had hollowed out the road-bed.
A daring idea took form in Matt's mind.
"We'll get across!" he cried.
"How?" gasped Chub.
"That hollowed-out place—our machines will be thrown upward at the other side of it—they'll leap across!"