When within a dozen feet of the young motorist, the car seemed to recognize an enemy and to attempt to turn aside.
Matt ran forward, stopped, executed a flying leap and gained the running board. Another moment and he was in the driver’s seat and had brought the car to a halt.
The reverse gear was engaged, so the runabout had ample warrant for crawfishing along the road.
There was nothing in the car, however, that offered any clue to the mystery of what had become of the two who had taken the runabout from the Country Club garage.
Matt got down and made a hurried examination. The car was in as good condition as ever, and rebuffed his efforts at getting clues.
There was something uncanny about the machine. Matt admitted it to himself. It acted in a way that defied all explanation, at times, and that alone was enough to get on a chauffeur’s nerves.
Perhaps Billy was right, and that the “double hoodoo,” in some incomprehensible manner, was accountable for the car’s tantrums.
So far as McGlory and Levitt were concerned, there was a possibility that the car had misbehaved so outrageously that they had put on the reverse and cast it adrift, to go where it would.
But there were other travelers in the road to think of. Levitt and McGlory would scarcely take chances of wrecking some other machine, or of running down a carriage, or some pedestrian.
Matt was deeply puzzled.