University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER IV
A CHASE AFTER A RASCAL

"AFTER him!" cried Jerry. "Catch the miserable thief!"

"You and Bob chase him, whoever he is!" called Ted. "I'll stay with the old miner here in the hut. He may be badly hurt."

"Hurry back to the auto!" shouted Jerry. "We can catch the thief in that."

As he spoke he looked ahead. A dark figure crossed the patch of moonlight in the rear of the hut. Then came a sound of a motor-cycle being started, and soon the chug-chug of the machine on the road told that the thief was escaping that way.

Jerry and Bob ran to the auto. In a trice Jerry had the engine cranked up. Bob jumped in, followed by his companion, and they put off down the road after the fleeing motor-cyclist, whom the moonlight plainly revealed.

"He can't get away from us!" exclaimed Jerry. "We will overhaul him in a jiffy!"

But Jerry reckoned without knowing who he was after. He did not dare put on full speed,

while the cyclist rashly had his machine going as fast as the explosions could follow one after the other. Besides, the thief had a good start with his light apparatus.

But Jerry determined to make the capture. He threw in the second speed gear and in a little while had lessened the distance between the auto and the motor-cycle.

"I wonder who it is?" asked Bob.

"Maybe we can tell," answered his chum. Jerry switched on the searchlight in the front of the auto. A dazzling pencil of illumination shot down the road.

In the white glare the figure of the motorist stood out sharply, and the red motor he rode could be plainly seen. At the sight both boys gave a start.

"Jack Pender!" exclaimed Bob.

"As sure as guns!" cried Jerry. "We must catch him!"

He was about to take chances and put on the third gear, when Pender, on his cycle, suddenly turned from the main road, and took a path leading through the fields.

"That ends it!" exclaimed Jerry. "No use trying to follow him. Our auto isn't built for 'cross-country riding."

He slowed up, turned around, and, with a last glance in the direction Noddy Nixon's former

toady and friend had taken, sent the car back toward the lonely hut.

Meanwhile, Ned, after his companions had started on the chase, had struck a match and lighted the candle in the cabin. He found the old miner, for such the boys correctly guessed him to be, lying unconscious in a corner. The belt, with the gold-dust was gone, though a few grains of the precious metal were scattered over the floor. Ned found a pail of water in the place. He bathed the old man's head and poured some of the fluid down his throat.

"Where am I? What happened?" asked the old man, opening his eyes. Then he passed his hand over his head. His fingers were stained with blood.

"You're all right," spoke Ned. "I'll take care of you. What's your name and where did you come from?"

"Don't let him rob me!" pleaded the old miner. "I have only a little gold, but I need it. I know where there is more, much more. I'll tell you, only don't hit me again. I'm sick, please don't strike poor Jim Nestor!"

"No one is going to hurt you," said Ned, in soothing tones, but the old man did not seem to comprehend. Ned felt of the miner's head, and found he had a bad cut on the back. He washed it off with some water and bound his handkerchief

around it. This seemed to ease the old man, and he sank into a doze.

"Well, of all the queer adventures, this is about the limit," spoke Ned, to himself.

The boy glanced about the hut. There was nothing to throw any light on the strange happenings. The candle flickered in the draught from the open door, and cast weird shadows. The man breathed like a person in distress. Ned was about to bathe the wounded man's head again, when the sound of the automobile returning was heard.

"What luck?" asked Ned, running to the door. "Did you get him?"

Whereupon Jerry told of the fruitless chase after Jack Pender. The three boys entered the hut, and Ned told his chums what he had done to relieve the miner.

"He's got a bad wound on the head," he went on. "I guess Pender must have hit him. Jack probably came this way, saw the old man in here sick, and unable to help himself, and watched his chance to rob him. There must have been considerable gold-dust in that belt."

Jerry stooped down and gathered a little from the floor.

"There is some mystery here," he said. "I think we had better get a doctor for the old miner. After he gets better he may talk. I'd like to get my hands on Pender for a little while."

"So would I," chorused Ned and Bob.

"The question is, shall we take the old man back in the auto with us, or run back to town and bring out a doctor?" went on Jerry.

"I think we'd better go get a doctor and fetch him here," was Ned's opinion. "It might injure the old man to move him."

This was voted the best plan. They made the unconscious miner as comfortable as possible on the bed of rags, placed the pail of water where he could reach it, and prepared to run back to town. Ned volunteered to stay with the miner until they returned, but Jerry advised against it, as the hut was on a lonely road.

It did not take long to reach Cresville. Dr. Morrison was routed out of bed by the boys, and agreed to return with them in the auto, when the case had been explained to him.

"Just wait until I get dressed," he said, "and pack up some instruments and I'll be with you."

While waiting, Jerry examined the auto to see that there was plenty of water and gasolene in the tanks. He found everything all right.

While Dr. Morrison was making ready to relieve the sufferings of the miner in the hut, Jack Pender, on his motor-cycle, was still speeding on, to get as far away as possible from those in pursuit of him. When he turned from the road and cut across lots he thought very likely that the auto

would not follow. But he was taking no chances, and, when he emerged into the highway again, about a mile farther on, he still ran his machine at full speed.

"That was a close call!" he exclaimed. "Who would ever have thought that those boys, the same ones who made all the trouble for Noddy, would be after me! I escaped just in time. I hope I didn't kill the old man, though it was a hard blow I struck him!"

Pender slowed down his machine and listened. No sound of pursuit came to him on the quiet night air. He stopped alongside of the road, under a big oak tree.

"Guess I'll light up and see how I made out," he said to himself. He lighted his acetylene lamp and, standing in the glare of it, drew from his pocket the belt he had stolen from the old miner.

"Feels heavy," he muttered. "Ought to be plenty of gold in it. Well, I need the money if I am to join Noddy. I must read his letter again."

He pulled out a sheet of paper and began glancing over it.

"Dated New York," he said. "He says he's having lots of fun and no end of larks with Bill Berry. I don't care much for Bill, myself. He never was any good around town, and he's a desperate man. Hum! let's see!" He turned to the letter again." 'Come and join me, Jack. We'll

go West and have a good time. Bring some money.' Well, I've got the money, all right. Now to start West. I'll ride the motor as far as the depot and take a train."

Replacing the letter and the belt of gold in his pockets, Pender remounted his machine and started off down the road, dark shadows from the trees soon hiding him.

It was just about this time that Dr. Morrison had completed his preparations to visit the injured miner. The physician took a seat in the auto beside Bob, Ned and Jerry being in front, the latter steering.

"Now, don't go too fast," cautioned the doctor to Jerry. "You know I'm an old-fashioned man, and not used to making professional visits any faster than my horse, old Dobbins, can take me. I don't want an upset."

Jerry promised to be cautious. The moon had begun to go down, and it was no easy task steering along the shadowy road, but the boy managed it, and soon the deserted hut was reached.

"Now to see what sort of a case I have," spoke the doctor.

"I'll bring one of the oil lamps," said Jerry, unfastening a lantern from the dashboard, after stopping the automobile engine. "You can see to work by it."

The boys and Dr. Morrison entered the hut.

Jerry held the lamp up high to illuminate the place.

"Now I'm ready," announced the physician. "Where is the patient?" and he opened his medical case.

In wonderment the boys gazed around the hut. To their astonishment, there was not the slightest sign of the wounded miner. He had disappeared!