The Rover Boys in the Air Part 38

d.i.c.k and Tom urged the horses forward with all speed. But before they could reach the touring car, the chauffeur threw in second speed and then quickly changed to high, and away the automobile rattled, over the rickety bridge. The structure had not been built for such a weight, and, just as the machine reached the other side, the bridge went down with a crash.

"Look out!" yelled d.i.c.k, and the warning came none too soon, for both he and Tom were almost on the bridge. They turned their horses just in time, came to a sudden halt in some bushes, and stared blankly at each other.

"Gone!" cried Tom, hollowly. "Oh, what luck!"

"Quick, your pistol, Tom!" cried d.i.c.k, suddenly.

"But the girls----" began the other.

"Don't shoot at the car, shoot at the tires," explained d.i.c.k. And then he whipped out his own weapon, got into range, and began to blaze away.

Each of the boys fired three shots. One hit the back lamp of the automobile, smas.h.i.+ng the red gla.s.s, and another hit the differential case and glanced off. But the wheels remained untouched, and in a few seconds the big touring car was out of sight around a bend. The lads heard a scream from the two girls, and then all that reached their strained ears was the sound of the motor, growing fainter and fainter, until it died out altogether.

d.i.c.k and Tom felt sick at heart. They had been so near to rescuing the girls, and now they seemed as far off as ever! Each heaved a deep sigh.

"I suppose we can't follow them, with the bridge down," said Tom.

"We might ford the stream," said d.i.c.k. "But what would be the use of trying to follow on horseback? They know we are after them and they will put on all the speed possible."

"Well, what's to do next, d.i.c.k?"

"I don't know."

"I'm not going to sit still and do nothing."

"Neither am I, Tom. But what to do next I really don't know."

CHAPTER XXIV

AT THE SWAMP

"Where are they? Didn't you catch up to them? Who fired those shots?"

It was Sam who shouted the words, as he came up on a run, followed by the aged negro.

"They got away," answered d.i.c.k, bitterly. "We were just a minute too late!"

"Can't you go after them?"

"Not on horseback, Sam."

"And, if the horses were all right, look there!" cried Tom, and pointed to the fallen bridge.

"Down! What did it, the auto?"

"Yes."

"Fo' de lan' sake!" burst out the negro farm hand. "De bridge hab gone bust down! Say, how is we-all to git ober dat stream after dis?"

"I give it up," said Tom. "The authorities will have to rebuild it, I guess."

"n.o.budy ain't gwine to do dat, boss. Kase why? Kase dis road was built fo' de mill an' de people wot lived heah. Now de mill ain't runnin' an'

de people moved away, da ain't much use fo' the road, an' n.o.buddy ain't gwine to put up de bridge--an' Ike Henry, dat's me, has got to tote things 'round by de udder road after dis!" he added ruefully.

"Well, we can't bother about the bridge," replied d.i.c.k. "The authorities can fight it out with those fellows who are running the auto."

"But the shots?" queried Sam. He had dropped on a flat rock to rest.

"We tried to hit the tires--but we failed," explained Tom. "The auto was moving too fast, and the trees and bushes were in the way. Besides, we didn't want to hit the girls."

d.i.c.k and Tom walked down to the stream. It was not very deep and they concluded that they could easily get to the other side, by leaping from one bit of wreckage to another,--thus keeping from getting wet,--for at that season of the year the water was decidedly cold.

"Let us go over and climb to the top of the next hill," said d.i.c.k. "We may be able to see which direction the auto takes."

The others were willing, and telling the colored man to wait a while for them, and promising him good pay, they climbed over the sunken bridge to the other sh.o.r.e of the stream. Then they raced along the rocky road, around a bend, and up a steep hill that all but winded them.

"I see the machine!" cried Tom, who was the first to top the rise.

"Look!" And he pointed with his hand, down in the valley that lay stretched out before them like a map in the gathering darkness.

At a great distance, moving at a fair rate of speed, was the enclosed touring car containing Dora and Nellie and their abductors. It was headed for a distant main road, lined here and there with farmhouses and outbuildings. Presently it turned into this mainroad, and started westward, at an increased rate of speed.

"My, see them streak along!" murmured Sam.

"They are evidently going to put as much distance as they can between themselves and us," returned Tom.

"Say, do you see any telephone wires?" asked d.i.c.k, anxiously.

"Not a wire," came from his brothers, after a long look for lines and poles.

"Neither do I. I guess they haven't any connections at those farmhouses, so it will be useless to walk there."

"But what shall we do, d.i.c.k?" asked Tom, impatiently. "We can't sit still and do nothing!"

"We'll go back to the _Dartaway_ and fly after them."

"But the wind----" began Sam.

"It has gone down a little, I think, Sam. And anyway, we've got to take a chance--it's the only thing left. If you don't want to go----"

"d.i.c.k, stop right there! If you go I'll go," cried the youngest Rover, firmly. "I'm as much interested in this as anybody, even though Grace isn't there," he added, with a show of color in his round cheeks.

But little more was said just then. The three boys ran down the hill to the stream and crawled back over the wreckage.

"I guess those horses can carry the lot of us," said d.i.c.k; and so it was arranged, d.i.c.k and Sam getting on the back of one steed and Tom and Ike Henry on the other. The boys asked the colored man about telephone connections, but he could give them little information excepting to state that his employer had no such convenience.