The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto; Or, A Run for the Golden Cup Read online

  CHAPTER I

  THE MAN?'UVERS OF MAXEY

  “Say, fellows! Look at what’s coming!”

  “Oh, my eyes! See him wabble! Why, he’ll be over the wall into theriver, machine and all, if he doesn’t watch out.”

  “Say, Dan, did you ever see a fellow run a car as bad as Maxey? If wedidn’t know better we’d think he had a fit,” declared Billy Speedwell,who sat with his brother, and several of their chums, on a high, grassybank overlooking the Colasha River and above the road, a mile or twobelow Riverdale.

  “He certainly does make a mess of it,” admitted the older Speedwell lad,gazing down the road, as were his friends, at a drab-painted automobilewhich was approaching them.

  They were five boys, all members of the Riverdale Outing Club and allrode motorcycles which just now were leaning, in a row, against thebank. The chums had come out after school for a short spin into thecountry. It was fall, which fact was proven by the brilliant coloring ofthe leaves.

  Beyond where the Riverdale boys lay on the short turf, and coming towardthem, was the erratically-guided car. The drab racer seldom kept themiddle of the road for a full minute at a time. It actually “wabbled,”just as Jim Stetson said.

  And yet the fellow at the wheel of the machine had been driving it upand down the roads for nearly three months.

  No instruction, and no practice, seemed to avail with Maxey Solomons,however. His father was one of the richest men in the county, and whenMaxey expressed a wish to own and drive a car, Mr. Solomons made noobjection. Indeed, the wealthy clothing manufacturer seldom thwarted theleast of his son’s desires.

  But the drab auto seemed aiming for trouble now. It nearly ran up thebank on the inner side of the road; then it shifted to the other sideunder the manipulation of Maxey at the steering wheel, just grazing thestone fence that separated the highway at this point from the sheer dropof fifty feet or more to the bank of the river.

  “As sure as you live,” cried Monroe Stevens, “he’ll back over the dump!”

  The boys with the motorcycles jumped to their feet the better to watchthe manœuvers of the drab car and its owner. Shaving the stone wall,Maxey came back into the middle of the road and wabbled along for somerods toward the group of Riverdale youths.

  Suddenly the spectators heard the purring of a fast moving car comingfrom the direction of the town. The road was quite straight for a coupleof miles here; but there was a sharp turn behind the group of boys thathid the approaching car.

  They knew it was coming at great speed. No warning was sounded on thehorn as the car approached the turn. The driver of the unknown auto wasvery reckless.

  Dan Speedwell was first to realize that Maxey Solomons was very likelyto get into much more serious trouble than he was having at the moment,if the fast motor car swept around the corner upon him without anywarning. It was well known that the only really successful way by whichMaxey could pass any vehicle on the road, was by pulling out to oneside, and stopping until the other machine went by!

  Although moving so slowly, the drab car was steadily approaching theturn in the highway. Maxey was not two hundred yards from where the boysstood upon the grassy bank.

  Knowing that he would only startle Maxey by running toward him, Danleaped away in the other direction. He reached the turn in the road andsaw the racing automobile coming in a cloud of dust.

  Surely the reckless driver of the machine must slow down to round thiscurve. Dan Speedwell could see him plainly—a little, goggled-eyedfellow, completely disguised in coat and motor-cap, alone in thedriver’s seat.

  There were two passengers, however, and Dan knew that they must see himas he sprang out upon a jutting tree-root, and waved his cap wildly toattract their attention. One of the men leaned forward and tapped thechauffeur on the shoulder. He pointed to Dan above them on the bank; butthe boy’s warning motions did not seem to do the least bit of good. Thedriver of the madly-running car did not reduce its speed.

  On came the racing automobile, and the cloud of dust which traveled withit flew down to the curve in the road. The driver shifted his wheel andthe machine took the turn on its outer tires, with the others in theair—Dan could actually see daylight between the wheels and the ground.

  The boy saw, too, that it was a heavy touring car; that it was paintedmaroon, and that a blanket, or robe was trailing over the back of thetonneau, fairly dragging in the dust, in fact, and so hiding the plateon which was the license number.

  Without a single blast of the horn the car charged around the bend. Thegroup of boys on the bank yelled excitedly at Maxey down below. Thaterratic youth beheld the maroon car coming and literally “threw up hishands!”

  The road was wide enough so that the racing car could have passedMaxey’s machine on the outside. But, unfortunately, it had stopped sothat the rear wheels, bearing the larger weight of the car, was on theouter slope of the roadway, which was rounded to properly shed thewater. The drab car began to run backward. Maxey did not know enough toput on the brakes.

  The few seconds that elapsed after the fast-traveling auto came aroundthe bend in the road would not have been sufficient for the chauffeur ofthat car to stop; and he merely swerved to the outer side of the road,intending to pass Maxey’s stalled car at full speed.

  Maxey himself was immovable with terror at the appearance of thecharging auto. He could not even leap from his seat. And when his owncar began to run backward, directly into the path of the other machine,young Solomons only opened his mouth to emit a yell.

  The drab car ran back into the shallow gutter. The stone wall behind itneeded some repairs, several of the top layer of stones having falleninto the chasm below the road. This left the barrier at the spotscarcely eighteen inches high.

  The unguided motor car ran back until its rear wheels came against thisbroken wall. The chauffeur of the maroon automobile swerved his caragain, but only slightly. His heavier machine, running fast, chargeddown upon poor Maxey and his car like a huge battering-ram.

  There was nothing the boys on the bank could do to save Maxey, or hiscar. And, at that late moment, there was little the wheelman of themaroon car could do to avert the catastrophe. His reckless driving ofhis machine made it impossible for him to stop in time.

  The collision stopped Maxey’s cry of fright in the middle. The lightercar was flung up and backward by the swiftly moving and heavier touringautomobile. The latter passed on in a flash, and practically unharmed.The drab car was flung over the low stone wall and, upside down, withthe cushions and other gear raining from it, dropped into space.