The Auto Boys' Quest.

by James A Braden.

CHAPTER I

A PLAN AND A SCHEME

"And they piled three stones one on top of another to mark the place.

The first was just a big field stone, the second was rough and flat and the third, which was at the top, was the kind called conglomerate. You know--all full of pebbles, like coa.r.s.e gravel pressed into a ma.s.s.

Or--or like a fruit cake."

There was a note of earnestness in Billy Worth's voice, as if he felt his words to be of great importance and desired that his hearers be impressed accordingly. That his communication did have reference to an important matter was made most apparent, perhaps, by the response it elicited, also earnestly spoken:

"And if no one has disturbed them, the chances are the rocks are there yet," said Phil Way. "I mean that, although the heaving of the ground, as it froze and thawed winter after winter, would probably throw the pile down, the three different stones would still be close together for years upon years."

"And I'll be standing here for years upon years without starting this engine if you don't give me a spark! Almost breaking myself in two, and you sit there threshing over that old stone pile again! Did you think I was working this crank handle just for exercise?" These remarks, both earnest and emphatic, came from a young gentleman who stood at the front of a large touring car, the forward seats of which vehicle were occupied by the two whose words have been earlier noted. "Or did you think I was trying an experiment in perpetual motion?" he added, with equal sarcasm.

Mr. Billy Worth, at the steering wheel, laughed good-naturedly. "I solemnly beg your pardon, Mac," he said. "I was thinking of those three stones. Now you're all right!" So saying, he moved the quadrant to the point at which there was a spark advanced to set the automobile's engine chugging when his friend with the crank handle had again given it an initial motion.

"Was pretty sure Dave would make a discovery if he worked hard enough,"

piped a shrill voice tantalizingly. "I noticed that the spark wasn't on.

Meant to mention it after while, but really didn't like to interrupt the conversation!"

These remarks, accompanied by a very self-complacent grin, proceeded from a young gentleman whose half-rec.u.mbent position in the tonneau was possibly more comfortable than dignified. Indeed, comfort rather than dignity was plainly his preference as no doubt it often is with persons somewhat less than fifteen years of age.

"Meant to mention it, did you?" came with marked emphasis from the one addressed as Dave, slamming the tonneau door behind him, as the machine moved out of its quarters--a tidy green and yellow building nestling beneath some old elms. "Meant to mention it, eh?" and putting hands suddenly upon the youthful humorist's shoulders, he shook him pretty vigorously.

The latter took his punishment with utmost good nature, saying only, "No fault of mine! If you fellows don't know how to start the car, let me know and I'll teach you. Gee whiz!"

With all its irony, this speech was allowed to pa.s.s unnoticed for now the automobile glided with a gentle bounce over the sidewalk and out of the cinder drive of Dr. Way's residence into the street. All four pa.s.sengers settled themselves in their seats as if for a rapid ride.

Their car ran beautifully and in scarcely more time than is required to state the fact its glistening wheels and body, its shining wind shield, lamps and horn had disappeared at the park gate far down the avenue.

Had you happened to be in that well-known city of the Middle West, Lannington, on this early day of June in the year 190--, and had you noticed this particular automobile as, guided by well-trained hands, it swept with a flourish around the curve and in through the park entrance, quite possibly you would have wished to make inquiry concerning the car and its occupants. There was something of quiet distinction about the latter and about the machine and the way it was handled.

Inquiry from any person interested in boys or motoring or both--and who is not?--would have been, indeed, entirely natural. Nor would the veriest stranger have experienced difficulty in obtaining information.

While in no sense were they especially prominent because of wealth, exalted social position or otherwise, the Auto Boys, as the four were called, were at least well known.

Introduced briefly and individually they are Phil Way, Billy Worth, Dave MacLester and Paul Jones. Just what sort of lads they are will become apparent as the acquaintanceship progresses. At the present moment attention must be returned to the spot they have so recently quitted--the little green and yellow building beneath the elms.

A very tidy structure is the small garage the four friends call their own. It stands at the end of the drive leading out past the blooming syringas and a great bed of vari-colored peonies to the street. Approach and entrance from that direction are very convenient. Or entrance by way of the alley, in the rear, may be accomplished quite as easily. Its doors, both front and back, are the largest things about the building.

With both opened wide the automobile can be driven directly through. To back the car out is unnecessary at any time. Driving in from the rear means simply driving out through the front doors, or vice versa.

The custom of the young proprietors of this model establishment of its kind with reference to coming and going with the car was well known among their acquaintances. It was well known, too, that at most times the alley doors of the garage were kept closed and locked. Just why any of their friends should remain waiting at that side of the building, therefore, with them inside and the machine headed toward the street, as a glance in at the back window would easily show, might well be considered a trifle mysterious.

Also, just why any friend should apply an ear to the small crack between the door and the wall of the building proper--stooping down in an att.i.tude of thoughtful attention upon all that was taking place inside--might well be made a subject of inquiry.

Nevertheless precisely such a situation had existed to-day. A sharp-eyed young fellow, not much less than sixteen years of age, had stood for all of ten minutes in practically the position indicated. Not until the automobile and its owners had departed did he also leave, walking hastily down the alley and keeping much closer under the cover of the high, tight-board fence than would seem entirely necessary.

The young man was too respectable in his general appearance to be mistaken for a tramp or other type of vagabond loitering about for no good purpose. Nor had he any of the usual sneak-thief characteristics, suspicious as his actions were. Only a half-surly, half-defiant expression about his hawk-like eyes and a scowl above his heavy brows gave a clue to his thoughts and purposes. It was easy to guess that in some way he had suffered a disappointment.

At the corner of a residence street upon which the lad presently emerged, his face lighted up. Smiling, as if he had concluded to think better of the matter whatever it may have been, he spoke quite aloud, yet in a low tone: "'And they piled three stones on top of one another to mark the place. One was a big field stone, another a flat stone and the third, which was at the top, was conglomerate.'" And then a moment later, "'Conglomerate! All full of pebbles like coa.r.s.e gravel!' As if any man didn't know 'conglomerate'!"

There was something coa.r.s.e and rasping in the way the boy repeated the latter phrase of the words he had overheard at the green and yellow shed. It suggested both maliciousness and mischief. His further language as he spoke in undertones to no ears but his own was confirmation of such an opinion. "Plenty of time yet. Guess wherever any old thirty horse-power motor can go, a forty-five can follow! Confound those little beasts! I don't see where they can be!"

That the young man's latter remark, even less amiable than it was complimentary, had reference to someone whom he expected to see, was made apparent a few minutes later when a heavy car of the roadster type, too lumbering to be of the best, came suddenly around the corner and stopped at the curb near him. The machine carried two young fellows of about his own age.

"Been looking for you everywhere, Pick," said one of the two--he at the wheel--"You said you'd go out Chestnut. What you doing way down here on the avenue?"

"Said nothin' of the kind," growled the sharp-eyed one. "I said I'd meet you right here on Green Avenue. Been looking for you till--"

"You did _not_!" spoke the other of the two in the car. "I know what you said!"

But by that time the lad called "Pick" had seated himself in the double rumble, and as the automobile moved forward--"Oh shut up!" he answered moodily. "I'm sore! Still nothing to it but talk of the three stones.

Anyhow, though, I've got the exact words about them," and with this he repeated the description of three stones, piled one on top of another, substantially as he had overheard the same.

"Well, they're going somewhere and they're going to start soon. I've found out that much, for sure," spoke the chap who drove. He was a really likable looking fellow, named Perth--Fred, or more often Freddy, when addressed by his first name.

The lad beside him was "Soapy"--otherwise Harry--Gaines, the somewhat spoiled son of one of the very few rich men in Lannington. He was of such uncertain temper, slipping so far beyond the reach of ordinary mortals and putting on ever and again so vast an air of superiority, possibly because of the paternal wealth, but with or without cause or reason, that his nickname seemed well applied. He it was who claimed ownership of the Roadster.

"Course they're going somewhere! Haven't we known it all along? Didn't they say themselves they were going, and just as good as tell us we wasn't wanted, when we told 'em we'd go with 'em? Humph! They've had a plan rigged up this long while and making such a mystery of it that half the town wonders what they're up to."

He of the hawk eyes--otherwise "Pick," otherwise Tom Pickton--was the speaker. The coa.r.s.e, rasping quality of his voice was the more p.r.o.nounced as he put more contempt in it. "Just the same, I'm thinking they can't go where we can't follow--if we like; eh, Gaines?" It was in quite a different key, though the voice was still harsh as a file, that Pickton addressed the owner of the machine.

The latter young gentleman said that with his car he could run circles around the persons to whom the other made reference. He was of the opinion that nothing more interesting could be desired, however, than merely to trail along behind the Auto Boys, (for it was to them that the conversation referred) and by thus being constantly present, annoy and hara.s.s them in a way that would be a "deuced lot o' fun."

Then, too, if the four chums who had declined the self-extended invitation that Soapy and his friends accompany them, had in mind the secret exploring of a mystery, a search for a robbers' cave or some such thing, which was considered to be their real purpose, they would be enabled to carry out their plan, at last, only by making terms with the Chosen Trio.

The Chosen Trio, it will be understood, was the name by which Messrs.

Pickton, Gaines and Perth had elected to style themselves. "Chosen to be hanged, if anything!" Paul Jones had ungraciously said; but that is neither here nor there. The three were in no immediate danger of meeting such a fate, and they _were_ capable of making themselves most extremely disagreeable, without appearing to trespa.s.s beyond their lawful rights. Where one automobile was allowed, for instance, another might follow; and the public roads everywhere were built no more for one individual than for another.

"Well, I was only going to say, if you'll give me the chance, that I know the four of 'em are going on a trip and what's more I know just about where," put in Fred Perth, as Soapy concluded. "They've hired Jim Underhill to attend to a lot of the work they had engaged to do and they told him he'd have to begin next week sometime. They wouldn't tell Jim where they were going. Just said, 'Ask me no questions an' I'll tell you no lies,' when he put it straight at 'em to know what for a trip was scheduled."

"Next week, eh?" Pickton e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "_We're_ ready _now_. All we've got to do is watch their old boat and when they begin to pack up it will be ditto here. Nothing much to that, eh?"

"Everything's fixed for me to leave any time," said Perth, thinking with satisfaction how, after much difficulty, he had obtained permission to accompany Gaines and Pickton on a proposed motoring expedition.

"Huh! I'll just _go_," spoke Soapy in that braggadocio way so common to his kind.

"Ought to get some new stuff in the touring outfit, I suppose," put in Pick, as if to himself, but really fearful that at the last moment, due to Gaines' well-known careless ways, the car would be found without one item of spare equipment.

"By George! That's right! Run down to the Park Garage, Freddy. We'll load up some stuff and I'll have 'em put it in dad's next month's bill.

We'll be away by that time."

These instructions from Soapy, always willing to make purchases if they were to be charged, and the more so if he saw at hand a way to defer for a time an interview with his father in regard to them, changed the course of the Roadster away from the residence district of the city to the business center.

As the car pa.s.sed the down-town entrance to the park, the machine of the Auto Boys came up behind and, gliding past, halted before the door of the automobile establishment toward which the Chosen Trio had journeyed.