The Boy Scounts on a Submarine | Page 6

aim, an unearthly screech volleyed from the Potter twins, and
from Beany's good left hand a cobble whizzed through the air, and
struck the assassin's shoulder. It destroyed his aim. The bullet went
wild, and before he could recover, the Colonel had whirled. With a
muttered curse the would-be intruder fired full at the boys, dropped to
the bottom of the machine, and the car shot forward will in incredible
speed.
Leaping from the veranda with the agility of a boy, the Colonel barked
out a volley of sharp orders. Men came swarming from their quarters.
A man hurried to the telephone. Horsemen dashed madly up the road.
A slim, capable-looking racer slid from the garage, and the Colonel and
a couple of aides came down where the boys still stood grouped beside
the stone wall. Beany held a flattened bullet in his hand. It had struck
beside him.

CHAPTER III
ON THE TRAIL
"If it hadn't been for you and your rock, young man, I would have been
a dead man probably," said the Colonel solemnly. "I wish we had the
car number."
"I got it," said Porky, easily. "They will change it, I suppose, but it is
New York 237,814. And there's a patch on the right front tire, and the
mud guard on that side has been bent and straightened, and the glass in
the wind shield has a crack in one corner, and the staple on the tool box
is broken."
"Oh, you know the car!" said the Colonel, eagerly. "Tell me that
number again." He wrote rapidly, and called to his orderly. "Telephone
that to Syracuse after you call Fayetteville," he said, and again turned to
the boys, but almost before he could speak again, he was called to the
'phone himself. When he came out, he frowned.
"The car passed through the village about ten minutes ago," he said.
"They were going fast, and headed over toward East Syracuse by way
of the wide waters. I have sent the alarm out, and as soon as I finish
with you boys, I will go myself. Now tell me in a word just why you
boys came over."
Porky and Beany told him painstakingly.
"That's all right," said the Colonel. "You did right to come for a permit.
You see, my men are going to police the fairgrounds, and on account of
the large amount of government property scattered around over there
we will have to be very strict. The day the fair opens, come to my tent,
and I will give you a badge that will allow you to go wherever you like
without question."
An orderly clattered up on a sweating horse.
"They have found the automobile, sir," said the gallant youth.

"Good!" cried the Colonel, rising.
"Yes, sir, it is lying in four feet of water at the edge of the bluff where
the road from the village winds round the curve half way to Manlius
Center."
"And the men?" the Colonel enquired sharply.
"They must be pinned under the car, sir, said the soldier. "We thought
if you would detail Dennis and Harrison--they are crackerjack
swimmers--they could soon see what is under there."
"Tell the men to go at once," said the Colonel. "I will follow."
The Colonel called his car, and with a nod indicated to the boys that
they were to accompany him. The Colonel's orderly leaped into the
front seat beside the driver and Asa, and on the back, seat, on either
side of the big Colonel, sat the Potter twins looking so alike that it
seemed a loss of time to look at one of them after you had seen the
other, and feeling-well, they felt as important as you make 'em!
Arriving at the wide waters, they followed the Colonel and his men as
they went down the gouged out place in the bank where the car had cut
its way to the water, and looked at the smashed machine that lay almost
out of sight. It was in such a position, however, that it was plain that no
one could be concealed under it. The men had escaped.
A keen look of anger and surprise came into the Colonel's face.
"I imagine they have driven the car off the bank to put us off the scent,"
he said. "There is a life sentence for those men when we get them. They
meant to kill me. I can't see the point in it; either." He walked back to
his car and, entering it, was driven back to camp, stopping at the Potter
house to drop the twins.
After the Colonel's car had disappeared round the bend leading to the
village, a small, wiry, evil-looking figure slipped cautiously from the
dense underbrush at the edge of the road away from