The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border | Page 7

shout, Bob started running swiftly toward the figure of a
man who had just emerged from the open cellar door at the rear of the
Hampton house.
CHAPTER III

A DARING LEAP
At Bob's shout the intruder who had just emerged from the Hampton
cellar looked back over his shoulder. Seeing he was discovered he
broke into a desperate run. He was heading toward the front of the
house where ran the long and winding drive which led to the main
highroad.
The man shouted hoarsely, and from the front of the house came the
sound of a powerful motor engine being set in motion.
"He's got a car waiting for him," cried Bob, who was in the lead. "Drat
the luck, he'll escape us yet."
"Hey, Bob, we can cut 'em off at the Gut," called Frank, and he struck
away at a tangent from their course as the man disappeared around the
house and the motor car could be heard roaring off down the drive.
"Righto," cried Bob, and he followed his chum.
Old Davey had dropped far behind and Mr. Temple and Tom Barnum
were laboring along some yards in the rear of the two boys and steadily
losing ground.
"Careful, boys," called Mr. Temple gaspingly, as he grasped the
meaning of the boys' maneuver. "Don't be rash. May be several of
them."
"All right, Dad," sang out Bob over his shoulder. "We'll be careful.
Follow along."
The boys were heading for a place in the woods where the drive ran
between six-foot banks before turning a sharp corner. Cars perforce had
to be slowed up going through this place which the boys called the Gut.
Furthermore, the drive approached this place by a winding, circuitous
route, while the boys were not far distant from it by the shortcut
through the woods which they were following. Chances were even that
they would be in time to intercept the fugitives. Yet what could they do

even if they arrived in time? They gave no thought to that as they
crashed through the underbrush.
Bob slightly in the lead reached the top of the bank overhanging the
road ahead of his comrade and experienced a thrill of triumph as he
heard the roar of the approaching car and realized he had arrived first.
The car slowed down as it entered the Gut. Evidently the driver
remembered the perilous place from when he had driven through on
approaching the house.
The car passed below going at a snail's pace while Frank was still a
short distance in the rear and Mr. Temple and Tom Barnum were not
yet in sight. It was an open touring car with the top folded back. There
were three men in it, one on the seat beside the driver and the third in
the rear. He was the man who had entered the Hampton house. The
driver appeared to be a New York taxi chauffeur, and probably had
been employed for the trip. The others were swarthy men, foreign in
appearance.
The man beside the driver, looking up, saw Bob, and shouted. At that
moment the car passed directly beneath him, and Bob leaped. He
landed on the running board beside the rear seat. Steadying himself as
the car lurched from the impact of his weight, Bob reached in and
grasped the man on the rear seat by the coat collar and half pulled him
from the car, so that his body lay across the door.
Then the unexpected occurred. The driver opened his throttle and the
car leaped ahead, and at the same time the man beside him stood up and
struck at Bob.
Bob leaned back to avoid the blow, and the next moment found himself
flat on his back in the road, with the car disappearing around the curve.
Frank, who by now had reached the top of the bank, dropped to the
road beside him and bent over him with real anxiety in his voice as he
said:
"Bob, Bob, are you hurt?"

Ruefully rubbing the back of his head, Bob sat up.
"No," said he, "But they got away, Frank."
Again there was a crashing in the underbrush on the top of the bank,
and Mr. Temple and Tom Barnum came into view, red and perspiring.
"Escaped you, hey?" said Mr. Temple, leaping to the road, as Bob
scrambled to his feet. "But, say, I see you captured something all right."
And he pointed to a coat clutched fast in Bob's hand.
Then for the first time Bob noticed that in falling from the car he had
dragged his victim's coat with him. He held it up and looked at it
curiously.
"He must have been wriggling out of his coat when he found you
wouldn't let go," surmised Frank. "I could see