The Rover Boys on a Hunt | Page 3

tend to your own business."
"Well, you know the rules," warned Jack. "You keep over on your own side. If you don't there'll be trouble."
"Humph! you don't have to tell me what to do," growled the other cadet; and then, striking a bit of extra smooth roadway, the Yellow Streak bounded ahead, much to the delight of its riders.
"Hurrah! here is where we leave them behind," sang out Codfish.
"Nothing to it but the shouting," added another of Bill Glutts' cronies.
"We'll be a mile ahead by the time we reach the lake," exulted Nick Carncross.
For half a minute it looked as if his prophecy might be true. The Yellow Streak was gliding over the icy surface of the long hill, and consequently going ahead, while the Blue Moon struck several soft spots where going was anything but good.
"Oh, Jack! can't you pull out of this?" queried Gif Garrison anxiously. "Pull over to the left where the going is harder. It's too soft here entirely."
"I'm sticking to my side of the road, just as I was expected to do," said Jack grimly.
The Yellow Streak disappeared over the first rise, and for a few seconds was lost to view. But then the Blue Moon came along, and beyond this rise found going somewhat easier. Slowly but surely they crawled up behind the other bobsled.
"Keep to your side of the road, Glutts!" yelled Jack, in a second warning. "If you don't, there'll be trouble."
"And you'll get the worst of it," added Randy.
"I know what I'm doing," retorted Glutts. He had found the snow somewhat soft on his side of the road, and was now running near the center, and occasionally crowding to Jack's side.
"We'll run into 'em sure!" came from Spouter Powell in alarm. "Look out, Jack!"
"Look out!" echoed Fred.
"Over on your own side, or we'll smash you, Glutts!" yelled Jack, for the Blue Moon had suddenly found going much easier and was forging forward rapidly. "Get out of the way!"
The call was so peremptory that Glutts felt bound to obey. He swerved to his side of the road, and with not a second to spare, for almost instantly the Blue Moon shot past and continued down the slope toward the lake.
"We win! we win!" yelled Andy gayly.
"But the Yellow Streak is just behind us!" cried Spouter, looking back. "Here they come!"
"Yes, and on our side of the road, too!" cried Fred, in alarm. He turned his head still further around. "Glutts, get to your own side!"
"Aw, dry up!" cried the other cadet, in disgust. "You don't have to act as if you owned the whole road."
"You know the rules of the race," flung back Fred.
Crossing the highway which skirted the lake was not so easy, and beyond this the snow was rather deep, and consequently the speed of the Blue Moon was slackened. The Yellow Streak came dangerously close, and then Bill Glutts seemed to lose his head completely. He slued around to his own side of the road, but made such a short turn that in a twinkling the long bobsled was upset and the occupants hurled in all directions.
"There they go! They are upset!" yelled Fred. And then he lost sight of those left behind as the Blue Moon shot out on the surface of the lake and beyond the mark set for the end of the race.
"We win! we win!" cried Andy, leaping from the bobsled, and in the exuberance of his spirits he turned a handspring in the snow.
"What happened to the other sled?" asked Jack, who had been so busy steering the Blue Moon he had paid little attention to what had been going on behind.
"They had a spill," answered Fred. "But before they took it they came pretty close to running into us."
"It was up to them to keep to their side of the road," said Gif Garrison. "Why, we might have had a terrible accident if they had run into us!"
There were about a dozen boys on the lake who had witnessed the finish of the race, and these, along with those who had come down on the Blue Moon, now turned back to see what had happened to the Glutts party. They found the cadets who had been spilled picking themselves up and brushing the snow from their garments. One was nursing a bruised ankle, and another a bruised elbow, while Bill Glutts was wiping some blood from a scratch on his chin.
"Well, we won the race," said Jack briefly. He had no desire to crow over his opponents.
"Huh! you didn't win it fairly," growled Glutts, glaring at him.
"Didn't win it fairly!" exclaimed Jack. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean you got in our way so we couldn't get past you--that's what I mean!" growled the other.
"That is false, Glutts, and you know it," retorted