Harry Hazelton, his head swathed in a red-stained bandage, and what appeared to be blood dripping from his left arm, sprang at them, the b.u.t.t of his rifle showing, but its barrel wrapped in his jacket.
CHAPTER XX
A FRENZIED RIDE TO SAFETY
"Wait!" gasped Hazelton. "You"ve got to take me, too."
"Not much," hissed Bayliss, his voice trembling. "This car is built only for two."
"You"ve got to take me, I tell you," Harry insisted, his voice trembling. "Do you think I"m going to be left behind?"
"This car is built for-----" Bayliss started to insist again.
"Then you will stay behind, Bayliss, at that rate," Harry retorted.
"Remember, I am able to enforce my wishes. Do I go, too?"
Bert had started the engine, and now sprang in at the wheel.
Hazelton leaped in also, taking the other seat.
Bayliss, quivering in every muscle, leaped in, crouching between them.
"I see that you"ve decided to come along with us," mocked Harry.
"Hang you!" snarled Bayliss. "If you didn"t have that gun we"d see about it."
"Start her, fast, Dodge!" ordered Harry.
With a roar of the engine the car lurched forward.
"What happened to the others in your crowd?" asked Bert in a weak voice, as he steered carefully down the rough road.
"All flat---all five of "em!" affirmed Harry, but be neglected to state that his five chums were lying on the ground, rolling over in their mirth.
"None of "em got away, then, but you?" chattered Bayliss.
"Do you think I"d let you take this car away from here?" demanded Hazelton indignantly, "if there were any more of our fellows to get away from here? What would you fellows count for if it were necessary to save more of my friends?"
"It must have been a fearful fight," shivered Dodge.
"It was," said Harry grimly, striving with all his might to keep from bursting out in laughter. "I never had any idea that a gun fight was such an awful thing!"
"Prescott got his, then?" asked Bayliss.
"All five of my friends," replied Hazelton, in a choking voice.
"And I"ve some traces of the fight to show myself."
"How badly bit are you?" demanded Dodge.
"I"ll last all right until I get to Gridley," Harry predicted, "if you fellows don"t keep me talking too much."
"I didn"t intend going to Gridley to-night," Dodge replied.
"Yes, you will," Hazelton replied firmly. "I must go to Gridley.
You drive straight there. I"ll hold you responsible, if you don"t."
Bert began to believe that he _would_ be held accountable if he failed to take Hazelton to Gridley, so he gave in without protest.
At any rate, both Dodge and Bayliss wanted to get as far as possible from the recent "horror," and as speedily as they could do it.
"There"s no chance of our being attacked on the road to Gridley?"
asked Bayliss by and by, in a quavering voice.
"No," replied Hazelton. "The lake will be between us and the trouble makers."
It was rough going most of the way. Hazelton was disinclined to talk. Bayliss" nerves were too shattered for him to feel like indulging in conversation. Dodge, white-faced, his cap pulled well down over his eyes, showed all that he knew about running a car carefully and as speedily as was possible over such rough roads.
It was after two o"clock in the morning when the car turned into the stretch of Main Street, Gridley.
"We"ll go to the police station with the fearful news," proposed Bert Dodge.
"No, we won"t," retorted Hazelton. "We"ll go to the "Blade" office.
Mr. Pollock, the editor, is one of d.i.c.k"s best friends, and he"ll know better than anyone else in town what ought to be done."
So with hands that trembled Bert drove the car up in front of the "Morning Blade" office. All three leaped out, Dodge and Bayliss eager to get into the glow of lights and among human beings.
As Harry"s feet struck the sidewalk he remembered his character as a wounded man and tried to totter up the steps in a realistic fashion.
In the "Blade" building the press was rumbling busily as the inside pages of the paper were being run off.
Mr. Pollock, all alone in the editorial part of the plant, looked up in astonishment as the ghastly-hued Dodge and Bayliss appeared.
The editor"s feeling turned to consternation when he saw Hazelton"s seemingly pitiable condition.
"Hazelton, what can have happened?" gasped the editor, leaping to his feet.
"Take me into another room!" pleaded Harry. "You two fellows,"
indicating Bert and his chum, "stay out here."
Though he didn"t guess the answer, Mr. Pollock led young Hazelton into the mailing room and turned on the light there.
"Sh-h-h!" warned Hazelton, his face lighting up impishly. "Dodge and Bayliss tried to play a trick on d.i.c.k & Co. and Prescott has turned the laugh on them."
"But these blood-stained bandages?" questioned the astounded editor.
"It"s stuff that is used for coloring strawberry ice cream. d.i.c.k bought it at a store. Looks like the real thing, doesn"t it?"