"And we didn't suspect," added Paul, gloomily.
"No," went on our hero. "I even believe they punctured that tire on purpose."
"They might have," admitted Innis. "It's a wonder that fellow didn't put your motor out of commission for keeps, Dick, while he was working over it."
"He might easily have done so. I never suspected a thing. But I was watching him pretty closely, for all that, for he didn't know as much about machinery as he pretended to. He couldn't have tried any trick without my seeing him, and I guess he didn't care to take any chances.
"His game was to hold my attention while his confederates worked things so as to get Mr. Cameron near their car. Then they grabbed him, stuck a chloroformed rag over his nose to take the fight out of him, and made their get-away."
"It's lucky your motor started when it did," remarked Innis, as he clung to the sides of the swaying car.
"That's right," agreed Dick. "We might have been stalled yet, only that luck was with us. I suppose monkeying with it the way we did, we put back into adjustment some little thing that was out of gear. She's running like a sewing machine now."
And indeed the big car was responding nobly to the demands made on her. The road was very good, fortunately. It was getting dusk, but the boys had no thought of even halting for supper. There were some sandwiches they could eat later on.
Dick switched on the powerful searchlights and the path ahead of them was illumined by a brilliant glow. Mile after mile they covered, and as it happened, the only crossroads they passed were so poor that it would have been dangerous for the car ahead of them to have turned off.
"Though they may slip into some side lane, and trust to us to run past," said Paul.
"Maybe," assented Dick. "The odds are against us, but we'll keep on."
"Look!" suddenly cried Innis, pointing ahead. Through the darkness they could see a single gleam of red, like some big ruby.
"We haven't passed any, though maybe we're catching up to one that came in from some side road," admitted Dick. "Here goes for a spurt. Maybe we can catch 'em!"
He threw on all the power that was safe on such a road at night, and the _Last Word_ forged ahead. It was their one best chance to catch the other car, if indeed that was it, and they were taking advantage of it.