"Not at all. It's up to me to do that much, especially after what I did to knock him out--though I didn't mean to, and it was because I was deceived. I'll have a talk with your uncle, when I see him, Dick Hamilton," he added significantly.
"I don't imagine Uncle Ezra will show up around these parts, once he knows he is likely to be defeated," said the young millionaire, with a smile.
"He'll rather have it in for you; won't he, Dick?" asked Paul, as he patted Grit on the head.
"Well, he may," Dick admitted, with a peculiar smile; "but I'm not as afraid of my uncle as I used to be. I may tell him some things, too, the way I did when he tried to kidnap me."
"How was that?" asked Mr. Cameron, interestedly.
"Oh, when I went on a cruise in my ship," answered the owner of the _Last Word_, and he related the main incidents as I have set them down in "Dick Hamilton's Steam Yacht."
"He's as bold as an old-fashioned pirate--your uncle," remarked the young engineer when Dick had finished. "But, say, this is something like living!" he exclaimed, as he saw the preparations under way for getting a meal. "I'm glad I eloped with you boys. Can I help at anything?"
"You might see if you can get some water," suggested Dick. "That in the tanks is a bit stale, I fancy."
Soon they were merrily eating, and talking over their plans for the next few days. They slept that night in the auto, and in the morning were off again, no signs of their pursuers having been seen.
In due time they reached Carson City, and laid in a supply of food and gasoline. Then they hurried onward again. The road was fine in some places, and miserable in others, but they made fairly good time.
They were in California now, and the end of their journey was almost in sight. They might have taken a train, and gotten to San Francisco sooner, perhaps, and very likely it would have been safer to do so, considering the risks they ran. But if this occurred to them they did not give it a second thought.
Besides, Dick did not want to abandon his car, and he had a sort of pride in sticking to it throughout the whole journey across the continent.
True, Mr. Cameron might have gone on by himself, but when Dick suggested this the engineer said: