CHAPTER VIII
THE PLANS
“Lemme get out and find a club, Dan!” begged Billy, as the gray carcontinued to approach the red one at a swift pace.
“What could you do with a club?” demanded the older lad.
“I’d bust it over that beast’s head!” declared his brother, excitedly.“Stop the car!”
The occupants of the red car had all crouched down in the bottom, hopingthe bull would not see them. They might have been ostriches hiding theirheads from pursuit in the desert sand.
The beast charged again, and this time he smashed the windshield and gothis forehoofs into the front of the car. Barry Spink vaulted over theback of the seat and left Lettie Parker (who had sat with him) to herfate.
“We’re coming, Let!” roared Billy, standing up and fairly dancing in theonrushing gray racer.
The next instant the bull backed away and got right into the path of theSpeedwells’ car. Dan had intended to run her alongside of the redautomobile and give the frightened passengers a chance to escape.
But the bull got in the way. There was a heavy thud, and Mr. Bullflopped over on his side, bellowing in pain and surprise, while the graycar rebounded from his carcass as though it were made of India rubber.
“Goody-good!” shrieked Lettie Parker. “Bump the mean old thing again,Dan! Bump it!”
But Dan shut off the power quickly. He was afraid the collision had donethe racer no good, as it was.
However, he had no intention of seeing the bull do any further harm tothe crowd in Burton Poole’s car. With Billy, he ran at the beast, thathad now staggered to his feet. Dan had seized a long-handled wrench fromthe tool box, and before the bull could lower his head to charge, he hitthe tender nose a hard clip.
How the creature roared! He hated to give up the fight and it was notuntil Dan had struck another blow that the bull backed into the ditchand cleared the road for the passage of the two cars.
“For pity’s sake get under the wheel yourself, Burton!” exclaimed Dan.“Get those girls out of here.”
“I’m going to get into your car, Billy,” declared Lettie Parker.
“And I, too!” gasped Mildred.
“Why, it wasn’t my fault the old bull charged us,” whined BarringtonSpink.
“You give me a pain!” growled Burton, who was a big, rather slow-wittedfellow, but sound of heart. “You jumped over the seat and left Let to begored to death by that beast—as far as _you_ cared!”
“I—I thought she was coming, too,” gasped Spink.
“See if you can get any action in your engine, Burton,” advised Dan. “Ifthat other fellow had had any sense at all he wouldn’t have rushed rightdown upon the bull in the way he did.”
“I—I didn’t suppose it would dare face the car,” continued theexplanatory Spink.
“Rats!” snapped Billy, in disgust. “The car’s red enough to giveanything the blind staggers! No wonder that old bull went for it.”
Burton tried to turn his engine; but he couldn’t get a bit of action outof it. Fortunately the bull was whipped, and the Speedwells turned theirown machine about, hitched on to the red car, and towed it back toRiverdale, unmolested.
Later in the week, after the boys had tried the racer out to theircomplete satisfaction, Dan remained up one evening long after hisbrother had gone to bed. Billy fell asleep seeing Dan bent over certaindrawings he had made, and it must have been midnight when the youngerboy was startled out of his sound sleep by a sudden sound.
There was Dan hopping about the room in a grotesque, stocking-footeddance.
“What under the sun’s the matter with you, Dan?” gasped the younger boy.
“I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” ejaculated his brother, snapping his fingersand continuing the dance.
“Stop it! stop it, I say!” commanded Billy. “You’ll have mother in here.My goodness! can’t you break out with the measles—or whatever you’vegot—at a decent hour?”
“It’s something bigger than the measles, Billy,” chuckled Dan, fallinginto his chair before the table again. “Look here.”
“Those old plans——” began Billy, sleepily.
“These _new_ plans, you mean,” responded his brother, vigorously. “Itell you I’ve struck pay dirt.”
The words stung Billy into a keener appreciation of his brother’sexcitement. Awakened from a sound sleep, he had been rather dazed atfirst. Now he knew what Dan meant.
“You—got—it?” he gasped, stifling a mighty yawn. “Figured it all out?”
“I’m going to rig a motor-driven sprocket wheel arrangement that willpush a car over the ice at good speed—yes, sir!”
“Going to hitch it to the _Fly-up-the-Creek_?” demanded Billy, eagerly,bending over the papers Dan had prepared.
“No. That’s where I was wrong. We’ll build an entirely new iceboat. Seehere?” and he at once began explaining to his brother the idea thatdeveloped—as it seemed—almost of itself since Billy had gone to sleepthree hours before.
“It sure looks good!” exclaimed the younger boy, admiringly, when Danhad concluded. “You _have_ got it, Dan! And the boys will be crazy overit.”
“We’ll just keep it to ourselves, you know,” warned Dan. “Mr. RobertDarringford is going to offer a handsome prize for the fastest iceboatat the regatta we’re going to hold. Don’t you know that?”
“Well—er—yes.”
“Then we’ll just keep still about this scheme. Some of the parts willhave to be made in the machine shops, you know. And some parts we’ll getold Troutman, at Compton, to make. You remember him?”
“Sure! the pattern maker who worked for Mr. Asa Craig when Mr. Craig wasbuilding his submarine.”
“The same. We won’t let anybody but father see the plans as completed.No use in letting ’em in on the scheme.”
“Crickey, Dan!” exclaimed Billy. “If we build a racer that wipes up thewhole river, Barry Spink will turn green with envy. I heard him blowingthe other day that he was going to have some kind of a mechanicalcontrivance built for his _White Albatross_ that would make her thefastest thing on the ice.”
“That’s all right. Maybe he’s got something good up his sleeve,” laughedDan. “But I believe that we have something just a little better here,”and he tapped the plans on the table.
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