CHAPTER IV
BILLY ACTS ON IMPULSE
The sight of Maxey Solomons and his automobile tossed over theembankment and out of view—as a mad bull might toss a dog—frightenedBilly Speedwell and his mates; at the moment they did not, like Dan,think of bringing the three men in the maroon motor car to account fortheir rashness.
With cries of fear they ran along the road to the broken place in thestone wall. Motor car and driver had disappeared over the brink of thechasm. The tops of several trees, the roots of which were embedded inthe soil of the river bank, were visible above the wall. The motor carhad crashed into these tree-tops; but the boys did not dream, at first,that the branches would stay such a heavy object.
When they came to the break in the stone wall and leaned over it, theysaw the drab automobile hanging in the air, not more than twenty feetbelow the road. It was upside down and it had stuck in the crotchedbranches of two of the tall trees.
At first they saw nothing of Maxey; but of course, they could not see tothe ground at the foot of the fifty-foot precipice over which youngSolomons and his automobile had fallen.
“He’s dead!” groaned Monroe Stevens.
“Crushed to death down there—poor chap!” agreed Jim Stetson.
“My goodness!” said Billy. “Who’ll tell his father? The old gentlemanwill be all broken up. He just about lived for Maxey.”
“And the auto isn’t worth a cent, either,” added Brace Henderson.
At that moment a muffled voice reached their ears, and startled themall.
“Help! Mercy on us—isn’t this dreadful? Help!”
Billy cried his surprise ahead of the others:
“It’s Maxey! He is under the auto!”
They could not see the owner of the wrecked car—not even his legsdangled into view. But Maxey’s voice was unmistakable.
“What you doing down there, Max?” cried Monroe Stevens, loudly. “Whydon’t you crawl out?”
“I can’t!” wailed the voice of the hidden youth.
“Why can’t you?” queried Henderson.
“I don’t dare,” admitted Solomons.
All the cushions of the automobile had rattled to the ground. Its driverwas clinging to the wheel, or some other stationary fixture, and notbeing a particularly brave youth, he could only hang on.
“Somebody’s got to help him,” declared Billy.
“But we haven’t a rope,” objected Jim Stetson. “How can we get him uphere?”
“Belts, boys!” cried the quick-witted Billy Speedwell. “Buckle ’emtogether. I can jump into the top of one of those trees, and I’ll carrythe line of belts down, fasten it to the tree, and then to Maxey, andswing him off.”
“You’ll fall, Billy,” objected Monroe, who was older and felt himselfresponsible for Billy’s safety, now that Dan had gone.
“Not a bit of it!” declared Billy. “Come on with the belts.”
There being no better way suggested, the boys followed Billy’s plan.They watched him in some trepidation, however, as he let himself overthe broken wall and leaped for a swinging branch of one of the treesinto which the automobile had fallen.
He reached a limb directly below Maxey. That young man was clinging—asBilly had supposed—to the steering gear. He was afraid to drop upon thelimb where Billy stood. Indeed, had he done so, he would have had nomeans of balancing himself. Billy Speedwell had kicked off his shoesbefore descending the tree and he was barely able to keep hisequilibrium.
“Catch the end of this belt, Maxey!” he cried.
“Oh, I can’t!”
“I tell you that you’ve got to!”
But, although Maxey was usually easily influenced, Billy could not putpluck into him at this juncture. The younger boy had to finally climbinto the overturned automobile, cling with one hand and his feet to thecar, and buckle an end of the string of belts around Maxey’s waist.
The rescuer tossed the end of the line of belts to Monroe and BraceHenderson, and they helped Maxey out upon the roadway again. Billyfollowed, and when the adventure was over not alone Maxey Solomons, butthe boys of the Riverdale Club, felt the reaction. The peril threateningthe owner of the wrecked automobile had indeed been great.
“I’m afraid your car is done for, Maxey,” said Monroe Stevens, withsympathy.
“I don’t care!” sighed the rich man’s son. “I wouldn’t ride home in itif it was right-side up here in the road. I never want to ride in amotor car again.”
“Pshaw!” said Jim. “Now you’re talking reckless. It’s too bad you’ve gotthe car in that bad fix.”
“I tell you I don’t want the car. If it can be got out of the tree I’llsell it. I won’t ever ride in it again.”
“You don’t mean that, Maxey?” said Billy, earnestly.
“Yes, I do.”
“But it’s a new machine.”
“I’d sell her for half what she’s worth,” Maxey persisted.
Monroe Stevens laughed, and said: “According to your own tell, Maxey,she isn’t worth anything.”
“But, if anybody thinks she’s worth buying?” began the owner.
“Isn’t that just like you?” cried Jim. “I suppose you’d want half whatyour father paid for her.”
“I might want—but would I get it?” returned Maxey, shrewdly.
“Just _what_ will you take for the car?” demanded Billy, still inearnest.
Monroe Stevens looked at Speedwell suddenly, and with interest.
“My gracious, Billy! I forgot that you and Dan are capitalists. You_could_ buy old Maxey out, couldn’t you?”
“So he could,” cried Jim. “Billy and Dan banked the thousand dollarsreward the Darringfords offered for the apprehension of the fellow whoset the shops afire. Now, Maxey, if you really want to sell, you’dbetter put a real price on your car.”
Billy flushed. He was stirred by impulse to buy the wrecked car. He hadseen just how badly it was smashed and he knew that if Maxey would sellcheap enough somebody would get a bargain. The drab racing machine wasof a standard make and there was good reason why Maxey might havethought of entering it in the thousand mile endurance run. A car of thesame kind had won such a contest only the season before.
Young Solomons looked at Billy thoughtfully. Something seemed to beworking in his mind.
“You came down and saved me, Billy Speedwell,” he said. “Of course, theother boys helped, and I’m grateful to all of you. But Billy came firstto my help.”
“Shucks!” grunted Billy. “Forget it!”
“No. I’m not likely to forget it,” returned Maxey, gravely. “If you wantthat car—just as it lies there in the tree-top—you can have it for fivehundred dollars. She cost twenty-two hundred and fifty. I can show youthe receipted bill.”
“Whew!” cried Jim. “You don’t want anything for it, do you, Maxey? Idon’t believe you can get it out of the tree.”
But Billy had made up his mind already about that phase of the matter.And how he wanted to own that racing car!
He and Dan had watched the auto as it was handled by the professionalchauffeur, and knew that it was a wonderfully good machine. But if thecar was lifted safely back to the road, it would cost a good deal torebuild it and put it in running shape again. Still——
“I’ll think about it, Maxey,” he said, slowly.
“No, Billy,” said the owner of the wrecked car, seriously. “If you taketime to think about it, so will _I_ take time to think about it. I won’tfeel the way I do now, to-morrow maybe. You see? You can have it _now_for five hundred dollars. I maybe won’t want to sell at all when I thinkabout it a while.”
Both Dan and Billy had put their money into the bank untouched. Billyhad just an even five hundred dollars. He could not expect Dan to backhim up with any of his money in such a wild bargain as this. But therewas the car—Billy believed it could be saved and repaired for acomparatively small sum—and one-fourth of its purchase price, for a carless
than three months old, was a bargain indeed!
Billy took it.