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 Dick'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 Dick & 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.  Dick
bought it at a store.  Looks like the real thing, doesn't it?"

"It looked real enough to give me a bad turn," admitted the editor
dryly.

Then, in whispers, Harry told the story as rapidly as he could.
Mr. Pollock's face took on a broader grin as he listened.

"I'd hate to have young Prescott for my enemy," confessed the
"Blade's" editor.  "But this is the most atrocious joke I've ever
known him to put up."

"We had to put a stop to Dodge and Bayliss," Harry smiled.  "Perhaps
you'd better go back to Dodge and Bayliss, now---but please don't
let 'em know that it's all a joke."

"I won't spoil the thing," promised the editor, and hastened out.

"I'll be with you in just a minute, gentlemen," nodded Mr. Pollock
to Dodge and Bayliss, as he entered the editorial room, then sprang
into the telephone closet, closing the door after him.

Mr. Pollock telephoned the sheriff of the county, and also the
officer in charge at the Gridley police station, giving the officials
a hint of the joke at the second lake, so they wouldn't rush away
on a fool's errand in case the wild story reached their ears.

"Now I'll listen to what you two may have to tell me," announced
Mr. Pollock, coming out of the telephone closet.  "Then I'll have
to ask you to hurry away, as Hazelton will have to be attended
to and many things done.  Talk fast, if you please."

Dodge and Bayliss poured out what they knew of the night's business.

"And how did you two happen to be there?" inquired Mr. Pollock.

"Oh, we---we---we were touring in that part of the country, and
were fixing a break-down when Hazelton came running up," stammered
Bert Dodge.

"It was fortunate, indeed, for Hazelton, that you had that break-down,"
replied the editor.  Then his manner showed Dodge and Bayliss
that it was time for them to go.  Both were glad to get out of
the "Blade" office, for they feared to stand too much questioning
from one as keen as the newspaper man.