But their caution came too late. At top speed the auto struck the
wayfarer, and before the boys' horrified eyes he was thrown high in
the air, to fall, a confused sprawl of legs and arms, at the wayside.




CHAPTER XI.

BY THE ROADSIDE.


The boys ran forward across the few yards of meadow that intervened
between the Wondership and the roadway. The autoists did not,
apparently, notice them. They had stopped the car and were looking
back.

"Come on and let's get out of this quick," one of them, a hawk-faced
youth, with a long motoring duster on, was shouting to the driver.

"Yes, let's beat it while the going's good, Bill," came from his
companion as he addressed the driver of the car.

"I guess we'd better," said the man addressed as Bill.

Before the boys could intervene the car was on its way again, at top
speed, leaving the unconscious form of its victim at the roadside.

"Of all the cold-blooded scoundrels!" gasped Jack, horrified at such