"All right, Dad," sang out Bob over his shoulder. "We'll be careful.
Follow along."

The boys were heading for a place in the woods where the drive ran
between six-foot banks before turning a sharp corner. Cars perforce
had to be slowed up going through this place which the boys called the
Gut. Furthermore, the drive approached this place by a winding,
circuitous route, while the boys were not far distant from it by the
shortcut through the woods which they were following. Chances were
even that they would be in time to intercept the fugitives. Yet what
could they do even if they arrived in time? They gave no thought to
that as they crashed through the underbrush.

Bob slightly in the lead reached the top of the bank overhanging the
road ahead of his comrade and experienced a thrill of triumph as he
heard the roar of the approaching car and realized he had arrived
first. The car slowed down as it entered the Gut. Evidently the driver
remembered the perilous place from when he had driven through on
approaching the house.

The car passed below going at a snail's pace while Frank was still a
short distance in the rear and Mr. Temple and Tom Barnum were not yet
in sight. It was an open touring car with the top folded back. There
were three men in it, one on the seat beside the driver and the third
in the rear. He was the man who had entered the Hampton house. The
driver appeared to be a New York taxi chauffeur, and probably had been
employed for the trip. The others were swarthy men, foreign in
appearance.