Dave Porter and His Double Part 3

CHAPTER III

THE TEAM THAT RAN AWAY

"Oh, Dave, the gully!" cried his sister Laura. "If we go into that we'll all be killed!"

"Please keep quiet, Laura," flung back her brother in a low, tense voice. "These horses are scared enough as it is."

Dave was doing his best to bring the spirited grays out of their mad gallop. But they had not been out of the stable for the best part of a week, and this, combined with the scare from the roar of the automobile, had so gotten on their nerves that to calm them seemed next to impossible. On and on they flew over the packed snow of the hard road, the sleigh bouncing from side to side as it pa.s.sed over the b.u.mps in the highway.

Jessie was deadly pale and had all she could do to keep from shrieking with fright. But when she heard Dave address his sister in the above words, she shut her teeth hard, resolved to remain silent, no matter what the cost. Ben was worried as well as scared--the more so because he realized there was practically nothing he could do to aid Dave in subduing the runaways. The youth on the front seat had braced both feet on the dashboard of the sleigh, and was pulling back on the reins with all the strength of his vigorous muscles.

Thus fully a quarter of a mile was covered--a stretch of the hill road which fortunately was comparatively straight. But then there loomed up ahead a sharp turn, leading down to the straight road through the valley below.

"Dave--the turn!" gasped Ben, unable to keep himself from speaking.

"I see it. I'll do what I can," cried the young driver; and then pulled on the reins more strongly, if possible, than before.

Closer and closer to the dreaded turn in the road the sleigh approached, and as it drew nearer the girls huddled in their seats almost too terror-stricken to move. Ben sprang up, totally unconscious of doing so.

"Can you make it, Dave, do you think?" gasped the real estate man's son, when the turn was less than a hundred feet away.

"I don't think I'll try," was the unexpected answer. "Hold fast, everybody! We're going through the fence!"

The turn in the road led to the left, and as they approached it Dave relaxed his hold on the left rein and pulled with might and main on the right. This brought the team around just a trifle, but it was enough to keep them from attempting to follow the road--something which would undoubtedly have caused the slewing around of the sleigh and probably its overturning. As it was, the team left the roadway, and the next instant had crashed through a frail rail-fence and was floundering along in the deep snow of a ploughed-up and sloping field beyond.

"Whoa there!" cried Dave, soothingly. "Whoa, Jerry! Whoa, Bill!" And thus he continued to talk to the team while the sleigh b.u.mped along through the deep snow and over the uneven ground.

Running away on the smooth surface of the highway had been one thing; keeping up such a gait over a ploughed field and in snow almost a foot deep was quite another. Soon the fiery grays broke from their mad gallop into a trot, and a minute later Dave had no trouble in bringing them to a halt. There they stood in the snow and the furrows of the field, snorting, and emitting clouds of steam from their nostrils.

"Hold 'em, Dave, while I get out and go to their heads!" cried Ben, and an instant later was out in the snow and had hold of the steeds.

Each of the horses was trembling a little, but the run seemed to have done neither of them any harm.

"Oh, Dave! Dave!" gasped Jessie. She tried to go on, but could not.

"Oh, how thankful I am that you did not attempt to go around that corner!" came from Laura. "If you had tried that we would have been upset and maybe all killed!" and she shuddered.

"It was just the right thing to do, Dave," was Ben's comment. "But I don't know that I would have thought of it. You are a quick thinker, and I guess we have you to thank for saving our lives."

"Well, we've broken down somebody's fence," returned Dave, not knowing what else to say. "We'll have to fix that, I suppose."

"Huh! What's a broken fence to saving one's neck!" snorted Ben.

"Besides, we only busted a couple of rails, and they are not worth a great deal."

"Dave, do you think it will be safe to ride behind that team any more?" questioned Laura.

"I'm going to do it," he answered promptly. "No team of horses is going to get the better of me!"

"I think, now that they have had this run, they'll tame down a little," said Ben. "Besides that, the rest of the road to Coburntown is almost straight and flat."

"Yes, and as soon as we get on a straight road I'll give them all the running they want," answered Dave. "I'll guarantee that by the time we reach town they'll be just as meek as any one would want them."

With Ben still at their heads the team was turned around and led to the roadway once more. There the horses were tied to a tree near by, and then Dave and Ben spent a little time in repairing the damage done to the fence.

"I wish we could find out who those fellows in the auto were," said Ben, when they were once again on the way. "They ought to be fined for speeding."

"I doubt if we'll be able to locate them," answered Dave. And he was right--they never saw or heard of the reckless automobilists again.

As has been mentioned, beyond the hill the road to Coburntown was almost straight and level. And here for over two miles Dave allowed the grays to go along at a good gait, although keeping his eyes on them continually, so that they might not get beyond control. As a consequence of this additional burst of speed, when they came in sight of the town for which they were bound, the grays were quite docile and willing to behave themselves properly.

"Now if you say so, I'll take you girls around to the French Shop,"

suggested Dave, "and then Ben and I can drive around to Mr. Wecks's shoe-store."

This was agreeable to Laura and Jessie, and in a few minutes the girls were left at the door of the establishment where Laura had said she wished to match some ribbon. Then the two boys started for the shoe-dealer's shop. Dave had already acquainted Ben with the particulars of his errand to the place.

"What are you going to do if Wecks says you really had the shoes?"

questioned the son of the real estate dealer, when they were on the way to the shoe store.

"But how can he say that when I haven't been near the place, Ben?"

returned Dave.

"I don't know. But I do know that people have sometimes had things charged to them at the stores which other people got."

"Humph! Well, I sha'n't pay for any shoes that I did not get,"

answered our hero, simply.

Mr. Wecks's establishment was at the far end of the main street of Coburntown; so the lads had half a dozen blocks to cover before they reached the place.

"h.e.l.lo, it's closed!" exclaimed Ben, as they came in sight of the store; and he nodded in the direction of the show window, the curtain of which was drawn down. The curtain on the door was also down, and on the gla.s.s was pasted a sheet of note paper.

"Some sort of notice. I'll see what it is," answered Dave, and, throwing the reins to Ben, he left the sleigh. Soon he was reading what was written on the sheet of paper:

_Closed on account of death in the family._

WILLIAM WECKS.

"Somebody dead. That's too bad!" mused Dave. "I wonder who it can be?"

and then he pa.s.sed into a barber shop next door to find out.

"It's Mr. Wecks's father--a very old man who lived back in the country from here," explained the barber. "Mr. Wecks went up there last night, and he doesn't expect to come back until after the funeral, which will probably be day after to-morrow."

"I don't suppose his clerk is around?" questioned Dave.

"No. The funeral gave him a holiday, and he was glad of it. He's out of town, too;" and having thus expressed himself, the barber turned to wait upon a customer who had just come in, and Dave returned to the sleigh.

"If that's the case, you'll have to let the matter rest until the next time you come to Coburntown, or else you'll have to write to Mr.

Wecks," said Ben.

"I'll be coming over again before very long," answered Dave. "But, just the same, I'd like to have this matter settled."