behind; but presently there broke faintly through the whir of the

wind beating against his ears the faint report of a gun. He was

being fired upon again. He pressed down still further upon the

accelerator. The car answered to the pressure. The needle rose

steadily until it reached ninety miles an hour--and topped it.

Then from somewhere in the radiator hose a hissing and a spurt of

steam. Barney was dumbfounded. He had filled the cooling system at

the inn where he had eaten. It had been working perfectly before and

since. What could have happened? There could be but a single

explanation. A bullet from the gun of one of the three men who had

attempted to stop him at the second outpost had penetrated the

radiator, and had slowly drained it.

Barney knew that the end was near, since the usefulness of the car

in furthering his escape was over. At the speed he was going it

would be but a short time before the superheated pistons expanding

in their cylinders would tear the motor to pieces. Barney felt that

he would be lucky if he himself were not killed when it happened.

He reduced his speed and glanced behind. His pursuers had not

gained upon him, but they still were coming. A bend in the road shut

them from his view. A little way ahead the road crossed over a river

upon a wooden bridge. On the opposite side and to the right of the

road was a wood. It seemed to offer the most likely possibilities of

concealment in the vicinity. If he could but throw his pursuers off

the trail for a while he might succeed in escaping through the wood,

eventually reaching Tann on foot. He had a rather hazy idea of the

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