arry 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 pulle