e left it standing here. It was left for us."

He lifted her into the wagon, sprang to the head of the horse, unhitched
the animal, and a moment later was by the woman's side. The horse was
reined around into the road. The man seized the whip and a moment later
the sound of the animal's hoofs mingled with the rattle of the wagon
wheels.

"Night at last!" cried the desperate kidnaper. "Now we'll dodge them
somehow!"

"You cannot dodge them, Selwin," said the woman. "I feel that we're
hurrying straight into their clutches."

"Why, you fool, they're behind us! I tell you we'll dodge them now. Why
in blazes did I ever bother to take that other brat from the poorhouse
where its mother died? It was your plan to substitute one child for the
other, Bessie. I wanted to steal Merriwell's kid in the first place.
Furies take him! I swore years ago to strike at his heart when the time
came. He was responsible for the death of my brother. They were at Yale
together, this Merriwell and poor old Sport. Merriwell disgraced Sport
by exposing him as a card sharp. Sport sought to get even. He followed
Merriwell to England, and in England he died. In his last letter to me
he wrote that he had a premonition of his fate. He said he felt sure
that Merriwell would do him up at last."

"Did Frank Merriwell kill him?"

"Oh, just the same as that. I believe Sport was killed in some sort of
an accident while he was running away from Merriwell. I've waited a long
time, but I've struck at last. Satan take this hill!"

He lashed the horse, and the animal went galloping up the road that
wound over the hill.

Suddenly, at a turn of the road, two fiery eyes burst into view, and
through the night came the wild shriek of an automobile horn.

With an oath, the man sought to rein to one side of the narrow road.

The fiery eyes were right upon them.

There was a crash. The wagon was struck and smashed. Man, woman, and
child were hurled into the ditch.

Chester Arlington, a lad who, despite his father's wealth, had been
dismissed from school, stopped his machine ten rods farther on.

"Are you hurt, June?" he asked, addressing his sister, who numbered Dick
Merriwell and Dale Sparkfair among her admirers.

"No, I'm not hurt," answered the girl, who was sitting beside him. "But
I believe you've killed some one, Chester! I told you that you would!
Oh, it's terrible! Let's go back and see."

Arlington removed one of the oil lamps from his car, and