give our pursuers the slip."

"Oh! I see the house right now," barked Josh; "and sure enough it's just
as you said, with part of the roof gone."

"It sets near the road, so we can rush around it," called out the
leader. "Josh will go on ahead now and hide his machine among the trees
near the road. Hanky, you keep with me. Perhaps we'll enter the house,
and pass out the back way, to speed on again. Josh, you hurry back so
when the men leave their car to see if you're inside the house you can
get busy. Understand?"

Both of the others called out that it was perfectly clear to them. The
abandoned mansion was now close at hand. Rod believed they must be
drawing near the outskirts of Ostend, the Belgian watering place, which
could not lie many miles beyond.

It required a clever mind to arrange all the little details of such a
plan of campaign in a hurry. The fact that Rod was able to do so stamped
him the right kind of a leader. Still, neither of his companions thought
it strange, because they had known him to do numerous similar things in
times gone by.

Josh managed to get ahead, and would thus have a brief time to hide his
machine alongside the road so as to steal back towards the house before
the car arrived, for it was still some little distance away.

When the men in it saw only two boys riding off they would naturally
suspect that some accident had happened to the machine of the third
fellow, who possibly had taken up temporary quarters in the old house.
This was just what Rod wanted them to think; it would allow Josh the
chance he needed to disable the car in some way or other.

Things moved along swiftly. Rod and Hanky Panky dashed up to the front
of the house and stopped. Doubtless the oncoming pursuers would miss the
clattering of the exhausts, and understand that they had halted for some
purpose or other.

"They've slowed down some themselves, Rod!" cried Hanky Panky, as he
stood "at attention," ready to jump on his machine the instant Rod gave
the word, so as to continue the mad flight.

The red car had come around the last bend, and was now in plain sight.
For a distance of at least two miles the road ran as straight as a yard
stick; so that the men could readily see that the third motorcycle lad
was not in sight ahead.

"All right; it's time we were off!" cried Rod presently.

The car had covered half the distance between the bend and the deserted
house, and they could plainly see the man sitting