“Haow do yew know that?” asked the chief, his little eyes blinking curiously.

“Because it’s right behind us now,” declared Jack.  “It’s that red one.”

“Ther dickens you say.  How’d you come ter git erhead of ’em?”

“They must have stopped to fix a tire or something,” said Jack.

But Biff was paying no attention to him.  The majesty of the law was strong upon him.  Calling his minions to his side he stepped into the middle of the road in front of the red car.

“Get out of the way!” shouted the man who was driving.

“Not much I won’t,” declared Biff valorously.  “Halt that gasoline gadabout o’ yourn instanter.”

“What for, you old Rube?”

“Old Rube am I?” sputtered Biff, feeling that the law had been insulted in his person, “jes’ fer thet yer under ’rest.”

“What for?” demanded the driver of the red car angrily.

“Fer running daown and grievously wounding a man and then speedin’ off without stoppin’ ter see if you’d killed him dead or what all.  That’s what fer.”

The driver of the red machine lost his blustering tone.

“Why, there’s some mistake,” he stammered, his face very pale, “I—­er—­we—­er—­that is, we didn’t run anybody down.”

“Oh, yes, you did,” said Jack.  “We saw you, and what’s more we’ve got the man you struck right here in our car.  You’re a fine pack of cowards to run off like that.  If we hadn’t happened along he might have lain there for hours before help came.”

“You saw us!” gasped the driver of the car, losing his bravado completely.  “Well, I might as well admit we did run a man down.  But we didn’t think he was badly hurt and so we put on all speed to rush into town here and get a doctor for him.  We’d have been here sooner only one of our tires punctured.”

“Thet’s a dern good story,” said the chief, “but you’ll hev ter ’splain that ter ther squire.  Come on with me ter ther court-house.  Too bad fer you thet them Chadwick boys had some sort of a do-funny dingus on their sky buggy that talks through the air, otherwise you’d hev got clar’ away.”

The man had, by this time, got out of the car which they halted at the side of the street.  A crowd of curious villagers gathered and were staring at the scene and the actors in it.

At Chief Biff’s words the driver of the red car flashed an angry look at the boys.  His companions looked equally vindictive.

“So, it’s to you we owe our arrest, is it?” he said in a low voice, coming quite close to Jack.  “All right.  You’ll hear from me later.  I’m not going to forget you or that other kid, either.  Do you understand?”

Jack made no reply, and as he was anxious to get the injured man to the hospital as quickly as possible he drove off.  At the institution the man was carried to a cot by two orderlies, and the doctor in charge told the boys that, so far as he could see, his injuries were not mortal, although he added that a fracture of the skull was possible.