“Yah, and der first dings you know, Dom, you vos ub a dree odder you sphlit a rock insides owid,” warned Hans.  “Ven I ride so fast like dot I valk, I pet you!”

It was dark long before the city was reached and they had to stop to light the lamps, and they also had to fix the batteries of the second car.  Fred, who was getting hungry, suggested they stop somewhere for something to eat, but the girls demurred.

“Wait until the ride is ended,” said Dora.  “Then we can take our time over supper.”

As night came on they saw fireworks displayed here and there and enjoyed the sights greatly.

“I’ve got some fireworks on the yacht,” said Tom.  “I reckon I’ll be rather late setting them off.”

While they were yet three miles from the river they stopped at a drug store and there Dick telephoned to the owner of the machines, explaining matters, and asking the man to send down to the dock for the cars.

“He’s pretty angry,” said Dick, as he leaped into the automobile again.  “He says we had no right to run off with the cars.”

“Well, he had no right to send us off with those awful chauffeurs,” answered Dora.

“Oh, I’m not afraid of anything he’ll do,” answered Dick.

Nevertheless, he was a bit anxious as he reached the dock, and he lost no time in sending the girls to the yacht with Songbird, and he asked his chum to send Mr. Rover ashore.

A minute later a light runabout spun up and a tall, thin man, with a sour face, leaped out and strode up to the two machines.

“Who hired these machines, I want to know?” he demanded.  “I did,” answered Dick boldly.  “Are you the manager of the garage?”

“I am, and I want to know by what right you’ve been running the cars without the regular drivers?”

“We wanted to get back to the city and the chauffeurs were in no condition to bring us back,” put in Tom.

“What have you to do with it, young man?”

“I drove one car and my brother here drove the other.  We didn’t hurt the machines and you ought to be glad we brought them back in good condition.”

“Humph!  You hadn’t any license to run them.”

“We took the liberty of doing so,” said Dick.  “If you want to get angry about it, I’ll get angry myself.  You had no right to place those cars in the hands of unreliable men.  You risked our lives by so doing.”

“Those men are reliable enough.  One of them telephoned to me you had run away with the autos.”

“The folks at the Dardell Hotel will tell you how reliable they were.  I warned them not to drink, but they did, and they were in no condition to run any automobile.”

“I don’t allow just anybody to run my machines,” stormed the man.  “They are expensive pieces of property.”

“Well, they are not worth as much as our necks, not by a good deal,” said Tom.

“Don’t you get impudent, young fellow!”