“Not a word—­ and I don’t want to hear from him,” replied Dora.

“He’s in hiding, but he’ll let us hear from him sooner or later—­ mark my words.”

“Oh, I wish he hadn’t escaped, Dick!” And Dora clung tightly to his arm.

“Well, that can’t be helped.”

“Is there anything new about your father’s business?”

“Nothing of any importance.”

“How does he feel?”

“In his last letter he said he felt somewhat better and was going to take a trip to New York.  How is your mother?”

“Quite well.  But the fact that old Crabtree is at large disturbs her very much.  As soon as she heard of it, she went over to the Lanings’ home to stay.”

The boys had driven over to Hope in a carriage.  When they started to return to Brill it was quite dark.

“We’ve got to hurry up,” remarked Tom, as they rode away, Sam driving the team.

“Why so?” asked Dick.  “We have no boning to do to-night.”

“Have you forgotten the spread Bob Grimes is going to give?  He said it was to be the finest yet given at Brill, and I don’t want to miss it.”

“That’s so!” cried Dick.  “Sure, we want to be on hand, since we are invited.  Bob is a first-class fellow.”

“Queer we forgot about that feast,” murmured Sam.  “But I suppose we were thinking too much of the girls,” and he grinned sheepishly.

“What time is the spread to come off, Tom?” asked his big brother.

“Ten o’clock sharp, so Bob said.”

“In his room?”

“His room and the one next to it.  They connect, you know.”

“We’ll get there in plenty of time—­ unless we have a breakdown—­ which I don’t expect.”

“Don’t be too sure of that.  This carriage is none too good.  I said so when Abner Filbury brought it around for me.”

“The wheels do appear to be somewhat shaky,” remarked Sam.

“We miss the biplane, for making quick trips,” returned Tom, with a sigh.  “We ought to get a runabout—­ an auto runabout, I mean.”

“That’s the talk!” cried his younger brother.  “If we had one of those we could run over to Hope whenever we pleased.”

The main road was being repaired, so, at a certain place, the boys had to turn off on a side road for a distance of nearly a mile.  Here the going was anything but good, and they went down in more than one rut or hollow.

“Be careful, Sam!” warned Dick.  “Don’t drive so fast.”

“Oh, go ahead,” put in Tom, impatiently.  “We are losing a lot of time on this side road.”

Just then came a narrow turn, with a down grade, very uneven and full of rocks.  Over the latter bumped the carriage.  Then came a sudden jounce, followed by a crash.

“Whoa!” yelled Sam to the team, and brought them to a standstill at the foot of the hill.

“What broke?” asked Dick, anxiously.

“The back axle, I think,” answered Tom, as he leaped to the ground.