or bringing your
car back to you, Mr. Bangs," remarked Gif. "If he hadn't jumped from his
horse into the car the machine might be racking itself to pieces out on
the prairie now. It was doing all sorts of stunts when he jumped aboard
and shut off the power."

"I can't understand this nohow," grumbled Jarley Bangs. "If what you say
is true, how in thunder did that car git started? I left it by the edge
of the woods while I went in to look over some timber that we thought of
gitting out this fall. All at once I heard the engine go off with a bang,
and when I ran out of the woods to see what was doing the car was gone."

"Was any one with you?" questioned Spouter.

"No. I came out alone. Lester wanted to come along, but I told him to
stay at the ranch and do some work. He seems to think that all he's out
here for is to play."

"Oh, then Lester is staying with you, is he?" queried Fred.

"Yes. His folks let him come up for a couple of months. Then he's going
back to his home in Wyoming, and after that he's got to return to that
military school. I think it's a fool notion to send him to that school.
If I was his father I'd make him stay out here and go to work."

"You don't suppose Lester tried to start the car, do you?" questioned
Andy.

"How could he if he was at the ranch? But wait a minute! He said
something about going fishing in that brook that flows through the woods.
Maybe he did come up that way, after all."

"Does he know how to run the auto?" asked Randy.

"Yes, he does. But I don't let him run it very often because he's so
careless I'm afraid he'll ruin the machine--he bangs her over the rocks
something awful. I ain't got no money to waste on a new car. This has got
to do, even if it is kind of used up."

"Maybe Brassy--I mean Lester--came up and tried to start the car while
the gears were in mesh," suggested Jack; "and then when the car started
to run away perhaps he got scared and ran away, too."

"If he did anything like that he'll have an account to settle with me!"
exclaimed Jarley Bangs, his eyes glowing with anger. "That boy is getting
too fresh. I said he could come up here, thinking he'd do some work
around the place and so earn the money that I promised him for his
schooling. But evidently he thinks more of having a good time than he
does of working. He is forever fooling around the car and wanting to run
it; so I wouldn't put it past him to do what you suspect. As soon as I
git home I'll k