when,
panting, he was at last obliged to halt.

"Hear him---going," gasped Darrin.

"I can't hear him," confessed Dick, after a moment of listening.

"That's just the point. He has gotten so far away that we can't
hear him crashing through the undergrowth."

"I'm afraid we won't catch up with him again to-day," sighed Dick.

"The folks who are trying to catch Amos Garwood are foolish in
sending detectives to look for him," muttered Dave. "They ought
to hire professional sprinters."

Away at their rear sounded a fainter whoop.

"Answer the fellows, Dave," urged Prescott.

"I will---when I get some wind," muttered Darrin.

Three times more Greg and his fellows whooped before Dick could
get together enough wind to make his voice travel. Greg repeated
the hail, and again Dick answered. After a few minutes the other
Grammar School boys caught up with Dick and his friend, who told
to the new-comers the story of the encounter with Amos Garwood.

"Get away from you again?" asked Tom blankly.

"I don't believe we'll ever chase that streak of light again,"
growled Dave. "I don't feel as though I'd ever be able to run
again. Amos Garwood can walk faster than any of us can run."

"The most that we can do at present," Prescott concluded, will
be to notify Lawyer Ripley or Chief Coy that we've seen the Garwood
flyer again."

"I wish we could catch him," sighed Torn, while Greg nodded.

"You two can have the next chance," smiled Dick. "As for me,
I am certain that I can never catch Amos Garwood unless he and
I happen to be running toward each other."

"All in favor of supper," proposed Dan Dalzell, glancing at his
watch, "say 'aye' and turn homeward."

"But shan't we try, for a while, to trail Garwood?" queried Greg.

"What's the use?" cross-questioned Dick disconsolately. "We might
sight him, but we'd never catch him. Nor do I believe he has
stopped running yet."

"If he hasn't," grumbled Dave, "he's twenty miles from here by
this time."

So Dan's motion prevailed. The baseball squad of the Central
Grammar School turned toward the road that led homeward.

Chapter XV

BLUFFING UP TO THE BIG GAME

"That explosion was fearful, what there was of it," Dick declared
to Chief Coy. It was evening, and the head of the local police
department had stopped the boys on the street for additional information
on the subject.

"What did it look like?" asked Chief Coy.

"There came a big flash and a loud bang