It was coming at a slow rate of speed, and to leap aboard would not be difficult. When within a dozen feet of the young motorist, the car seemed to recognize an enemy and to attempt to turn aside. Matt ran forward, stopped, executed a flying leap and gained the running board. Another moment and he was in the driver’s seat and had brought the car to a halt. The reverse gear was engaged, so the runabout had ample warrant for crawfishing along the road. There was nothing in the car, however, that offered any clue to the mystery of what had become of the two who had taken the runabout from the Country Club garage. Matt got down and made a hurried examination. The car was in as good condition as ever, and rebuffed his efforts at getting clues. There was something uncanny about the machine. Matt admitted it to himself. It acted in a way that defied all explanation, at times, and that alone was enough to get on a chauffeur’s nerves. Perhaps Billy was right, and that the “double hoodoo,” in some incomprehensible manner, was accountable for the car’s tantrums. So far as McGlory and Levitt were concerned, there was a possibility that the car had misbehaved so outrageously that they had put on the reverse and cast it adrift, to go where it would. But there were other travelers in the road to think of. Levitt and McGlory would scarcely take chances of wrecking some other machine, or of running down a carriage, or some pedestrian. Matt was deeply puzzled. “Well,” he thought, “I want a way to return to New York, and here it is. It meets me on the road, and I should be foolish not to take advantage of it. Quite likely Joe and Levitt have found other and more satisfactory means for reaching the city. I don’t blame them for changing to another car, if they had the opportunity, or for taking a railroad train if they happened to be conveniently near one. There’s no railroad very close to this place, though, and the runabout couldn’t have come far, with no one in control.” There was enough gas in the cylinders so that the motor took the spark. The runabout leaped ahead, perfectly obedient to Matt’s hand. As he swept along he looked and listened for some signs of McGlory and Levitt. He came upon the two missing passengers suddenly--and what he saw caused him to jam down hard on the brakes and leap from the car before it was fairly at a stop. CHAPTER XIII. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES. Joe McGlory was kneeling beside the road, tying a handkerchief bandage around the forehead of Levitt. The latter was sprawled out limply on the ground, his clothing torn and disarranged. “What’s the matter, Joe?” asked Matt. The cowboy’s face was pale, and the set lines of it indicated that he was himself in pain. “That’s you, is it, pard?” he asked huskily. For a useless question McGlory threw a good deal of feeling into it. “Yes.”