As might have been expected, the coming and going of the big machine, with its unearthly roar, was too much for the mettlesome grays. Both reared up wildly on their hind legs, backing the sleigh off to one side of the roadway. "Whoa there! Whoa!" cried Dave, and did his best to keep the team in hand. But they proved too much for him, and in an instant more they came down on all fours and started to run away. CHAPTER II SOMETHING OF THE PAST "The horses are running away!" "Oh, we'll be killed!" Such were the cries from the two girls as the mettlesome grays tore along the country highway at a speed that seemed marvelous. "Dave, can I help you?" asked Ben, anxiously. "I don't think so," answered the young driver between his set teeth. "I guess I can bring them down. Anyway, I can try." "What shall we do?" wailed Jessie. "Don't do anything--sit still," ordered Dave. He was afraid that Jessie in her excitement might fling herself from the flying sleigh. On and on bounded the frightened team. Each of the grays now had his bit in his teeth, and it looked as if it would be impossible for Dave to obtain control of the pair. And, worst of all, they were now approaching a turn, with the hill on one side of the roadway and a gully on the other. "Better keep them as far as possible away from the gully," suggested Ben. "That is what I'm trying to do," returned Dave, setting his teeth grimly. Dave Porter was a resolute youth, always doing his best to accomplish whatever he set out to do. Had it been otherwise, it is not likely that he would have occupied the position in which we found him at the opening of our story. When a very small youth Dave had been found wandering along the railroad tracks near Crumville. He could tell little about himself or how he had come in that position; and kind people had taken him in and later on had placed him in the local poorhouse. From that institution he had been taken by an old college professor, named Caspar Potts, who at that time had been farming for his health. In Crumville, the main industry was the Wadsworth jewelry works, owned by Mr. Oliver Wadsworth, who resided, with his wife and his daughter Jessie, in the finest mansion of that district. One day the Wadsworth automobile caught fire, and Jessie was in danger of being burned to death, when Dave came to her rescue. This led Mr. Wadsworth to ask about the boy and about Mr. Potts. And when it was learned that the latter was one of the jewelry manufacturer's former college professors, Mr. Wadsworth insisted upon it that Caspar Potts come and live with him, and bring Dave along. "That boy deserves a good education," had been Oliver Wadsworth's comment, after several interviews with Dave, and as a consequence the youth had been sent off to a first-class boarding-school, as related in the first volume of this series, entitled "Dave Porter at Oak Hall."