Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE AUTO BOYS' QUEST _By_ JAMES A. BRADEN AUTHOR OF "THE AUTO BOYS," "THE AUTO BOYS' OUTING," "FAR PAST THE FRONTIER," "CAPTIVES THREE," "CONNECTICUT BOYS IN THE WESTERN RESERVE," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR DeBEBIAN THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO, AKRON OHIO, NEW YORK Copyright, 1910 By The Saalfield Publishing Company [Illustration: Phil held up a yellow envelope, then read: "Know you have gone. Don't know where. Rushing around crazy."] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I A Plan and a Scheme 7 II A Little Practice in Strategy 23 III A Plan that Did not Fail 40 IV Safely Away 53 V Camping on a Strange Road 74 VI On to the Gold Cup Races 90 VII A Night Adventure 104 VIII Plans for the Big Race 120 IX The Crafty Plan of Mr. Gouger 134 X Adventure Befalls the Chosen Trio 151 XI Mr. Blackbeard, the Giant 168 XII Discovered 184 XIII Around the Gold Cup Circuit 203 XIV At the Clarion Racing Camp 218 XV Secrets of the Woods 233 THE AUTO BOYS' QUEST CHAPTER I A PLAN AND A SCHEME "And they piled three stones one on top of another to mark the place. The first was just a big field stone, the second was rough and flat and the third, which was at the top, was the kind called conglomerate. You know--all full of pebbles, like coarse gravel pressed into a mass. Or--or like a fruit cake." There was a note of earnestness in Billy Worth's voice, as if he felt his words to be of great importance and desired that his hearers be impressed accordingly. That his communication did have reference to an important matter was made most apparent, perhaps, by the response it elicited, also earnestly spoken: "And if no one has disturbed them, the chances are the rocks are there yet," said Phil Way. "I mean that, although the heaving of the ground, as it froze and thawed winter after winter, would probably throw the pile down, the three different stones would still be close together for years upon years."