Very luckily had Worth made a dive into the crowd the moment he found himself and Phil observed by Freddy Perth. Thinking Way followed, he called with a quick gasp to MacLester and Jones and darted into an open stairway. Quickly as they could the three ran up the steps into a narrow hall on the second floor. A window was open toward the street and Worth was not long in discovering how to put it to good use. In dismay he saw, with Paul and Dave peeping out over his shoulder, that Phil had fallen fairly into the enemy's hands. He could not hear the words exchanged with Perth, but realized how mystified Way was as he waved his hand and walked away. "Of course they'll follow. Won't let him get out of their sight!" ejaculated Billy. "We've got to make a grand rush in the machine and get Phil away from them before they know what's happened." "Just let him lead them quite a stretch away. Gaines' car is probably right near here," Paul put in, eagerly. The suggestion was adopted. Then Jones volunteered to keep Way and the enemy both in sight while Billy and Dave brought the Thirty up. Ten minutes later there was a sudden blast of a flying automobile's horn in one of Queensville's quiet streets. In another instant the car had slackened speed and a young man rushed from the sidewalk and climbed aboard. Like a flash the machine sped forward again, followed by a series of angry, disappointed yells from three other youths who also dashed out from the sidewalk as if they had thought of going along. A good many people observing the rather mysterious performance, as they sat upon their lawns and porches, or strolled on the street, were decidedly at a loss to know what to make of it all. "Oh, I guess we're no wizards at all! No, nothing like that! No wizards about us! Not at all!" chuckled Paul Jones in a perfect rapture of delight. "No, we're no _wizards_!" And although Philip, William and David expressed themselves in somewhat different language, it was apparent that they, too, entertained pretty much the same opinion as the highly elated Mr. Jones with regard to their being "No wizards, at all," whatever that may signify. Yet now that the Chosen Trio had been again outwitted and again left behind, temporarily at least, there remained the problem of keeping well beyond their sight and reach. To do this and to do it without permitting those persistent young gentlemen to bar the Thirty from entering the limits of Queensville was no small undertaking. The town was of only a few thousand population, and even now when filled with strangers and with strange automobiles from the larger cities near by, it was apparent that at any moment the four friends appeared on the principal streets they might expect to meet the very persons they most wished to avoid.