"I'm going to get you to a doctor as soon as possible," remarked Frank, as he started off. He heard the calls of his chums and answered back. Then the car lost the slow-moving buggy on the road. Frank did not dare drive very fast. He was not familiar with the machine; and besides, possibly it was acting freakish--at least the man declared that it had jumped aside straight at that tree without his doing anything. On his part Frank accepted this version with a grain of allowance; for he had long since scented liquor around, and could guess the real reason for the accident. As he guided the car Frank could hear the two men talking behind him. The murmur of their voices just reached him, though he could not make out anything they said. Once the man who had come out of the mishap in better trim than his companion seemed to be groping around under the seats as if searching for something. "It's here, all right, Jim!" Frank heard him say, in a satisfied tone. A minute later he was asking about the road, where it led, and what the intentions of the boy at the wheel were. Frank repeated what he had said before, to the effect that he thought the wounded man ought to see a physician with as little delay as possible, and therefore he was heading back to Columbia so as to take him to Dr. Shadduck. "Who?" exclaimed the wounded man, as the name was mentioned. "Doctor Shadduck, the father of one of my chums, who was with me duck shooting," replied Frank, thinking it strange why the man while apparently suffering so much should care who attended him, just so long as he could get relief speedily. Again the two men conferred in low tones. Frank could hear the wounded one muttering again. Perhaps his arm had commenced to hurt once more; or, it may have been something else that started him off. And even while Frank was wondering who these parties could be anyway, with their strange actions and apparent unwillingness to return to Columbia, which place they must have recently left, a heavy hand was laid on his arm, and a voice said: "Say, look here, we don't want to go to Columbia, and what's more, we ain't meaning to let you take us there! Just ahead is a road that runs off from this. They told us it runs over to Fayette. Perhaps you don't want to go that way, but forget all that and turn off, because you've just _got_ to take us! No words now, but shove us along lively!" CHAPTER XVI AN UNWILLING PILOT Frank Allen felt a sudden thrill shoot through his entire body when the gruff command to change his course was growled into his ear. He had not been at all inclined to look upon these two travelers in a favorable light; but this was the first intimation he received that they might be even worse than they appeared.