Page:Dave Porter and his Classmates.djvu/272

248 asked one of the boys, presently. "We don't want to take all day to get to Hilltop."

"I hate to give 'em too much headway," answered the driver. "The road ain't none of the best along here, and there ain't no telling what they might do."

"We'll have to hurry some," said Dave. "I want some time to warm up, and so do the others."

"Maybe it will rain and the game will have to be called off," was Phil's comment, with an anxious look at the overcast sky.

"Oh, it's not going to rain just now," answered Henshaw.

They had just reached the top of a long hill and were preparing to go down the other side, when they heard a tooting behind them.

"Here comes an automobile!" cried Phil, looking back.

"I know that machine," answered Buster. "It belongs to some of the students at Rockville—two cousins, I think. They brought it down from Portland, Maine, where they come from."

"It is full of Rockville fellows," said Sam. "They want to pass us," he added, as the tooting sounded louder.

"It's a narrow road to pass on," grumbled Horsehair. "Whoa, there!" he cried to his team. "Whoa, I say!"

For the horses had begun to prick up their ears