Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III A TALK OF THE FUTURE The girls screamed and the boys uttered various cries and words of advice. Dave leaned forward, to jam on the hand-brake, but his uncle was ahead of him in the action. The foot-brake was already down, and from the rear wheels came a shrill squeaking, as the bands gripped the hubs. But the hill was a steep one and the big touring car, well laden, continued to move downward, although but slowly. " Keep over! Keep over to the right! " yelled Dunston Porter, to the driver of the buggy. But the man was fully as excited as his horse, and he continued to saw on the reins, until the turnout occupied the very center of the narrow and torn-up highway. It was a time of peril, and a man less used to critical moments than Dunston Porter might have lost his head completely. But this old traveler and hunter, who had faced grizzly bears in the West and lions in Africa, managed to keep cool. He saw a chance to pass on the right of the turnout ahead, and like a flash he let go on the two brakes and turned on a little power. Forward bounded the big car, the right wheels on the very edge of a water-gully. The left mud-guards scraped the buggy, and the man driving it uttered a yell of fright. Then the touring car went on, to come to a halt at the bottom of the hill, a short distance away. " Hello! " exclaimed Dave, as he looked back at the turnout that had caused the trouble. " It's Mr. Poole!" " You mean Nat's father? " queried Phil. " Yes." " Hi, you ! What do you mean by running into me?" stormed the money-lender, savagely, as he presently managed to get his steed under control and came down beside the touring car. " What do you mean by blocking the road, Mr. Poole?" returned Dunston Porter, coldly. "I didn't block the road!" " You c...