boy plunge on, Tad screaming with pain at every step.
"Wait! we can't go that way!" cried Tom, who had no desire to tumble into the hornets' nest as the others had probably done. "Let's go around!"
And he leaped to the left. As they progressed they heard Tad Sobber still crying wildly, and they heard Sid Merrick urging him to run faster.
"I'm stung, too—in about a dozen places!" said the bond thief. "But we mustn't be captured."
"Oh, it is awful!" groaned Tad. "I can hardly bear the pain!" And he went on, clutching his uncle by the arm.
Both were indeed in a sorry plight. But coming out on a road, fortune favored them. They met a colored man running a touring car. He was alone and they quickly hired him to take them to the nearest town.
"We fell into the lake by accident," said Sid Merrick. "We want to get where we can change our clothing."
"And get something for these hornet stings," added Tad Sobber. "If I don't get something soon I'll go crazy from pain."
As the three Rover boys ran towards the roadway Dick saw a big, flat pocketbook lying on the ground. He darted for it and picked it up.
