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.
Of course he made no immediate reply. In fact, he was still dazed by this puzzling turn in the strange little adventure. He had believed that in helping the luckless victims of the accident he was furthering his own interests, in that he would reach home long before his chums. Now it began to look as though he had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
He tried to collect his thoughts and reason out the case. Why should these mien so seriously object to returning to the town of Columbia? Had they been guilty of doing something unlawful that made the place dangerous to them?
Once before Frank had become mixed up with a clique of men for whom Chief of Police Hogg had
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