mounted the bank, slid over the top, and came to a halt in a pool of
mud and water on the other side of the field. It went fifty yards
before Noddy could stop it.

"Go on! Go on!" yelled Ned. "We win! We win!"

Jerry had all he could do to hold the steering wheel of his slewing
car, but, by gripping it desperately, he swung it into place, and the
red machine started up the home stretch, crossing the tape a winner,
for it was the only car left on the track.

A burst of cheers greeted it, and men crowded up to shake hands with
the plucky boys.

"Glad you beat the 'mud lark,'" said the owner of the yellow machine,
thus giving Noddy's car a name that stuck to it for some time. "That
Nixon chap thought he was going to walk over every one. You taught him
a much-needed lesson."

Nothing was talked of in the hotel that night but the race, and the
motor boys were the heroes of the occasion. Noddy did not appear, and
it was learned that he had to hire men and teams to get his car out of
the mud.

The motor boys started for home the next day, and thought they were
going to make it in good time, but they had a tire accident on the
road, when about twenty-five miles away, and decided to stay in the
nearest village over night, as they had no spare shoe for the wheel.

As they left their car by the roadside, and tramped into the town, to