“What?” cried Teddy, in alarm.

“They don’t work—the brakes,” repeated Kyle. “They’re out of order. You’d better jump, Brick. It’s your best chance.”

“Are you going to jump too?” asked Teddy.

“No,” replied Kyle. “I’ve got to stick to the wheel, or we’ll smash into Uncle Frank’s car. But you jump, and jump quickly. You can make it.”

“I won’t do it,” declared Teddy stoutly. “We’ll stick it out together.”

There was no time for argument. Kyle blew a series of blasts from his horn as a warning to the car ahead, which they were now approaching at a tremendous rate of speed.

He saw his Uncle Frank poke out his head and look back. It was evident that Captain Kane grasped the situation at once, for his own car swerved instantly to the left of the narrow road until it was on the very edge of a deep chasm.

There it came to a stop, leaving all the space that was possible between it and the great cliff that loomed up on the other side of the road.

“Could he make it?” Kyle asked himself, as he studied the narrow passage between the first car and the cliff. It looked frightfully small. If he failed, if it were not wide enough, the two cars would crash and both be hurled into the abyss. And that meant certain death for all concerned.

The automobile was whizzing along now at a terrific speed. Kyle must utilize every inch of that narrow space, for it was evidently only a matter of inches.

On they went, with the boy’s hand clutching the wheel with a grasp of iron. There must be no wavering! He must make it!

Kyle did not see the agonized face of his uncle watching him in awful apprehension. He felt Brick’s grip tighten on the seat, but he paid no attention to it. He must make that passage!

There was a rush, a roar, a moment when Kyle’s heart stood still, and then he had passed the other car by a margin of a fraction of an inch and was making at railroad speed toward the bottom of the incline.

If there had been a curve in the road, he and Teddy would have been doomed. The car would have been going too fast to make the turn.

But the Providence that watches over the brave was with Kyle. The road broadened out into a wide plateau. As soon as it reached the level, the car began to slacken speed, and gradually came to a stop of its own accord.

Brick jumped out and Kyle followed. The reaction was on him now, and his knees trembled so that he could scarcely stand. But it was a smiling face, if a pale one, with which he greeted his uncles, as they brought their cars to a stop and rushed up to throw their arms around him.

“Going to scold me for reckless driving?” he managed to joke.

“Reckless!” exclaimed his Uncle Frank, who was as much agitated as the boy himself. “It was the finest exhibition of nerve and skill I’ve ever seen. Not one in a hundred could have negotiated that narrow passage without going smash against the cliff or knocking my car over into the chasm. It was a situation that might have tested the nerve of a veteran driver, let alone a boy of fourteen. My heart was in my mouth while I watched you come dashing down the hill.”

“As far as nerve is concerned, Teddy had just as much as I had,” declared Kyle generously. “He had a chance to jump and refused it to stick with me. And where another fellow might have rattled me by howling and jumping around, he just gritted his teeth and didn’t say a word.”

“Good for Teddy!” commended the captain. “You two make a fine pair.”

“It wasn’t that I wasn’t scared though,” said Teddy, with a grin. “According to the stories you read, this red mop of mine ought to have turned as white as snow.”

“Well, all’s well that ends well,” said the professor thankfully. “And now we’ll have to camp here for a while and see what the matter with the brakes was. Full of sand, no doubt, that prevented their working properly. And while we’re about it, we might as well overhaul the other cars as well.”

Despite their eagerness to get on, all felt the good sense of the suggestion, and they decided to call it a day as far as traveling was concerned.

This time their work was done under better conditions than any they had known heretofore. There were rocks and cliffs that afforded shade. And this was the more grateful to them because by this time all the party were suffering to a greater or less extent from sunburn and blisters. One cannot battle with the heat of the Sahara without paying the penalty.

The repairs to the brakes and other parts of the machinery that proved to need attention took a good deal longer than Kyle’s uncles had anticipated, despite the fact that all worked like beavers, except, of course, Alam and Abdullah who had not the slightest knowledge of machinery and who would have hindered rather than helped.

Teddy, though not very familiar with automobiles, had a natural aptitude for mechanics and was of considerable help to Kyle. The skill and cleverness of the latter were a source of unfailing admiration to his friend.

“If you ever go broke, you can get a good job in a garage,” Brick said. “You must have had a good deal of experience back home.”

“Yes,” replied Kyle. “Our chauffeur was a dandy, and he was always ready to teach me what he knew.”

“What kind of place did you have?” asked Brick.

“It’s a good big house and there are plenty of trees around it,” replied Kyle. “We have a housekeeper, Mrs. Roscoe, and her husband acts as a handy man about the place. Then we had a maid, Jennie Jenks, who was always chewing gum. I’m willing to bet that if I could see her right now she’d have a wad of gum in her mouth. I wish I were on the old place this minute. Though, after all,” he added mournfully, “I haven’t taken much comfort in it for the last two years. I got so restless I couldn’t stand it. That’s one reason my uncles were willing to bring me along with them, so as to get my mind off my troubles. What’s the use of a home after all,” he added, with sudden bitterness, “if there’s no father or mother or sister in it?”

“I know,” said Brick sympathetically. “It’s tough on a fellow. But I hope the time will come when they will be in it. There’s a chance, anyhow.”

“Yes,” replied Kyle sadly, “there is a chance as long as I don’t know actually that they are dead. But that chance grows slimmer with every month that passes without news of them. But, no matter how foolish it may seem, I have a feeling that they’re still alive. I couldn’t give you any reason for the feeling, but I have it, just the same. And just as soon as I’m old enough, I’m going to spend my life hunting for them. Ruth’s a dandy girl, and we were great chums. I miss her a lot.”

“I wish I could help you look for them,” said Brick earnestly. “That would pay some of the debt I owe you for coming into this desert to try to find my father.”

“Try to find him?” repeated Kyle. “We’re going to find him! And we’re going to find the Cave of Emeralds too. I never felt surer of that than I do this minute.”

The necessary work on the cars took all that day and so far into the next morning that it was not practicable to start until the late afternoon. It was a relief to have a little leisure time on their hands, and Kyle and Brick employed it by strolling up the slope, down which their runaway car had coasted. They took with them Professor Bruce’s field glasses.

From the top of the hill they had an extensive view of the plain beyond.

“Big cloud of dust over there,” remarked Brick. “Perhaps there’s another sandstorm coming up.”

“Hope not,” replied Kyle. “The one we’ve already had is enough for a lifetime. No, it isn’t that.” he added, as he scrutinized the dust cloud more closely. “I can see moving figures. It must be a caravan. And it seems to be making pretty rapid time too,” he went on, looking through the glasses.

“Rather unusual for them to be traveling so fast in the hottest part of the day,” remarked Brick.

Their pulses quickened as the same thought struck them, and they strained their eyes as the caravan approached. Kyle took another long look through the glasses.

“I know one of those men!” he exclaimed. “That one riding in front! He’s the man with the scar!”

[Chapter 14 Maze: Help Kyle Escape]