An old gentleman sat on the front seat of the open vehicle which was jolting along at an easy rate.

It was too dark to see the driver's features plainly, but Tom believed he knew him and called out a greeting.

The response showed he was right as to the identity of the individual.
Two-thirds of the way home came the most trying ordeal.

The lad was obliged to follow quite a stretch of road where there was woods on both sides.

This deepened the gloom, for the highway was so narrow that it was completely shadowed.
"If any robbers are waiting for me," he mused, "it will be in them woods." He hesitated on the border of the shadows, meditating whether he could not reach home by some other course; but the forest, originally one that covered several hundred acres, was bisected by the highway, and the detour would be long.