As they watched they saw someone crawl from underneath the car while another came around from the further side of the machine. Even in the indistinct light the boys recognized the two distinctly. They were Buck Looker and Carl Lutz!
The latter were so busy quarreling that they did not at once notice the boys. Buck was blaming Carl in no uncertain tones with something that had happened to the car.
“Thought you said you knew how to drive!” Buck snarled. “Do you think I’d have risked my neck with a fool like you, if you hadn’t said——”
“Oh, cut it out, can’t you?” Lutz interrupted sullenly. “I can’t help it if the car’s a piece of old junk. The best chauffeur going couldn’t run her two miles without trouble.”
“I suppose you think that lets you out,” sneered Buck. “Make excuses and blame it all on the car——” He paused, mouth open, eyes staring. He had seen the Radio Boys.
“Well, look who’s here!” he said, his mouth stretching in a sneering grin. “Hello, fellows. Can’t we give you a lift wherever you’re going? You look,” with a glance that took in their earth-grimed clothes, “as if you’d been in a fight.”
“No,” said Bob, with a misleading gentleness. “We haven’t been—yet.”
“Well, we’re not looking for any, if that’s what you mean,” sneered Buck, but the boys noticed with a grin that he climbed quickly into the automobile. “We’d hate to wipe up the ground with fellows like you.”
The boys started forward, fists clenched, but Carl Lutz had jumped into the driver’s seat and started the engine. As the boys sprang forward, the car moved up the road—at first slowly, but gathering speed quickly.
Buck waved a hand to them.