They all went into the house, and Doctor Dale went upstairs to get a couple of pairs of pliers and some tape. While he was gone, Bob swiftly outlined his plan to his friends.
“That wire was deliberately cut by Buck, or possibly Carl Lutz,” he said. “I heard Carl’s mean laugh while we were outside. I was nearest to the garage, and I suppose that’s why I was the only one to hear it. Now, it’s pretty dark tonight, and we don’t want that pair to get away scot free if we can help it. My idea is to go out the front door, which they can’t see from where they are hiding, and then spread out and surround the garage. We ought to catch one of them, anyway, and then it will be up to us to teach him not to cut leading-in wires. How does that plan strike you?”
“It sounds fine,” ejaculated Joe. “Up and at ’em, fellows. The sooner we start, the better I’ll like it. There’s a possibility they may have gone even by this time,” and at the thought his face fell.
“No danger of that,” Bob reassured him. “They’ll hang around for the fun of watching us mending the wire. They’d enjoy that so much that they’re sure to wait.”
Knowing Looker and his friend as they did, the Radio Boys thought this highly probable, and without further words they proceeded to put Bob’s plan into effect. As silently as Indians they stole out of the house and approached the garage. This was quite a large building, and was surrounded by shrubbery, so that it made an ideal hiding place.
Everything was so quiet that the boys began to fear that Carl and Buck had taken the alarm and gone away, when suddenly the stillness was broken by a startled exclamation, followed by a crash of some heavy body falling.
What had happened was that Jimmy, while feeling his way along in the pitch darkness, had inadvertently tripped over some projecting object, which proved to be Buck Looker’s leg. The exclamation was uttered by Buck, and the crash was the result of Jimmy’s falling through an evergreen plant and landing against the wall of the garage.
Immediately all was uproar and confusion.
At the first alarm, Buck and Carl had jumped to their feet and started as fast as their legs could carry them toward the street. Unluckily for them, both Bob and Joe were converging on the garage from that direction, and Buck and his friend ran squarely into their arms. By this time they were so near the street that the light from an arc lamp illuminated the scene, and by its aid Bob and Joe proceeded to administer summary justice on the meddlesome youths. The latter did not want to fight, but when they saw that there was no escape, they put up a defense that was not to be despised. They were both big fellows, but Bob and Joe were so indignant and furious over this last uncalled for outrage that the two bullies would have had little chance in any event.
Nevertheless, for a few minutes the fight was fast and furious. Just at its height Joe slipped on the wet grass, and while he was down both Buck and Carl concentrated on Bob. Only for a moment, however, and then Herb, who had come running up by this time, stepped in and sent Carl reeling back under a fusillade of blows, while Bob pressed Buck hard, driving him back toward the garage. It would have gone hard with Buck and his friend had not Doctor Dale appeared on the scene just then. He was hatless and greatly alarmed at the uproar in his usually peaceful garden.