Bill Cromley waved to the boys as he limped about helping his sister salvage things from the burned kitchen.
“Come and see me again before you start for Thunder Mountain,” he urged, and the boys promised.
The three rode about a bit and then started for town. It was just their luck, as Ned said later, to meet Noddy Nixon and his crony.
Jerry was trying his hand on the new car when, as he swung around a corner, he had to jam on quickly the four-wheel brakes to avoid running down two young men who suddenly, and without looking to see if the way was clear, stepped from the curb.
“Say, you boob, what’s the idea?” angrily demanded one of the pedestrians. It was Noddy Nixon.
“Think you own the whole street just because you have a new car?” sneered Jack Pender.
When the two cronies saw who it was that had so nearly run them down, Noddy’s face grew red with anger.
“Say you—you!” he spluttered, unable, for rage, to proceed.
“Why don’t you look where you’re going when you start to cross a street?” demanded Jerry.
“Don’t give me any of your talk!” fairly shouted Noddy, shaking his fist at the Motor Boys. “I’m going to have a settlement with you fellows—that’s what I’m going to do!”