“They aren’t friends of ours!”
“Noddy Nixon and Jack Pender—I should say not!” cried Bob.
“Did they tell you they were, Mr. Cromley?” asked Ned.
“Well, I don’t know as they exactly said they were friends of yours,” admitted the old miner slowly. “They said they knew you.”
“Oh, that’s different!” remarked Jerry. “Yes, we know them, but we don’t——”
“Cut it out, Jerry, they’re coming up this way,” said Bob in a low voice, as he saw Noddy and Jack getting into the car with a sack of potatoes. “We don’t want another row here.”
“No, that’s right,” added Ned.
“All right, I won’t so much as look at them,” promised the tall lad.
Having purchased the vegetables they had come after, Noddy and Jack drove on out of the lane. As they passed the place where the Motor Boys stood with Bill Cromley, the bully and his crony cast suspicious glances at Jerry and his chums and Noddy said something in a low voice to Jack.
On their parts, the Motor Boys spoke not a word, but, as Ned remarked later, “we looked plenty at them!”