“Wake up, Haven, and give Jack a hand at putting on the chains,” snapped out Noddy. “It’s raining cats and dogs and the roads will be a sea of mud soon. It’ll be as bad for the Motor Boys as for us, all the same. Jinks! I hope we can beat them at this game. They didn’t get away as they thought they did, though. I wonder where they are now?”
As if in answer to his question there came a sudden cry from Professor Snodgrass, who had crawled off by himself in the hay loft.
“I’ve got them! I’ve got them!” fairly shouted the little scientist. “Oh, you shan’t get away now!”
“Good night!” gasped Dolt Haven, as with open mouth and shaking knees he dropped a wrench he had taken to help Jack straighten a bent link in one of the chains. “It must be the police! I’m going to skip!”
He started to run from the barn, and Noddy and Jack were not a little puzzled themselves by the sudden shout, when Professor Snodgrass, in the excess of his zeal to capture a bug he had seen in the hay, slid out of the mow and down to the barn floor. And at the sight of the little college scientist Noddy guessed it all.
“They’re here!” cried the bully.
“Yes, we’re here!” suddenly admitted Jerry, as, followed by his two chums and Bill Cromley, he, too, slid to the floor. “We got here just a little ahead of you, Noddy. Hope you had no trouble following us,” he added, with sarcastic politeness.
“Who was following you?” growled the bully.
“You were,” boldly asserted Jerry.