“Good!” exclaimed Bob. “That’s it. Why didn’t we think of that?”
“Why didn’t we?” was all Ned could say.
Then they both shouted to Jerry, who was still pursuing his weary round:
“Move both levers, Jerry!”
Jerry did so. In an instant the motor-cycle ceased the explosions, and, in a little while it slowed down so that Jerry could dismount.
“Well, that certainly was an experience,” commented Jerry, as he wiped the dust from his face. “But it was fun all the same,” he added, whereat Mr. Hitter laughed.
“Boys will be boys,” the station agent muttered as he went off down the road.
“Funny the machine got such a fit on,” said Ned, examining the motor-cycle closely. “I didn’t think they would act like that.”
“Here’s the difficulty,” cried Bob, who was also looking over the apparatus. “This piece of wire ought to have been taken off. It was put on temporarily when the machine was packed. See, it held the gasolene lever and the spark one also, so they couldn’t come back separately. You had to pull them both at once to shut off the flow of fluid and the current of electricity. It’s a thing that wouldn’t happen if we hadn’t been in such a hurry.”