“Want to take a ride with me?” asked Bob of Ned, one morning, about a week following the exciting night ride. “Father wants me to go over to Franklin to take a message to the bank there.”
“Sure I’ll go. And we’ll ask Jerry. Wait until I get my machine, and I’ll be with you.”
The two boys were soon puffing along their motors to Jerry’s house. He joined them and all three started off for Franklin.
The ride was a pleasant one. It was rather warm, but there was a cool breeze, that was added to by the speed at which the boys rode. Franklin was about twenty miles from Cresville, and was a village of good size. The boys had some friends there, and intended calling on them before returning.
They reached Franklin without mishaps. Bob transacted the business his father had sent him on, and then the boys voted that a meal would not be out of place.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to be starting back,” said Bob at length. “Father will want to know how I made out with his matter.”
Ned and Jerry were agreeable, and they mounted their machines and were soon on the homeward journey.
They had gone perhaps ten miles when, on making a sudden turn in the road, they came face to face with a countryman who was driving a rather spirited horse. At the sight and sound of the machines the animal reared up in the air. The boys stopped their motors, but the horse would not be quieted. Even the sight of the cycles seemed to madden the brute. In spite of the efforts of the countryman the horse continued to rear and prance. Then the steed made a sudden turn, and, with a cracking sound, one of the carriage shafts broke.
“Now ye’ve gone and done it!” yelled the driver, seeming to fly in a rage. “Ye’ll have to pay for this.”