The boys chatted and laughed at a lively rate while their trunks and valises were being put on top and behind the coach and then all got inside, Bucephalus objecting when Harry and Arthur put their wheels on the rear rack and took their seats with the others.
“Yo’ young ge’men am discommodin’ de reg’lah passengers an’ taking up mo’ room dan Ah speckerlated on,” he muttered. “Whyn’t yo’ go back de same way yo’ come?”
“Walk and wheel our bikes?” cried Harry. “Not much. There’s room for all of us and I want to talk with Dick.”
“That’s all right, Buck,” said Dick Percival, one of the newcomers, a handsome boy of sixteen, strong, well built and sturdy, slyly passing something to the coachman. “Come up on the box, Harry. I have a lot to tell you. Come on, there’s lots of room.”
The two boys sat on the box alongside the coachman who set off up the hill for the Academy and Dick at once began to tell of an adventure which had happened to him during the vacation.
“I was taking a hike up in the fruit country,” he began, “and in making my way across lots lost my bearings and came out in a peach orchard where I could not see the road nor a house nor anything. Two rough-looking fellows, fruit pickers, and they are not the best men to meet even if they are sober, and these were not, came up and looked rather hostile and threatening. I had considerable money with me and although I could have met either one of the men singly, did not feel like engaging both of them. It was either a case of run or be outmatched, and I was puzzled what to do.”
“What did you do?” asked Harry, interested. “They must have been pretty husky fellows for you to decline meeting them.”
“A young fellow in overalls and a rough shirt who was picking peaches in a tree, I had not seen him at first, suddenly appeared and ordered the men to get to work and then the boss happened up and sent them away. The boy went back to his picking and the man gave me directions how to reach the road. I suppose the boy was a picker just like the rest but at any rate he had some idea of fairness. He spoke well and I was astonished to see him with the rest but you can’t always tell.”
“Art and I had a close call this afternoon,” said Harry. “We were coming down the Academy hill on our bikes when, at one of the worst places in it, we came upon a young fellow. It looked as if we would run him down but he stood stock still and with all the nerve in the world, whisked his arm first to the right and then to the left as a signal to us. We just flew past but did not hit him and it was a mercy we didn’t. Only for his coolness there would have been a bad upset for the lot of us.”
“It was very fortunate that there wasn’t. Did you know him?”