“Look, fellows!” he cried. “Those fellows are robbing the doctor’s orchard! And they’ve tackled that prize thousand-dollar tree with the early apples!”
He made a rush for the fence with his comrades close behind him.
CHAPTER II
AT CLOSE QUARTERS
The fellow in the driver’s seat of the big automobile dropped his cigarette and half started from his seat as he heard Bobby’s words and saw him making for the fence.
“Hey, youse!” he shouted, “what are youse buttin’ in for? Keep out of this. Get right along an’ mind your own business.”
“Nobody asked for your advice,” shouted Bobby, as he scaled the fence and dropped on the other side. “Come along, fellows, and come quick.”
At a little distance from the fence stood a tree that the doctor, who was an enthusiast on fruit growing, prized above all his other possessions. It bore an exceedingly rare species of apple that matured early in the season, had a delicious flavor and was highly valued by experts. It was a new variety, and it was understood that the doctor had paid as much as a thousand dollars for it with a view to developing in time a whole orchard of the same species. The boys had often heard him talk about it, and they knew how much he valued it. One of Billy’s stock jokes was to refer to it as the “apple of his eye.”
Beneath this special tree were standing four youths of the same type as the one in the car, while in the tree itself was another. The apples were still green, of course, but this did not deter the marauders.
They were considerably larger and older than the Rockledge boys, but the latter were so full of indignation as they ran toward them that they took little account of size or age.