“Oh! you never can tell,” replied Frank. “Perhaps he’s taking something to a sick woman friend of hers. There are lots of times when rules have to be broken, I reckon. But you don’t think of holding him up, just to ask; do you, Lanky?”
“I thought I’d inquire, Frank, just from curiosity, you see,” with a grin. “They say women-folks have all the curiosity there is, but I notice that boys—yes, and men, too—seem to have their share.”
“Hey! get off the road there, and let me past!” called out Rufus, slackening his speed somewhat, and looking bothered.
“Where you goin’ this fine Sunday afternoon, Rufus, and carryin’ that big package, too?” demanded Lanky. “Don’t you dare run me down, or somethin’ll happen right quick, understand. Keep off, now, I tell you!”
Something did happen, and just as speedily as Lanky had prophesied. Rufus, in his eagerness to slip by, made a miscalculation; and being also unbalanced by the sudden swinging of the large bundle hanging from his handle-bars, he slipped off the road into the shallow ditch that ran alongside.
As a natural consequence, boy and wheel came down with a crash.
“Oh! that’s too bad, Lanky; you’ve made him take a header!” exclaimed Frank. “I hope he isn’t hurt!”
Rufus was struggling to regain his feet, feeling of his left leg at the same time, and apparently hardly knowing whether to cry or get angry. He finally compromised by whimpering.
“See what you did, Lanky Wallace, by bein’ mean, and wantin’ to take the whole road?” he exclaimed, for Rufus was red-haired, and had a temper, too, in the bargain.
Lanky stepped over to the wheel, and began to lift it out of the ditch. Perhaps he was already sorry for interfering with the lone rider. It had really been none of his business where the younger Kline boy happened to be going on his bicycle. The fact that it was Sunday, and Rufus had a strict mother, who would not on ordinary occasions allow him to use his wheel on that day, might have excited Lanky’s curiosity, but it was no excuse for him to crowd the boy off the road.