“Melodrama!” said Lilian.
The girls as well as the boys left the car to examine the road where the two tires had been punctured. “Glass and all sorts of sharp things,” said Philip. “He must go prepared for occasions like this. See? All this never came here by chance.”
Campbell walked over to the other side of the road. “Nothing here,” he reported. “But it was made sure that on the other side we couldn’t miss it.”
“Perhaps since we had been kind,” suggested Mrs. Van Buskirk, “he wouldn’t leave us stranded up in the hills, and let us come nearer civilization before our tires were punctured.”
“You would be bound to find some good in him, Mother,” said Philip. “Do we go forward on rims, or do we patch up? Two tires!”
Campbell was already getting out the “first aid” equipment. “He knew we’d need the things he borrowed, all right!” said he. “Come on, Phil, we may as well get to work. You ladies can enjoy the beauties of nature for the next hour or so. Get out your field glasses, Hilary. I heard a grasshopper sparrow over in that field.”
The girls scattered, Hilary and Lilian with the field glasses, Cathalina and Betty to look for wild flowers, while Mrs. Van Buskirk hunted out a book from the luggage. The two young mechanics worked busily, having taken the machine on beyond the possibility of another puncture. The “villain” had contented himself with preparing the one place for trouble.
“Say, Phil,” said Campbell, suddenly, “have you looked to see whether we have enough gas?”
“You haven’t forgotten, have you, that we just got a supply at the little town before we struck this road?”
“No, I haven’t, but you forget our friend who needed the tire. Perhaps he needed some gas, too.”