“Sure,” sang out Andy, knowing that the anticipated rupture was all off. “And if you turn your wise old head right now you’ll see his well known figure sprinting this way, with the clerk following after him!”
Whereupon the other pair shot a quick glance in the direction indicated; and what they discovered somehow caused them to no longer keep their hands doubled up in that aggressive manner.
“Oh! well, in that case, perhaps there was a mistake made,” Sandy hastened to say; for he saw that Frank was jumping toward them in a fashion that somehow did not appeal to his fancy—for Sandy had more or less knowledge of the excellent manner in which the tall lad could use his fists on occasion, when forced to fight.
“Yes, and next time just be a little more careful how you dig into other people’s things, if you please!” said Percy, also anxious to cast oil on the troubled waters before the other Bird arrived on the scene.
“What’s the matter?” asked Frank as he reached the side of his cousin, and turned a look of contempt on the precious pair.
“Oh!” laughed Andy, carelessly, so lightly did such things affect him, “they were just complaining that I’d gone and meddled with their freight, and didn’t want to accept my humble apologies. But I guess it’s all right now, Frank. Has our cylinder come?”
“Sure, but hasn’t been taken from the car yet. Come, we’ll go with Sam Harrington here, and claim it. He says we can easily carry it home with us.”
Frank never gave the two standing there a single word. He understood how matters had probably been at the time of his opportune arrival.
“They didn’t dare a lay a finger on you, did they, Andy?” he asked, while they walked after the yard clerk toward a certain car near by.
“Well, no,” admitted the other, quickly, “but the storm was just going to break when you showed up. But what do you think of their nerve in getting a biplane ready to show us up? Say, things look like they might be getting warm around old Bloomsbury pretty soon. I can see the time coming when the town will be a regular aviation center, with aerodromes and hangars dotting the landscape. And we’re the pioneers of the great uplift movement!”