“That’s one bit of good luck,” replied Jim. “And it’s certainly coming to us to make up in part for the bad.”
They thanked their stars that it was too early yet for many people to be stirring in the town, and were relieved when they found themselves in front of Allen’s shop. Eph must have been a pretty sound sleeper, for it took a good deal of knocking to wake him up, and when at last he thrust his tousled head through the door to ask what was wanted, he was not in the best of temper. But as soon as he learned the circumstances that had occasioned the early call, he became at once all interest and attention, and hustled about to put their clothes in presentable shape.
It was a fairly good job that he at length turned out after he had ironed and pressed their suits, though they had by no means the Beau Brummel effect with which the boys had planned to impress the girls.
By this time the sun had fully risen and Joe looked at his watch.
“Perhaps we’ll be in time to catch them at breakfast yet,” he remarked. “It’s only about twenty miles from here to Riverside. Maybe they won’t be surprised when we break in on them. They don’t think we’re within several hundred miles of them.”
“Perhaps we ought to have telegraphed that we were coming,” said Jim.
“It might have been just as well, I suppose,” admitted Joe. “But that would have taken away the fun of the surprise. I want to see the look on their faces.”
“Of course we won’t say anything about what happened to us this morning,” suggested Jim, as the machine bowled along over a road that with every minute that passed was growing more familiar.
“Not on your life,” replied Joe earnestly. “None of them would ever have another easy minute. They’d be seeing our mangled remains every night in their dreams. All we’ll tell them is that we had a little spill and got wet. But not a word about the blocked road or what we suspect regarding Braxton.”
Before long they were passing the straggling houses that marked the outskirts of Riverside. Joe pulled his cap down over his eyes so that he would not be recognized and stopped by any of the people of the town, where he was regarded as something of an idol. All he wanted to do was to get to his family and Mabel, or, as perhaps he would have put it, get to Mabel and his family.