“It’s all right, and Josh has saved the day for us!” exclaimed Rod, beaming with gratification. “Jules will begin to wonder what sort of boys they raise over in the States, when he finds out what happened.”
“But what did Josh do to the car, Rod?”
“You’ll have to ask him,” replied the other, “though I suspect he put the starting gear out of commission to begin with. Here he is, and grinning at a great rate.”
The third rider slowed up as he approached the spot where they awaited him. No danger of the two men starting their car, and swooping down on the allies; if they commenced to run on foot toward Rod and his chums it was only necessary to leap into their saddles and be off like the wind.
“It worked like fresh grease, Rod!” panted Josh, as he threw himself down from his seat, and held one hand to his aching side, for that boisterous laughter was weakening him more or less; “oh! they fell into your little trap like innocents. It was like taking candy from the baby to work them like I did.”
“There they are, shaking their fists at us right now!” burst out Hanky Panky, as he pointed along the road toward the deserted house.
“It’s about all they can do; when you come to think of it!” grinned Josh.
“We were getting cold feet when we heard them shooting, old fellow; and I hope none of the lead so much as touched you! I saw the dust fly up after nearly every shot, it seemed to me.”
“I rather think the fellow meant to hit my wheel and disable it,” explained the latest arrival; “but it isn’t so easy to do a thing like that, when a motorcycle is speeding along at the rate of a mile a minute. No matter what he aimed to do he missed his guess, and I gave him the slip.”
“Rod here says you must have jammed his self-starter so it wouldn’t work when he tried it; how about that, Josh?” asked Hanky Panky, who never would be satisfied until he had learned all the particulars.