In the midst of the task the jack broke and the wheel dropped upon the ground.
“There you have it!” exclaimed George irritably. “A broken jack! No tube! Seventeen miles from nowhere and not a crumb to eat!”
“Never mind, George,” said John good-naturedly. “Somebody will be coming along pretty soon and will lend us a hand.”
“He will have to lend us a jack, I guess if we ever get anywhere. I don’t know what is the matter with this thing,” he added as again he examined the broken implement.
“There’s nothing for us to do except wait,” suggested Grant. “Come up here in the shade, fellows. We’ll have to join that man who is sitting there.”
As Grant spoke he pointed toward a bank or knoll near the roadside where a man was seen reclining on the ground beneath the shade of some huge maple trees.
“That’s a good suggestion,” declared Fred, and in a brief time the boys were seated on the ground, enjoying the relief from the heat of the burning sun.
Their only hope now rested upon some friendly driver stopping to aid them.
To the amazement of Fred, as well as of his companions, the man whom they discovered enjoying the shade was none other than the tramp who had first been seen in the old Meeker House.
He stared a moment at the unexpected sight and then as a grin spread over the countenance of the man he was convinced that his first impression had been correct. The tramp of the Meeker House was there before him. How he had come there, so far from the place where he had been first seen, was a mystery.