The other boys now turned and offered their assistance to George, although Grant and John plainly were more interested in the occupants of the friendly car than they were in the task immediately confronting them.
“There’s no use, boys,” said the chauffeur at last. “That blowout must have been a big one.”
“It was,” spoke up Fred quickly.
“It has bent your rim. Yon never can get a new tire on that until it has been fixed.”
“What shall we do?” inquired George blankly.
“The best thing I can suggest is for you to get in our car and we will take you to a good garage about four miles up the road. They will have to come back here in another car so you won’t have to walk.”
“That’s a good suggestion,” said George quickly as he prepared to accept the invitation.
His zeal, however was quickly shared by two of his friends, who insisted that their presence also was required. “You see,” Fred explained, “if they cannot help us at that garage, why some of us will have to go on to another. We cannot leave our car here all day in the sun.”
John was the only one of the party left behind and as it was deemed necessary for some one to remain with the car he volunteered for that service.
The task confronting him was not difficult, however, and John soon was reclining once more in a shaded spot near the tramp who was still seated in the same place he had first been seen.