“We mean to get it repaired somehow,” said Dan, firmly. “If not here——”
“And why not here?” demanded Mr. Robert. He glanced quickly around and began to strip off his Norfolk jacket. “Hey, Hardy! Have you got an extra suit of overalls anywhere about? I want ’em.”
“Sure, Mr. Robert,” declared the foreman, coming briskly forward.
“What Mr. Avery says is quite true, boys,” declared young Darringford, seriously. “This department is driven to death. But then—I’m sort of an outsider and I’m not driven to death. I’m going to shuck my coat, and get into these duds—that’s it, Hardy! thank you—and then we’ll see what is the matter with the vitals of that machine. Mr. Avery,” he added, with a humorous twist of his lips, “won’t mind if I use the tools here to repair your machine. I am rather a privileged character myself about the shops. But you know, Dan and Billy, we always back up our foremen and superintendent; and it is quite true that the men are too busy to do your work at present.”
CHAPTER XVIII
ON THE ROAD TO KARNAC LAKE
The Speedwell boys could have imagined no better outcome of this affair. Yet they were both too independent to have courted Mr. Robert’s attention and complained to him of the unfair treatment they had received at the hands of the superintendent of the shops.
As for the car itself, the boys knew very well that they could leave their Breton-Melville in no better hands. Mr. Robert, though college-bred, had put on overalls and worked every summer in the shops since he was fifteen years of age. He was a finished mechanic. That is why his men respected and liked him so much.
Dan and Billy retired, full of glee over the turn matters had taken. Their car would be put in order—in first-class order—and they need have no fear but that the work would be done promptly. In fact, the first of the week Mr. Robert sent word to them that they could take the car home.
They settled their bill at the office like any other customer, and it was no small one. They doubted if Mr. Robert had charged them much for his own time; but the repairs cost over eighty dollars. When they ran the car out of the yard the enamel paint was scarcely dry. But the mechanism worked like that of a fine watch!