"That's so," agreed Sam Ray, who wanted a bicycle more than anything else in the world, "and I move that the money be sent to Mr. Burgess, with the request that he return just as many wheels as it will buy. We can take turns at riding them, and work all through long vacation for money to get the rest."
"Second the motion!" cried Si Carew.
"All in favor of Sam Ray's motion say 'aye.'"
"Aye!" responded half a dozen voices, though not very enthusiastically, for most of the boys were greatly disappointed, and did not relish the prospect of several months more of hard work for an object they had believed already attained. Still no one voted against the motion, and so it was pronounced carried.
"If we had got the machines I was going to suggest a grand parade in celebration of our birthday," said Hal Bacon, after the meeting had broken up; "but now I suppose it's no use."
So the three hundred and fifty dollars was forwarded to Mr. Burgess, together with a note from the Captain of the Rangers, stating all the circumstances, and hoping that the owner of the coveted wheels would sell just as many for the sum enclosed as he could possibly afford.
An answer to this momentous communication was awaited with such deep anxiety, that during the next few days the Rangers fairly haunted the railway station as though expecting to see their longed-for bicycles come rolling, of their own accord, up the track.
CHAPTER II.
A NOTABLE ARRIVAL IN BERKS.
"Hi-Ho! Hi-ho!" The well-known call of the Rangers summoning them to immediate assembly at the engine-house rang out, clear and shrill up and down the quiet village street. It was early morning, the sun was just rising, and though there was already much activity in kitchen and barn-yard, the long elm-shaded and grass-bordered thoroughfare was almost as deserted as at midnight. Still there was one team in sight, and one boy. The former was that belonging to Squire Bacon; and, driven by Evert Bangs, it was coming from the direction of the railway station, where it had been to deliver, for the early morning train, the very last russet apples that would be shipped from Berks that year. The boy was little Cal Moody, who was earning twenty-five cents a week towards his bicycle by driving a neighbor's cow to and from pasture every morning and evening. He had just completed his task for that morning, and was on his way home when he noticed the approaching team.