Then the car stopped with a scraping sound.

“Gracious!” exclaimed Danny Grin, jumping up at the sound of the explosion.  Then he sat down once more, looking sheepish.

“Give up the Annapolis bee, Danny boy,” laughed Tom.  “That was nothing but a tire blowing out.  If you got into the Navy, and a fourteen-inch gun went off when you weren’t expecting it, you’d be half way to the planet Neptune before your comrades could call you back.”

“How easily we make light of other people’s troubles,” mused Prescott.

“What makes you say that?” asked Darrin.

“Why, for instance, that party down in the road has been stopped by a blown-out tire.  Probably they were in a hurry to get somewhere, too.  Now, they’re delayed perhaps a half an hour, but it doesn’t give us a flicker of concern.”

“It interests me, anyway,” Reade announced, rising.  “Anything in the mechanical line does.  It may even be that the man driving that car doesn’t know just how to put on a new tire.  I’m going to saunter down and see.”

Five members of Dick & Co. didn’t take the trouble even to glance keenly at the halted car.

Tom took a dozen steps, then suddenly shouted back: 

“Fellows, your indifference will vanish, now.  Look who’s here!”

CHAPTER XII

TROUBLE WITH THE RAH-RAH-RAHS

A broad-shouldered man, his back to Dick & Co., was assisting a middle-aged woman to alight from the car.

As Tom’s voice reached their ears five girls exclaimed in delight, then began to wave their hands in most friendly fashion.

Dick & Co. were on the run by this time, for the broad-shouldered man was Dr. Bentley, the woman Mrs. Bentley, and the five girls Laura Bentley, Belle Meade, Susie Sharp, Clara Marshall and Anita Murray.

“Hm!  Young men, I’m beginning to feel annoyed,” remarked Dr. Bentley with pretended severity, though he shook hands pleasantly enough with the boys.  “Whenever Mrs. Bentley and I take some of Laura’s friends for a spin anywhere you appear to have our route and you bob up on the map.”

“Then we’ll withdraw, sir, at once,” Dick suggested.

“No, you won’t,” retorted the doctor.  “Young Reade is engaged, on the spot, to help me fit on a new tire.  Perhaps Hazelton will help.  The rest of you may disappear, and take the ladies with you, if you will.  Yet, really, it looks as though you learn our route and follow it.”

“That isn’t fair, doctor,” Dave rejoined.  “We’re on foot, and have been away from Gridley for something over a fortnight.  It is you who must have been following us, with that seven-passenger automobile of yours.  And may I remind you, sir, that you wouldn’t have bursted the tire if you hadn’t been driving at something under a hundred and eighty miles an hour in the effort to overtake us?”

“I’m beaten”, laughed Dr. Bentley.  “I take it all back.  I agree that the appearances are all against me.  But I didn’t know that you young scions of Gridley were on the road.  I was driving fast in order to bring the ladies to Ashbury in time for luncheon.  And now, they won’t get it.”