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Read Ebook: Ned Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall; Or The Motor Boys as Freshmen by Young Clarence
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Ebook has 2065 lines and 54140 words, and 42 pages
"That's it," assented Ned. "Only it isn't going to be anything to grin at if dad finds out all about it--that we nearly collided with the hay wagon while trying to pass that roadster. Say, but it was some going! We fractured the speed limits in half a dozen places."
"But we beat the roadster!" exclaimed Jerry. "That fellow didn't know how to drive a car."
"You're right there. And, for a second or two, I thought you were going to make a mess of it," said Ned, referring to an incident that had happened about a week previously when the boys, out on the road in their car, had accepted an impromptu challenge to race, with what might have been disastrous results.
"It was a narrow squeak," admitted Jerry.
"And the nerve of that farmer, setting the constable after us!" cried Bob. "Just because we wouldn't let him rob us of ten dollars to make up for a scratch one of his horses got from our mud guard."
"I sometimes think we might have come out of it better if we had given the hayseeder his ten," said Jerry, reflectively. "It cost us fifteen for the speed-fine as it was. We'd have saved five."
"And is that what your father was asking about?" asked Bob.
"Words to that effect--yes," replied Ned.
"Wonder how he heard about it?"
"It wasn't in the paper," reflected Jerry. "I looked all over for an account of it, but didn't see any."
"No, it wasn't in the paper," said Ned, "but dad hears of more things than I think he does, I guess."
"We have been speeding it up a bit lately," observed Jerry in a reflective tone.
"Just a little," admitted Ned, with a half smile.
The three chums were clean-cut, healthy-looking lads, and it needed but a glance into their clear faces to tell one that whatever "speeding" they had been doing was in a literal sense only, and was not in the way of dissipation. They were fun-loving youths, and, like all such, the excitement of the moment sometimes got the better of them.
"And so you think the conference may have something to do with us; is that it, Ned?" asked Jerry, after a moment or two of silence.
"I have an idea that way--yes, from what dad said, and from what he wanted to know about our future plans. We're mixed up in it somehow, that's as sure as turkey and cranberry sauce."
"That sounds like Chunky!" laughed Jerry.
"Well, what's the idea?" demanded the stout youth. "I mean--what do you think will happen, Ned?"
"Well, you know we have been going a pretty lively gait lately, nothing wrong, of course, but a sort of butterfly existence, so to speak."
"Butterfly is good!" exclaimed Jerry. "You'd think we were a trio of society girls."
"Well, I mean we haven't really done anything worth while," went on Ned. "And it's my idea that my dad, and yours, Bob, and Jerry's mother, who is as good a dad as any fellow could want--I think they are going to put the brakes on us."
"How do you mean?" Jerry demanded.
"Get married?" laughed Jerry.
"Not much!" cried Bob. "Not if I can help it!"
"Of course not," put in Ned. "I mean just settle down a bit, that's all."
They swung around a curve in the road, and as they did so they saw a powerful roadster coming toward them, driven by a man who was the sole occupant. He was speeding forward at a fast clip.
"That fellow had better settle down!" exclaimed Jerry. "He's going too fast to make this turn, and this bank is one of the most dangerous around here."
The boys themselves had safely taken the turn, and come past the steep embankment on which it bordered, but the man in the roadster was approaching it.
"He isn't slowing down," said Ned.
"Better yell at him," suggested Bob. "Maybe he doesn't know the road."
"Look out for that turn!" cried Jerry, as the man passed them.
It is doubtful if he heard them. Certainly he did not heed, for he swung around the turn at full speed. A moment later the boys, who had drawn to one side of the road, in order to give the man plenty of room to pass, looked back.
They saw the speeding roadster leave the highway and plunge down the bank, turning over and pinning the driver underneath.
"There he goes!" cried Jerry, jamming on the brakes.
A FAMILY CONFERENCE
Jerry had put on the brakes so hard that the rear wheels were locked, and they slid along a foot or more, skidding until the automobile came to a stop on one side of the road. Then the three lads leaped out, and started back toward the scene of the accident.
"She's on fire!" cried Bob, as he pointed to curling smoke arising from the overturned roadster.
"And the man's under it!" yelled Ned.
"Keep moving!" shouted Jerry. "We've got to do something!"
Fortunately, the car was a light one, and it was tilted at such an angle that the combined strength of the three lads on the higher side served to turn it upright once more. The fire was under the bonnet, the covers of which were jammed and bent.
The boys had expected to find a very seriously injured man beneath the car, but, to their surprise, when they righted the machine, the driver, somewhat dusty and dirty, crawled out and stood up, a few scratches on his hands and face alone showing where he was injured, though it was evident from the manner in which he rubbed one arm that it had been at least bruised.
There came a larger puff of smoke from beneath the car's bonnet, and a flash of flame showed.
"Carburetor's on fire!" cried Ned.
"Got an extinguisher?" asked Jerry of the man.
He shook his head, being either too much out of breath or too excited over his narrow escape to talk.
"I'll get ours!" shouted Ned, as he raced back toward their machine, climbing up the bank, down which the boys had rushed to the rescue.
Jerry and Bob forced up the bent and jammed covers of the engine, and disclosed the fact that the fire, so far, was only in the carburetor, which had become flooded with gasoline when the car turned over.
In a few seconds Ned was back with the extinguisher, and when a generous supply of the chemicals it contained had been squirted on the blazing gasoline, the fire went out with a smudge of smoke.
"That was a narrow escape for me, boys," said the man, and his voice shook a little. "I thought sure I was done for when I felt the car leaving the road. I tried to bring it back, but the turn was too much for me, and over I went."
"This is a dangerous turn," commented Jerry. "There ought to be a warning sign put up here."
"We called to you," Bob told him.
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