to let my motorcycle go; but the folks put their foot down hard, after
that second accident to our chum, Bandy-legs; and, like the rest of the
bunch, I had to send it back to the shop for what it was worth. It was
like going to the scrapheap with it, because I lost so much money."

"Well, let's hope we can make it up in fun on the water with our boats,"
was the sensible way the other put it. "Here's Ordway's drug store, and
we can use his 'phone to get the rest of the crowd along."

A minute later, and inside the booth they were calling for M-23 West. It
was not later than eight-twenty in the evening when the two boys met
down in front of the hardware store, where a brilliant light burned all
night long; so that the evening was young when Max caught the well-known
voice of Toby Jucklin at the other end of the wire.

Toby stuttered, at times, fearfully. He kept trying to overcome the
habit, and the result was that his affliction came and went in spasms.
Sometimes he could talk as well as any one of his four chums; then
again, especially when excited, he would have a serious lapse, being
compelled to resort to his old trick of giving a sharp whistle, and then
stopping a couple of seconds to get a grasp on himself, when he was able
to say what he wanted intelligently.

"That you, Max?" asked Toby, who had lived with an old, crabbed uncle
and been treated harshly, despite the fact that his father had left
quite a little fortune for him when of age; until Mr. Hastings took hold
of the case, had the court depose Uncle Ambrose, and place the boy in
charge of a generous gentleman whose name was Mr. Jackson, with whom he
now lived in comfort.