Having seen Mires carry off the other wheel with comparative ease, Jack
naturally expected to lift the remaining one without trouble.

His amazement may be therefore understood when, at his first effort, he
failed to move it an inch from the floor.

It lay there as solid as if bound down!

His failure was the signal for Fret Offut to break out into a loud laugh,
which was instantly caught up by the workmen, until the whole building
rang with the merriment.

"Baby!" some one cried. "See Mires carry his. North ain't got the strength
of a mouse!"

By that time Mires had reached the opposite end of the shop, and was
putting down his burden to turn and join in the outbursts over the
discomfiture of his young companion.

Jack had now awakened to the realization that he had been the easy victim
of a scheme to cast ridicule upon him.

Mires could never have carried away this wheel. The thought of the trick
which had been played upon him aroused all the latent energy he possessed.
He did not believe the wheel could weigh five hundred pounds, and if it
did not he would lift it, as he believed he could.