"Yes; but how did they know we were coming this way, and in the auto?"
"They might have overheard us talking to Songbird or Stanley."
"Can they be Flockley and Koswell?"
"More likely Koswell and Larkspur. Flockley hasn't the backbone to do a thing like this. He's too much of a dude."
Dick and Tom took a look around the vicinity. By the light of the lamp they saw where the others had leaped the fence and mounted their bicycles.
"They are the guilty ones, I am sure of that," said Dick. "I wish we had seen their faces."
The youths went back to the auto and told of their adventure. Sam and the girls listened with interest to what they had to say.
"Those boys must be very wicked," said Nellie. "If we had been running fast we might have had a serious accident."
"Shall you accuse them of it?" asked Dora.
"I don't know. I'll think it over," answered Dick.
"The cut-up tire has got to be paid for," said Tom. "Whoever is guilty ought to be made to foot the bill."
While Dick and Sam jacked up the axle of the automobile and put on a new tire—inner
