"I tell you I came alone," Hen insisted, with rising color, as he shifted under d.i.c.k"s steady gaze. "Fred and----"
"Fred--who?" cross-examined d.i.c.k.
"n.o.body," Dutcher answered, his eyes on the floor.
d.i.c.k thought a moment before a great light dawned on him.
"So, Hen Dutcher, Fred Ripley and some of his crowd knew we were coming out here, and so they came along, too, and you with "em, eh?"
"I tell you I wasn"t with "em," protested Dutcher.
"You walked all the way?"
"Most of the way."
"And how did Fred Ripley and his crowd come?"
"On a wagon, and----"
Here Hen Dutcher paused suddenly.
"I came alone," he bellowed wrathfully. "There weren"t any other fellows."
"Don"t you call Ripley a fellow?" pressed d.i.c.k. "You said that he and his crowd came on a wagon. So they"re going to play pranks on us, are they?"
"I don"t know what you"re talking about," protested Hen hoa.r.s.ely.
Dave, Tom and Greg fastened on Dutcher, dragging him out of his chair.
This time d.i.c.k did not feel called upon to interfere.
"Now, you tell us all about this queer game!" commanded Dave Darrin, his eyes flashing warningly. "If you don"t, we"ll shake it out of you; or we"ll roll you in the snow until we soak the truth out of you! What do Fred Ripley and his crowd mean to do out here to-night?"
"I--I don"t know," gasped Hen.
"Yes, you do," warned Dave Darrin crisply.
"No, I don"t!"
"Hen Dutcher," d.i.c.k interrupted firmly, "we are out here to enjoy ourselves, and we don"t propose to be interfered with. We have a right to be here, and no one else has. We"ve wormed it out of you that Fred Ripley and some other fellows have come out here to torment us. Fred Ripley has no right to come here and play mean tricks on us."
"Who gave you the right to be here?" demanded Hen sullenly. "Wasn"t it Fred Ripley"s father?"
"Yes; but that gives Fred no right to be mean in the matter, and Lawyer Ripley would be the first to say so, if I went and told him."
"And then you"d be "Sneak Prescott,"" taunted Hen.
"I didn"t say I was going to tell Fred"s father," d.i.c.k answered, his color rising, "and I haven"t any thought of it, either. Any fellow of anywhere near my own size who calls me a sneak can have his answer--two of them," d.i.c.k went on, displaying his fists. "You know that well enough, Hen Dutcher. You"re one of our own crowd--that is, you go to the Central Grammar with us, and yet you"ve joined in with some High School boys to bother us and spoil our fun. Who"s the sneak, Hen? Who will the fellows at the Central Grammar call the sneak when they hear about this?"
Hen began to look decidedly uneasy. He was well aware what the Grammar School boys in Gridley did to one of their own number who was voted a sneak.
"I--I didn"t mean any harm," muttered Hen, almost whimpering.
"See here," demanded d.i.c.k, another idea coming to him, "how much did Fred Ripley pay you to help work against us."
"He didn"t pay me nothing," young Dutcher protested ungrammatically.
"How much did he agree to pay you, then? Come--out with it!" insisted d.i.c.k.
Hen saw the other chums pressing about him threateningly, so he almost blubbered:
"Said he"d give me a dollar if I did the trick right."
"So there was a trick?" cried d.i.c.k quickly; then added ironically: "Hen, you ought never to tell lies. You don"t do it skilfully. You let out the truth, despite yourself. You"ve admitted that you"ve been hired to work against us--to help spoil our peace and comfort. Now, you"ve got to tell us all the rest of it, or you"ll have to take the consequences!"
"Say, don"t be mean with a feller!" pleaded Dutcher, ready to snivel.
"We"re not mean with you," d.i.c.k insisted. "We"ve a right to protect ourselves, and we"re going to do it. Besides, you joined us, and now you"ve got to be one of us and tell us the whole scheme against us."
"I didn"t join you!"
"Do you belong to Fred Ripley"s crowd, then? If so, you"d better join that choice gang! Grab hold of him, fellows!"
Dave Darrin and Tom Reade gripped Hen, on either side, with great heartiness. Dan Dalzell ran to unbar the door, after accomplishing which he turned to view what might follow.
"Are you going to tell us, Hen, what Ripley and his crew are plotting against us?" d.i.c.k insisted once more.
"They were going to come down here to-night," confessed Hen.
"What were they going to do here?"
"Scare you fellers."
"How?"
"Oh, they"ve got a lot of sheets, and a frame to rig up on Bert Dodge"s shoulders. With the frame above him, and covered with sheets, Bert will make a "ghost" about ten feet high."
"What else?" pressed d.i.c.k.
"Well, they"ve got a queer kind of whistle they can blow on, and it makes a long, loud moan, or a wail," explained Hen. "Whee! It gave me the creepy shivers the first time I heard it."
"Has Ripley"s ghost party got anything else to make the night merry with?" questioned d.i.c.k.
"Some kinder colored fire, that they were going to light at quite a distance from here, to give an "unearthly" glow through the woods."
"What else?"
"Oh, some other things," confessed Hen vaguely. "I can"t tell you all that crowd has, for I didn"t see it and they wouldn"t tell me about it."