HEN DUTCHER IS MODEST
For an instant Dave hesitated, reluctant to leave a comrade injured.
"Get after him!" ordered young Prescott, rising somewhat slowly. "Don"t let the fellow get out of sight."
At that direct command Dave Darrin darted around the corner, going fast down the side street. A moment later d.i.c.k hove into sight, though some distance to the rear of his now more agile chum.
As he ran Darrin felt like rubbing his eyes. By the aid of the street lamps he could see fairly well down to the next corner. The fugitive hadn"t had time to cover all that distance in the few moments that he had been out of view.
"Dave!" called d.i.c.k, though his voice at first wasn"t very loud. Darrin didn"t hear, though a moment later he halted, glancing about him and back at his chum. Prescott was beckoning.
"He has darted in somewhere on this block," muttered d.i.c.k, as his chum reached him.
"Yes," Dave agreed; "but where?"
"That"s too much for us to guess."
"What are we going to do about it?"
"I don"t know," d.i.c.k confessed disappointedly. "I hate to see Mr. Fits slip away from us like this, though."
"Well, he has done it, anyway," Dave declared. "I"m afraid there isn"t much that we can do now."
"We can go down to the next corner, and back on the other side," d.i.c.k Prescott proposed. "Look back frequently, Dave, and, if you see Mr. Fits dart out of any house or doorway, then yell to me, and we"ll both turn and race after the fellow."
"A nice sprinter you"ll make, after that knock down blow on the chest,"
remarked Darrin dryly.
"Oh, I"m getting a little more wind back every minute," d.i.c.k declared cheerily. "I could run, now, if I had to, and in two minutes from now I"ll be able to do a whole lot better. Come along. You do the turning to look backward, and I"ll use my eyes in front of us."
In this fashion they explored the entire block on both sides. Their slow, thorough search at last brought them back to Main Street, much puzzled and not a little discouraged.
"What now?" inquired Dave.
"We"ve done all we can," d.i.c.k replied, "except find a policeman and tell him that we"ve seen Fits back in town."
"It"s strange that he should come back to Gridley," murmured Darrin.
"You"d think that the fellow would be anxious to give the town a wide berth."
"Undoubtedly he has his reasons. But--Dave, there"s a policeman. Let"s hurry and tell him."
In another moment the two Grammar School boys were engaged in reciting what had happened to a uniformed member of the night police force of Gridley.
"There"s no time to be lost," declared the policeman. "For a matter as important as this I"ll leave my beat and notify the station house."
"Can we give you any further help?" d.i.c.k asked.
"Not a bit, my lad, thank you, unless you see Fitsey again."
As soon as the policeman had gone, Darrin asked rather seriously:
"d.i.c.k, are you sure that it really was Fits, and no mistake?"
"Of course I am. Why?"
"Oh, nothing, only it seems so strange to me that the fellow should really venture back into the one town where the police are really anxious to land him."
"It was Mr. Fits that I saw," Prescott insisted. "Besides, no one else would want to knock me down."
"That"s so," Dave admitted. "Well, I hope that the police find the rascal."
"It"s a lot more likely that we, or some of our fellows, will do the finding," laughed Prescott. "We"ve done all the finding so far."
At this moment a hand smote d.i.c.k heavily between the shoulders, while Tom Reade"s laughing voice demanded:
"Fellows, how does home cooking seem again? Isn"t it great?"
Harry Hazelton was with Tom.
"We"ve almost forgotten how good the home cooking is," d.i.c.k answered.
"We"ve just had something else to think about."
Then the story of the latest meeting with Mr. Fits was told.
"Jupiter!" breathed Tom excitedly. "Say, I wish we could run that fellow down. I"m just aching to pay him back for the night of ghost scare that he gave us out in the forest!"
"I"d like well enough to see him caught," d.i.c.k agreed. "But I can"t say that I want to do it myself."
"Why not?" challenged Tom.
"Well, he"s a powerful big brute, and I doubt if we four could handle Mr. Fits."
"Huh!" retorted Tom. "I"d like to try it, anyway. And, if we had the chance, and missed, four of us could make noise enough to bring a few men to our aid."
"That part would be all right," d.i.c.k agreed. "If we see the rascal again it will be our best move to capture him by yelling for a few men to come up to where we are."
"Hullo, you!" was the greeting of Toby Ross, as that schoolboy stopped and looked at the returned campers. "Have a good time?"
"Fine!" answered four voices at once.
"But," Toby continued, "I never thought there was that much stuff in Hen Dutcher."
"What stuff? What kind of stuff!" demanded Tom.
"Why, Hen is back in Gridley," Toby answered, "and, from the tales he has been telling, he was the whole life and safety of your crowd out in the forest."
"Come to think of it," Tom replied soberly, "I believe he was."