It was not cold in the cook shack, for there was still some fire going in the stove. The embers also threw a slight amount of illumination into the room.
d.i.c.k dropped to his knees behind Tom Reade, and, reaching for the cords that bound Tom"s wrists behind his back, began to gnaw.
"Well, by hokey!" gasped Tom. "I never had head enough to think of that."
"If we were gagged like Greg and Dan, we couldn"t do the trick," Dave rejoined. "Come here, Harry; get in front of me and I"ll gnaw your wrists free."
d.i.c.k paused long enough in his work to say:
"No need, Dave. When Tom is once free he can use his knife and have us all turned loose in a jiffy."
Prescott possessed strong, fine teeth. He gnawed away at the cords to such good advantage that Reade soon had the use of his hands.
"Now, I"ll do as much for you, d.i.c.k," Tom proposed, reaching for his pocket knife.
Within a very short time all six were free, and Greg and Dan, their mouths free of the gags, told indignantly how they had been engaged in preparing supper when the door opened and Ripley and his crowd burst in.
"And now I suppose the rowdies are eating up the supper," finished Greg vengefully.
"I guess they"ve got it about finished by now," Prescott added grimly.
"But we six are free. If we"re any good we"ll get our cabin back and make it our castle against all comers."
"Good!" cried Dave, a fiery flash in his eyes. "But how?"
"That"s what we"ve got to figure out," d.i.c.k replied thoughtfully. "But we"ll do it."
CHAPTER XX
THE COOK SHACK DISASTER
"First of all," d.i.c.k continued, "it"s going to be chilly, soon, in this shack. Put on some fuel, Harry, won"t you?"
Hazelton complied with the request. By a common instinct all of the Grammar School boys gathered closely around the stove, extending their hands and warming themselves.
"The battle can"t be ours a bit too soon," observed Tom Reade dryly.
"We"ve simply got to eat soon. Too bad we carted all of Mr. Fits"s larder into the cabin this afternoon."
"But what are we going to do about retaking our cabin," pressed that budding young war horse, Darrin.
"I"m thinking fast over every plan that comes to me," d.i.c.k answered thoughtfully. "If any of you other fellows think of one first don"t be backward with it. I"ll promise not to be jealous."
"Hang that Dutcher hound, anyway!" growled Tom Reade angrily. "I can"t get over his mean, dirty work."
"The best way is not to mention the fellow," d.i.c.k answered coldly. "He"s not worth it."
"Oh, he isn"t, eh?" muttered a boy who had just stolen softly to the outside of the shack door and now stood there listening. That eavesdropper was Hen Dutcher, who had slipped out of the cabin to see how life fared with the boys whom he didn"t like.
Then Hen, still eavesdropping, listened to enough more to make sure that d.i.c.k & Co. were all of them free of their bonds, and that these enterprising Grammar School boys were actually discussing plans to rout the enemy from the log cabin.
"Oh, I"ll have to hustle back and tell this to Ripley"s crew," chuckled Hen gleefully. "It"ll amuse "em."
"What"s that?" demanded Ripley, when the informer returned to the cabin with his news. "Prescott and his collection of babies are going to make trouble for us, are they? Can"t they stand a good joke like men? Come along, fellows, and we"ll teach "em a little more about being real men."
"We"d better take something in our hands, then," proposed Dodge firmly.
"Those little fellows are regular spitfires. They may have something ready to throw at us when we break into the shack."
"Oh, take axes, then, if you are afraid of the little kids," retorted Fred scornfully. "My hands are enough for me."
Four or five of the rowdyish crowd picked up sticks that they had carried through the forest that afternoon. Thus prepared, they went out of the log cabin on tip-toe, making their way stealthily to the door of the shack.
"Say, fellows," Harry was at that moment proposing to his friends inside, "hadn"t we better drop the bar across the door? We can"t tell when we may receive an unexpected visit from----"
"How will now do?" roared Fred Ripley, throwing the shack door open before Greg could drop the bar in place. "So you young smarties managed to free yourselves, did you? And you thought you"d find a way to put a trick over on us? You"ll have to take to getting up earlier in the day, if you expect to get the better of any crowd that I"m leading."
Ripley"s crew were now all of them in the shack, crowding the little place.
"What is it that you"re scheming to do, anyway?" leered Fred, enjoying the looks of dismay on the faces of d.i.c.k & Co. "See here, don"t you little boys think that it"s about time for you all to line up and start a footrace out of these woods?"
"No; we don"t," d.i.c.k retorted defiantly. "We think it"s high time, though, for your crowd to start just such a race."
"Hold your tongue, freshie!" ordered Fred roughly.
"Not for you!" d.i.c.k snapped, his temper going up as the mercury climbs on a hot day.
"Then I"ll make you!" offered young Ripley, making a spring at d.i.c.k.
But d.i.c.k & Co. were now all together, standing in a firm fighting line.
Fred received punches from the fists belonging to three different school boys, and fell back, red and panting.
"Sail in, everybody!" ordered Fred. "These simpletons haven"t sense enough to stand a good joke on themselves."
It was an unmanly thing to do. Some of the boys in Ripley"s crowd had no idea of going further than having rather rough "fun." However, the shack, in an instant, was the scene of a lively mix-up. In the midst of the excitement Bert Dodge drove Harry Hazelton against the stovepipe. It came down, showering soot all over Fred"s face and down his neck. In the excitement that followed, and during the rush of some of the boys to get out of the flying cloud of soot, the stove itself was overturned. Red embers flew about in every direction. The door being open, the wind helped to set the cabin ablaze.
"Now you"ve done it!" panted d.i.c.k, holding up one hand and trying to put a stop to the trouble. "Quit fighting and help put the fire out."
"You youngsters put it out yourselves, then," Fred retorted. "It was all your fault that it started."
An indignant denial came to d.i.c.k"s lips, but he forced it back. This shack was another"s property, and personal differences must be kept in the background until the blaze had been extinguished.
"Let me past you," demanded d.i.c.k indignantly, but Bert Dodge barred the doorway until the mounting flames scared Ripley, who turned and yelled to Dodge to let the boys out. d.i.c.k & Co. raced to the log cabin, where they caught up the water buckets, a dishpan and other utensils that would hold water. d.i.c.k also s.n.a.t.c.hed up a hatchet, for he knew that the spring would be frozen over.
Fast as they worked at the spring, the shack was well ablaze by the time that the Grammar School boys returned with the first water.
"Why don"t you fellows brace up and do something, Ripley?" d.i.c.k queried, as he ran up with water.