In another moment the fleeing one had darted around the corner.
Five members of d.i.c.k & Co., angry all the way through, were the first to reach that corner.
"There he goes, down the alley-way to the livery stable!" roared Dave Darrin. "After him, fellows!"
But by the time that the five reached the stable yard the fugitive was out of sight. Men hurried up, and a quick search was made of the neighborhood. It was soon certain, however, that the fellow had made good use of his time and had gotten away. Two policemen who were among the latest arrivals on the scene gave it as their opinion that further chase would be worse than useless.
So d.i.c.k"s chums turned back, to see how their leader had fared.
Dr. Bentley was leaning over the boy, who, white and lifeless, lay at the edge of the sidewalk.
"Take him to the drug store, doctor," urged one of the women.
"He"ll revive quicker in the open air, madam," answered the physician.
"Is young Prescott very badly hurt?"
"I can"t tell yet," said Dr. Bentley. "There doesn"t seem to be any fracture of the bone at the point where he was struck. And the back of his head seems to be sound and whole. I think Master d.i.c.k is simply stunned."
Dr. Bentley stepped over to his auto, took out a drug case and selected a vial from it.
"Get me a gla.s.s of water, someone, and promptly," he directed.
The water was quickly brought. After pouring a few drops from the vial into it, the medical man supported d.i.c.k"s head and poured some of the stuff into his mouth.
After a short time d.i.c.k opened his eyes.
"Wh-what kicked me?" he asked slowly.
"The fist of that gentleman with soap-made fits," replied the physician dryly. "Take a few deep breaths, Prescott. Now, a little more from the gla.s.s. Breathe hard again. There, do you feel as though you"d like to get on your feet?"
"Certainly," d.i.c.k replied.
Dr. Bentley helped him to his feet, supporting him and urging him to try to walk a little. At about this time Dave and the others returned at a trot.
"d.i.c.k, I guess you saved some of us from losing more in the way of valuables," smiled the medical man grimly. "For one, I"m ashamed of myself. A man who has been practising medicine more than twenty years should know too much to be taken in by sham fits on the part of a thief who plays his trick in order to rob a crowd of Christmas shoppers."
"You think he meant to rob us, then, doctor?" pressed a woman in the crowd.
"That fellow certainly did mean to do it," replied Dr. Bentley with emphasis. "It"s an old trick in a crowd--this sort of sham sickness."
"And he got all my Christmas money--every cent of it--and carried it off with him!" wailed one woman, who looked as though she could not afford to lose much money.
"He s.n.a.t.c.hed my locket with the diamond in it!" vengefully exclaimed another woman, exhibiting the broken ends of a neck chain.
"My purse is gone. I had forty-two dollars in it."
"I didn"t get off very lightly, ladies," replied Dr. Bentley. "My scarf pin wasn"t so extremely valuable, but I feel badly about the watch, and I shall feel worse when I realize its loss more fully. That was my father"s watch, and I valued it above money."
"The police ought to catch that scoundrel," declared one of the women losers.
"Of course they ought," cried another. "If they don"t catch the thief what good are the police, anyway?"
"I don"t care much about their finding him, unless they also find my forty-two dollars on him," mournfully proclaimed another of the losers.
"I am sorry for you, ladies. I don"t deserve any sympathy, or very little, for myself. Well, as the scoundrel has gotten away, and as young Prescott is growing stronger, I shall go on my way to other patients who need me."
d.i.c.k was still rather dizzy and weak, but Dave"s right arm supported him.
"Does your head ache?" inquired Greg.
"Guess," advised d.i.c.k dryly.
As the two policemen had given up looking for the fugitive, and had gone back to their posts, the crowd was melting. It was nearly noon, and most people on the streets were moving homeward.
"Guess you won"t have a large appet.i.te for the coming meal," observed Tom Reade to d.i.c.k. "Whew! What a crack that sounded like when the scoundrel struck you! It must have jarred away some of your appet.i.te."
"I can"t tell about that until I try to eat," d.i.c.k answered.
"No matter whether you eat much or not, but you want to be sure to ask your mother for two cups of strong coffee with your dinner," advised Darrin, with all the readiness of the amateur physician.
"I guess I"ll go home, fellows," announced d.i.c.k, as the noon whistles blew. "I advise the rest of you to hustle, too. Remember what you"ve got to spring on your fathers when you get home. We want to have the whole thing settled when we meet this afternoon. Try to put it through, all of you, won"t you?"
"I"m going to see you as far as your door, d.i.c.k, old fellow," Dave insisted.
"Oh, I"ll be feeling fine in another hour," d.i.c.k protested. "It just knocked my senses for a minute or two."
Shortly after one o"clock the chums gathered again on Main Street. d.i.c.k now looked as keen as ever, and his eyes were shining.
"It"s all settled for me," he announced. "I can go camping."
"So can I," Dave reported with satisfaction.
"Dad almost as good as said I could go," Tom declared. "He"ll agree to it by to-night."
"How about you, Dan?" queried d.i.c.k.
"I can go--_not_," groaned Dalzell.
"I hope to go," announced Greg. "All I could get out of my father was that he was in a rush, but that he"d talk it over with me to-morrow and let me know what he had to say."
Hazelton admitted that he was in the same plight, as to a delayed decision, but he did not speak as though he were very hopeful of being permitted to go.
"It"ll just be a shame if we can"t all go," Dave declared seriously. "It won"t be a quarter as much fun unless we have the whole crowd."
"Say, watch that slim, well-dressed fellow with the brown derby,"
whispered Hazelton. "See him coming along behind the two women. I"m sure I saw him, earlier this morning, talking with the same fit-thrower that b.u.mped d.i.c.k."
"Humph! So did I," muttered d.i.c.k. "I remember. This slim fellow was with a short, thick-set man with a black moustache."