BERT DODGE HEARS THE BATTLE CRY
Ten minutes after d.i.c.k had thrown himself on the gra.s.s a rustling was heard above the camp. Then down the slope strode three figures.
d.i.c.k sat up, regarding the visitors in silence until they came within the fringe of the light of the campfire.
"h.e.l.lo, Dodge," was Prescott"s ready greeting. "I didn"t hear you knock."
"Then maybe you will, before long," retorted Bert, in a voice of barely suppressed fury. "Prescott, you sneak, how long since you have added grand larceny to your other bad habits?"
"Try that over again," requested d.i.c.k calmly. "I don"t believe I quite catch you."
"Yes, you do," Dodge retorted. "Come now, no lying about it."
"The nearest that I come to understanding you, as yet," d.i.c.k answered in an unruffled voice, "is that you appear to be trying to be offensive."
"I"ll be more than offensive with you, before I get through!"
cried Bert, his temper rising.
The third member of the visiting party was a man of about forty years, of sandy complexion and with a stubby, bristling red moustache.
He looked like a man who had been born a fighter, though his face expressed keen attention rather than a desire to be quarrelsome.
In dress this man looked as though he might be a farmer. d.i.c.k and his friends judged the man to be a rustic constable.
"A nice trick you played on us!" Bert went on angrily. "You took our front tires off the wheels of the car and ran away with them."
"Easy! Careful!" d.i.c.k smilingly advised. "Did anyone see us take the tires off and run away with them?"
Bert looked astonished, then gulped chokingly. Did Prescott and his friends intend to deny the charge?
"No one had to see you take the tires," Bert went on angrily.
"All that is necessary is for us to discover the merchandise on you!"
"Then you have missed some tires, and you think I"m wearing them?"
d.i.c.k chuckled.
"Don"t try to sneak, lie or equivocate" commanded Bert Dodge, his face flushing with anger. "Those are my tires hanging from that line!"
"Are they?" Prescott inquired, in a tone of the mildest curiosity.
"You know they are!"
"Then, if the tires are your property, just help yourself!" d.i.c.k coolly answered. "If they are your tires, I will even offer to forego making any storage charges for the time they have been.
hanging there."
"Hang you!" choked Bert
Then he turned to the man with them, demanding:
"Don"t you see a pretty clear case of grand larceny here?"
"I can"t sa-ay that I do---yet," drawled the stranger.
"You"ll never see a clearer case!" quivered young Dodge.
To this the stranger did not reply. He had been looking over this s.e.xtette of high school boys, and if one might judge from his face, the man seemed to be rather favorably impressed by d.i.c.k & Co.
"If these are your tires," d.i.c.k went on smoothly, "would you mind removing them from our camp?"
"I won"t," Bert answered hotly. "You fellows, who stole the tires, will take them back to the car from which you stole them, and there you will put the tires on again."
"You"ve missed some part of the idea in your haste," declared young Prescott.
"What do you mean?" gasped Dodge.
"I mean simply that we"ll have nothing whatever to do with taking back the tires, or putting them on your wheels."
"Then I"ll see what I can do to punish you all!" flared Bert hotly.
"You"re none of you any better than a lot of low-lived thieves!"
The situation was growing too warm for Dave Darrin, though d.i.c.k was still smiling.
Darry jumped to his feet, advancing upon Bert Dodge, who retreated a couple of steps.
"Dodge," Dave began, "you want to put a halter on your tongue.
You can"t come here to this camp and call too many names. You don"t amount to much, of course, and nothing that you know how to say should be treated very seriously. It would be hard for a rascal like yourself to be really insulting to anyone possessed of the average degree of honor. But we came up here for pleasure and rest. Both your face and your voice---not particularly your words---are disturbing. If those are your tires, kindly take them and get out of camp!"
"You fellows will carry the tires back to the road, and you"ll put them on the wheels," retorted Dodge hoa.r.s.ely.
"As d.i.c.k has already told you, we"ll do nothing of the sort,"
Dave flashed back at him. "All we want, Dodge, is for you to get out of this camp. Incidentally, if you want the tires, we shall offer no objections to your taking them with you."
"What have you to say to that?" demanded Bert hotly, turning to the man with the stubby red mustache.
"It seems to me like good judgment," replied the stranger.
"You say that?" screamed Bert, going into a blind pa.s.sion. "Is that what we brought you here for?"
"I don"t really know what you did bring me here for," replied the stranger. "All I know is that you stopped me, when I was driving past with my load of produce for the Gridley markets, and you offered me two dollars to come down here and not say much unless I was spoken to. I didn"t come until you paid me the money.
It was good pay, and I"ll stay here an hour longer if you really think I owe you that much time."
"You"re not a constable, or a sheriff"s officer, are you, sir?"
asked d.i.c.k pleasantly.
"Not unless someone made me one when I wasn"t looking," replied the stranger, with a shrewd smile.
"I understand," nodded Prescott. "This fellow Dodge hired you to come down with him for more than one reason. In the first place, he and Bayliss were afraid to come here without backing.
For another thing, Dodge thought that we"d guess you to be a constable, and I"ll admit that I did mistake you for an officer at the outset. Dodge thought your presence would frighten us.
You look like a decent man, sir, and I"m sorry to see you in such company. These two fellows were chased out of the Gridley High School just because they were considered unfit to a.s.sociate with the members of the student body."