""Blade"? Extree "Blade"?" demanded a newsboy, holding out a paper.
"Better take one, Mr. Dodge," advised a man in the crowd. "Mighty interesting reading in this extra!"
Almost mechanically the banker paid for a paper, folded it, then stepped into the automobile.
On his arrival home, and after having turned the car over to his chauffeur, Mr. Dodge went to his library, despite the fact that he knew his dinner was waiting.
There he spread out the extra "Blade" on a table and began to read the featured news story.
As he read the elder Dodge flushed deeply. Though the names of Bert and Bayliss were not mentioned, he had no difficulty in connecting them with the ludicrous story.
Turning, Mr. Dodge rang. A man servant answered.
"Mrs. Dodge wishes to know, sir, when you are coming to dinner,"
said the man.
"Ask Mrs. Dodge, from me kindly to let the dinner go on, and say that I am busy, now, but will come to the table as soon as I am at leisure. Then ask Mr. Bert to come here to me at once."
Bert entered. He had removed his wet garments, and put on fresh clothing. He had been at dinner when interrupted by his father"s message.
"This extraordinary story in the "Blade" refers to you, does it not?" inquired the banker, shoving the paper before the young man.
"Yes, sir," Bert admitted sulkily.
"You and your friend, Bayliss, have been making fools of yourselves, have you?"
"No, sir," cried Bert. "We were made fools of by others."
"When it comes to making a fool of yourself, Bert, no one else is swift enough to get ahead of you," replied his father witheringly.
"So, you have succeeded in making the entire family objects of ridicule once more? I had hoped that that sort of thing had ceased when I sent you away to a private school."
"We were imposed on," flushed Bert angrily. "Nor has the outrage stopped there. Bayliss and I were seized in front of the "Blade"
office, and taken over to the horse trough and ducked!"
"Was it done thoroughly?" inquired the banker ironically.
"A thorough ducking?" gasped his son and heir. "I should say it was thorough, sir!"
"Then I wish that the incident would make sufficient impression on you to last you a few days," went on Mr. Dodge bitterly. "I doubt it, however."
"Father, I want you to back me in having some of my a.s.sailants arrested for that ducking!"
"I shall do nothing of the sort," rejoined the banker. "The ridicule that this affair has brought upon my family has gone far enough already. You are my son, but a most foolish one, if not worse, and I feel that I am under obligations to the men or boys who carried you to the horse trough and endeavored to cure you of some of your folly."
"I had hoped, sir, that you would stand back of your own son better than that. I am positive that Mr. Bayliss will not allow the outrage to pa.s.s unnoticed. I believe that Mr. Bayliss will take stern measures to avenge the great insult to his son."
"What Mr. Bayliss may do is Mr. Bayliss" affair, not mine," replied the banker coolly. "Is young Bayliss in this house at present?"
"Yes, sir; he"s at the dinner table."
"Then I won"t urge you to be inhospitable, Bert, let him finish his dinner in peace. After dinner, however, the sooner young Bayliss returns to his home, or at least, goes away from here, the better I shall be pleased. As for you, young man, I have had enough of your actions. I have a nice, and very quiet, summer place in mind where I am going to send you to-morrow. You will stay there, too, unless you wish to incur my severe displeasure.
I will tell you about your new plans for the summer after breakfast to-morrow, young man."
"You"re always hard on me," grumbled Bert sullenly. "But what do you think about d.i.c.k Prescott and his friends?"
"As for young Prescott," replied the banker, "he is altogether above your cla.s.s, Bert. You should leave him severely alone.
Don"t allow yourself to attempt anything against Prescott, Reade, Darrin, or any of that crowd. You will find that any one of them has too much brains for you to hope to cope with. I repeat that you are not at all in their cla.s.s as to brains, and it is quite time that you recognize the fact. Now, you may return to your dinner. Be good enough to tell your mother that I will be at table within fifteen minutes. Present my apologies to your mother for not having been more prompt. Now---go!"
Bert Dodge left his father with the feeling that he resembled an unjustly whipped dog.
"So I"ve got to go away and rusticate somewhere for the summer, have I?" wondered Bert angrily. "And all on account of such a gang of muckers as the fellows who call themselves d.i.c.k & Co.!"
Nor did young Bayliss fare any better on his return home that night. He, too, was ordered away for the remainder of the summer by his father, who had just returned from abroad, nor was he allowed to accompany Bert Dodge.
What of d.i.c.k & Co. during all this time?
They had gone away on an avowed fishing trip and they were making the most of it.
Harry Hazelton attended to perch fishing, when any of those fish were wanted. Tom Reade and Dan made the most of the black ba.s.s sport, while d.i.c.k, with Dave and Greg as under-studies, went after trout.
Several trips were made down to the St. Clair Lake House, and on each occasion large quant.i.ties of ba.s.s and trout were sold to the proprietor. He took all their offerings.
As a result of the sales of trout and ba.s.s some substantial money orders were forwarded to the elder Prescott, to be cashed by d.i.c.k on his return.
One afternoon d.i.c.k, who had gone trout fishing alone, returned with so small a string of the speckled ones that some of Tom"s ba.s.s had to be added to the supper that night.
"I"ve been doing rather an unsportsmanlike thing, I fear," admitted d.i.c.k.
"Then "fess up!" ordered Tom Reade.
"The trout are beginning to bite poorly," Prescott went on. "The fact is, we"ve all but cleaned up the stream."
"There must be a few hundred pounds left there yet," guessed Dave.
"There may be, and I hope there are," Prescott went on, "but I"ve decided not to take any more trout out of the stream this year.
Whatever are now left in the stream we must leave for next summer.
No good sportsman would ever deplete a stream of all its trout."
"The ba.s.s are still biting fairly well," mused Tom aloud. "However, they"re not as easy to catch as they were. Had we better leave the ba.s.s alone, also?"
"We might take out what ba.s.s we want to eat," d.i.c.k suggested, "but not attempt to catch any more than that this summer."
"Too bad," muttered Tom. "I was in hopes that we were going to put by a big stake in the bank, to be divided later on."
"We already have money enough for our purpose," d.i.c.k suggested.
"We have sufficient funds to take us all away on a fine jaunt during August, and these are the last days of July, now.
"I hate to go away from this lake," muttered Dave.