The High School Boys" Fishing Trip.
by H. Irving Hanc.o.c.k.
CHAPTER I
TOM READE HAS A "BRAND-NEW ONE"
"h.e.l.lo, Timmy!"
""Lo, Reade."
"Warm night," observed Tom Reade, as he paused not far from the street corner to wipe his perspiring face and neck with his handkerchief.
"Middling warm," admitted Timmy Finbrink.
Yet the heat couldn"t have made him extremely uncomfortable, for Tom Reade, amiable and budding senior in the Gridley High School, smiled good naturedly as he stood surveying as much as he could make out of the face of Timmy Finbrink in that dark stretch of the street.
Timmy was merely a prospective freshman, having been graduated a few days before from the North Grammar School in Gridley.
Tom, himself, had been graduated, three years before, from the fine old Central Grammar, whence, in his estimation, all the "regular"
boys came. As a North Grammar boy, Timmy was to be regarded only with easygoing indifference. Yet a tale of woe quickly made Tom Reade his young fellow citizen"s instant ally.
"Aren"t you out pretty late, Timmy, for a boy who isn"t even a regular high school freshman as yet?" inquired Reade, with another smile. "It"s almost nine-thirty, you know."
"Don"t I know?" wailed Timmy Finbrink, with something of a shiver.
"It"s getting later every minute, too, and I"m due for a trouncing when I do go in, so what"s the odds?"
"Who"s going to give you that trouncing?" Tom demanded.
"My father," replied Timmy Finbrink.
"What have you been doing?"
"Pop told me to be upstairs and in bed by nine o"clock, without fail," Timmy explained. "I came along just five minutes ago, and found that pop has the house planted for me. I can"t slip in without his knowing it."
"Oho! So your father has the other members of the family stationed where they can see you, whichever way you go into the house?"
asked Reade, with genuine interest in the unfortunate Timmy.
"Nope," explained Timmy, with another shiver. "Mother and sister are away visiting, and pop is all alone in the house."
"But he can"t watch both the front and back doors at the same time," Reade suggested hopefully.
"Can"t he do just that, though?" sputtered Timmy. "I"ve been scouting on tip-toe around the house to get the lay of the land.
Pop is smoking his pipe, and has placed his chair so that he can see both the back and the front doors, for he has the room doors open right through. There isn"t a ghost of a show to get in without being seen---and pop has the strap on a chair beside him!" finished Timmy, with an antic.i.p.atory shiver.
"Timmy, you"re a fearfully slow boy," Tom drawled.
"What do you mean?"
"I can fix it so you can get into the house while your father is doing something else," Tom declared.
"Can you? How? Ring the front door bell, while I slip in at the back door?"
"Nothing as stale as that," scoffed Tom Reade. "That wouldn"t call for any brains, you see. Come along and we"ll look over the lay of the land. Cheer up, Timmy! You"ll have plenty of chance to slip into the house, get upstairs, undressed and be in bed before your father has time to get over the surprise that"s coming to him."
"What are you going to-----" Timmy began breathlessly, but Tom interrupted him with:
"Keep quiet, and be ready to follow orders fast."
As they gained the front gate of the Finbrink yard Tom"s keen eyes noted a brick lying on the gra.s.s. As that was just what he wanted, he pounced upon it.
"Now, Timmy, do you know where you can find a fairly good-sized bottle---without going into the house or taking the risk of being seen by your father?"
"Yes; there"s one back of the house, with the ashes," Timmy answered eagerly.
"Go and get it, and don"t make any noise."
Timmy disappeared in the darkness beyond, but soon returned carrying an empty quart bottle.
"Good enough!" whispered Reade, eyeing the bottle with cordial interest. Then he noiselessly approached the house, laying the brick on the gra.s.s under one of the front windows.
"Now, Timmy, you slip around to the back of the house," whispered the young schemer. "Just as soon as you hear a crash you watch your swiftest chance to slip into the house and upstairs to bed.
Understand?"
"Sure! What you-----"
"Don"t stop to ask questions. Get on your mark and look out for your own best interests!"
Rejoicing in the possession of such a valuable ally as Tom Reade, Timmy vanished in the darkness. Tom Reade waited until he judged that the youngster must be in position near the back door. Now Tom gripped the bottle in his left hand, crouching over the brick.
With his felt hat in his right hand, Tom reached up, hitting a window pane smartly with the hat. At the same instant he brought the bottle crashing down over the brick.
As the bottle smashed against the brick Mr. Finbrink, in the dining room of the house, jumped up so quickly that he dropped his pipe.
"Some young rascal has smashed a front window!" he gasped, as he bolted into the parlor.
That was just what the noise had sounded like, and Tom Reade had intended that it should do so.
"I"ll catch the young scamp!" gasped Mr. Finbrink, making a rush for the front door, which he pulled open.
Pausing an instant, he heard the sound of running feet in the distance.
"The young scoundrel went west, and he has a good start," grunted Mr. Finbrink, as he gave chase in that direction. "Hang it, I don"t believe I can catch him!"
That guess proved well founded. After running a short distance Mr. Finbrink halted. He had not caught sight of the fugitive, nor could he now hear the running steps.
"I wonder how many panes of gla.s.s the young scamp broke?" muttered the irate Mr. Finbrink.