But the other fellows eyed him askance, in wondering amazement.
What on earth could d.i.c.k mean by accepting for himself and chums a dinner and dance invitation when they had nothing to wear save their road-worn and travel-stained hiking clothes?
"d.i.c.k is getting careless---making such an engagement for us for to-morrow evening," Tom confided to Hazelton, when the news was related to him.
"Well, you won"t need to mind, anyway," laughed Harry gleefully.
"You, of all fellows, can"t kick, Tom, after the way you"ve been glorifying life in one"s working clothes."
Dr. Bentley was delighted to have such capable young men as Reade and Hazelton on hand to put on the new tire, for the man of medicine, though a clever surgeon in some lines, was but little of a machinist.
He worked with finer tools than those that his repair box carried.
Twenty minutes later the new tire was on and had been pumped up.
"All ready!" sang out Tom.
"You might have dallied longer on that job," d.i.c.k answered reproachfully.
"Are you anxious to keep us hungry girls away from our luncheon that much longer?" cried Susie Sharp.
"Well, whose fault is it that you are not having your luncheon, here and now?" smiled Prescott. "You didn"t like our cooking, though."
"Don"t I?" chirped Miss Sharp. "If it weren"t for making you vainer than you are, d.i.c.k Prescott, I"d tell you that the trout luncheon you gave us at the second lake still lingers in our memories."
Regretfully, the boys escorted the high school girls down to the road, a.s.sisting them and Mrs. Bentley into the car.
"To-morrow evening, then!" called Mrs. Bentley. "Be at the hotel by half-past five o"clock, won"t you?"
"Without fail," d.i.c.k smiled back, "unless circ.u.mstances beyond our control prevent us."
Good-byes were eagerly called, Dr. Bentley warmly expressing his thanks to Reade and Hazelton for their a.s.sistance. Then, with a warning honk, the big car started away.
Then all hands turned upon d.i.c.k. "Prescott, why on earth did you let us in for a dinner and dance to-morrow night?" quivered Greg.
"Look at us---the only outside clothes we have with us!" exploded Danny Grin.
"We"re frights!" chimed in Dave.
"We"ll disgrace the girls," blurted Tom, "unless in the meantime we can find some real tramps with whom to trade clothes."
"We"ll feel ashamed enough to drop, when we get among civilized folks," moaned Harry.
"This is a fine chance to prove or disprove Tom"s theory that a fellow ought to feel most at home in his old working clothes,"
chuckled d.i.c.k.
"Was that why you did it---accepted that dinner and dance invitation?"
gasped Dave.
"Partly," laughed Prescott.
"I won"t go!" flared Reade, his face showing red under its heavy coat of tan.
"Oh, yes, you will," d.i.c.k insisted, "or else admit that you perjured yourself when you idealized your working duds this morning."
"And are you really going to-morrow night?" Greg insisted.
"I certainly am," young Prescott affirmed.
That was too much of a poser for the other members of d.i.c.k & Co.
Nothing more was said on the subject, though the five boys did considerable thinking.
Toward five o"clock they came in sight of Ashbury. A few minutes later they had reached a point where the highway turned into one of the streets of the town.
Here a uniformed bell-boy from the Ashbury Terraces Hotel approached them.
"Is Mr. Prescott in this party?" he inquired.
"That"s my name," d.i.c.k answered.
"Then I am requested by Dr. Bentley to guide you to a camping place inside the Terraces" grounds," replied the bell-boy. "Dr. Bentley has arranged it with the manager."
This was a surprise, indeed, but d.i.c.k & Co. followed their guide, who turned in through a gate at some distance from the handsome summer hotel. Their guide led them to a grove on a broad terrace, from which the high school lads had an excellent view of one of the porches of the hotel.
"Look at the smartly dressed people over there!" groaned Greg, as soon as the bell-boy had left them. "Look at those girls, in their gowns of white lace! Look at the fellows over there, in flannels and white duck! Look at-----"
"Shut up!" commanded Tom hoa.r.s.ely. "Don"t rub it in."
"d.i.c.k," suggested Darry, with some bitterness, "we"ll feel like princes in our flannel shirts and khaki leggings, won"t we?"
"I"ve an idea," offered Danny Grin. "By way of dressing up we can leave off our khaki leggings and give our trousers an extra brushing all around. We"ll look quite respectable, after all!"
"Gentlemen," remarked Tom Reade solemnly, "I have the honor to make a motion to the effect that Messrs. Darrin, Holmes and Dalzell be appointed a committee of three to take d.i.c.k Prescott away and drown him in the nearest sizable body of water!"
"Carried!" proclaimed Hazelton.
Instead, however, all hands fell to work putting up the tent and preparing for supper.
"Rah, rah, rah!" rose joyously on the air. Then, out of the woods behind the camp appeared eight young men in multi-colored raiment.
Gorgeous bands surrounded their straw hats; their blazer coats resembled so many rainbows. Yet, apart from their coats of many colors, these young men were smartly dressed, and it was plain that they carried with them considerable of an estimate of their own importance. Their average age appeared to be about twenty-one years.
"Rah, rah, rah!" rang the chorus again. Then one of the eight, moving in advance of The others, called back:
"Fellows, what have we here?"
"Gipsies!" called another.
"Plain hoboes!" from a third.
"It"s a gang of juvenile desperadoes escaped from some reformatory,"
declared a fourth.