"As it happens, just at present I am not!"
"What do you mean by that?" flared Bert.
"Oh, you know, you don"t care anything about my opinions," laughed d.i.c.k. "Let us drop the whole subject. I don"t care particularly, anyway, about being seen talking with you two."
"Oh, you don"t?" cried Bayliss, in a voice hoa.r.s.e with rage.
In almost the same breath Bert Dodge hurled an insult so pointed and so offensive that d.i.c.k"s ruddy cheek went white for an instant.
Back into his pocket he dropped the latch key, then stepped swiftly down before his tormentor.
"Dodge," he cried warningly, "take back the remark you just made.
Then, after that, you can take your offensive presence out of my sight!"
"I"ll take nothing back!" sneered the other boy.
"Then you"ll take this!" retorted d.i.c.k, very quietly, in a cold, low voice.
Prescott"s fist flew out. It was not a hard blow, but it landed on the tip of Bert Dodge"s nose.
"You cur!" cried Dodge chokingly. "Wait until I get my coat off."
"No; keep it on; I"m going to keep mine on," retorted Prescott.
"Guard yourself, man!"
"Jump in, Bayliss! We"ll thump his head off!" gasped Dodge, with almost a sob in his voice, to was so angry.
Bayliss would have been nothing loath to "jump in." But, just as d.i.c.k Prescott, after calling "guard," aimed his second blow at Bert, Fred Ripley, Purcell and "Hen" Wadleigh all hurried up to the scene.
For Bayliss to be caught fighting two-to-one would have resulted in a quick thrashing for him. So Bayliss stood back.
"Bad blood, is there?" asked Wadleigh, as the new arrivals hurried up.
"Prescott, after insulting Bert, flew at him," retorted Bayliss, panting some with the effort at lying.
Dodge was now standing well back. He had parried three of d.i.c.k"s blows, but had not yet taken the offensive. As Dodge was a heavier man, and not badly schooled in fistics, d.i.c.k had the good sense to go at this fight coolly, taking time to exercise his judgment.
"What"s it all about?" demanded Wadleigh.
Just for an instant Bayliss felt himself stumped. Then, all of a sudden, an inspiration in lying came to him.
"Prescott got ugly because the Dodges never paid that thousand-dollar reward," declared Bayliss.
d.i.c.k heard, and with his eye still on Dodge, shouted out: "That"s not true, Bayliss. You know you are not telling the truth!"
Bayliss doubled his fists, and would have struck Prescott down from behind, but Wadleigh, who was a big and powerful fellow, caught Bayliss by his left arm, jerking him back.
"Now, just wait a bit, Bayliss," advised "Hen," moderately. "From what I know of Prescott I"m not afraid but that he"ll give you satisfaction presently---if you want it."
"You bet he"ll have to!" hissed Bayliss.
"If Prescott loses the argument he has on now," added Purcell, significantly, "I fancy he has friends who will take his place with you, Bayliss."
Then all turned to watch the fight, which was now pa.s.sing the stage of preliminary caution.
Several boys and men had run down from Main Street. Now, more than a score of spectators were crowding about.
"Hurrah!" piped up one boy from the Central Grammar School."
The mucker bantam against the "sorehead" lightweight!"
There was a laugh, but Bert Dodge didn"t join in it, for, after receiving two glancing, blows on the chest, he now had his right eye closed by d.i.c.k"s hard left.
The next instant the bewildered Dodge received a blow that sent him down to the sidewalk.
"I think I"ve paid you back, now," Prescott remarked quietly.
At this moment Mr. Prescott, hearing the noise from the back of his bookstore, came to the door.
"What is the trouble, Richard?" inquired his parent.
d.i.c.k stepped over to his father, repeating, in a low voice, the insult that Dodge had hurled at him.
"You couldn"t have done anything else, then!" declared the elder Prescott, fervently; and this was a good deal for d.i.c.k"s father, quiet, scholarly and peace-loving, to say.
Bert and Bayliss walked sullenly away amid the jeers of the onlookers.
Once out of their sight, Bert, fairly grinding his teeth, said:
"Bayliss, I"ll have my revenge yet on that mucker Prescott---"
and then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he added savagely:
"The Tottenville game"s tomorrow---you know?"
"Yes?" said Bayliss inquiringly.
"Well, wait till tomorrow afternoon, and I"ll take the conceit out of the miserable cur---just you wait."
CHAPTER XIV
THE "STRATEGY" OF A SCHOOL TRAITOR
"Rah! rah! _Gri-i-idley_!"
Again and again the whole of the rousing, inspiring High School yell smote the air.