"I don"t know how we"re going to fill your place on the football and baseball teams," mourned Tom Barrett. "We"ll be dead easy for the other teams now."
"Don"t you believe it!" said Fred heartily. "You"ll find fellows to take our places that will be better players than we ever dared to be."
"Nix on that stuff!" said Jim. "You know well enough that you put it all over every other fellow in town."
The locomotive whistled at the nearest crossing, and a moment later the train came into sight.
There was a perfect hubbub of farewells, and amid a chorus of good wishes that fairly warmed their hearts, the boys swung aboard. Even Jed thawed out enough to wave his hand at them in semi-friendly fashion.
"I"ll keep it dark," he called after them, "that is unless the gover"ment gits after me, on account of----"
But the rest was lost in the rattle of the train.
The Rushton boys were off at last.
CHAPTER XIII
ANDY SHANKS, BULLY
The train was a long one, consisting of seven cars, beside the smoker, but, as the homeward rush after summer vacations was in full swing, it was pretty well filled, and the boys found it hard to get two seats together.
It was only after they had gone through the first three coaches, that they saw their opportunity.
About the middle of the fourth car, a back had been turned so that two seats faced each other.
Only one pa.s.senger was occupying this s.p.a.ce, a large overgrown boy, about sixteen years old. His face was heavy, and his loose mouth and protruding eyes gave him a most unpleasant expression. A traveling cap was pulled down part way over his eyes, and he looked up from under the peak of this with a cold, piggy stare, as the boys paused beside the seats.
Filling up the rest of the seat beside him was a raincoat and a tennis racket. On the seat facing him he had deposited a heavy suit case, that filled it from end to end.
Fred and Teddy stood beside him for a moment without speaking, taking it for granted that he would take his suit case from the seat and put it on the floor. He did nothing of the kind, however, and continued to gaze at them insolently.
The surprise that Fred felt at first was rapidly giving place to a different feeling, but he restrained himself, and asked, pleasantly enough:
"Beg pardon, but would you mind putting your suit case on the floor, so that we may have the seat?"
"Of course, I"d mind," came the ungracious answer. "There are plenty of other seats in the train, if you"ll only look for them."
A red flush began to creep up Fred"s neck, which to any one who knew him would have been a danger signal. But he put out a hand to restrain Teddy, and answered patiently:
"Perhaps there may be, though I haven"t been able to find them, but I just happen to want this one," and he pointed to where the suit case was resting.
"Nothing doing!" sneered the other. "Guess again!"
Fred came of fighting stock. One of his ancestors had fought in the battle of Kings Mountain, and another had scoured the seas under Decatur in the War of 1812.
He had been taught to keep his temper under restraint and never to provoke a quarrel. But he had been trained also never to dodge trouble if it came his way in any case where his rights or his self-respect were involved.
Like a flash, he grasped the heavy suit case and put it on the floor, its owner giving a howl as it came down on his toes. At the same instant, Teddy swung the back of the seat so that it faced the other way, and the boys dropped into it.
The rage of the flabby-faced youth was fearful. He started to his feet, his eyes popping from his head in his excitement.
"You--you----" he spluttered. "I"ll----"
"Well," replied Fred, turning and looking him straight in the face, "what"ll you do?"
Before the resolute glow in Fred"s eyes, the bully weakened.
"You"ll find out what I"ll do," he mumbled. "I"ll--I"ll get you yet."
"All right," remarked Fred calmly. "You can start something whenever you like. I"ll be ready for you. No car seat hog can try any such game with me and get away with it."
The fellow slumped back in his seat, mouthing and muttering. Nor was his defeat made less bitter by noting the smiles of approval with which the other pa.s.sengers greeted the incident.
"Good work, son," laughed a grizzled old farmer, sitting across the aisle. "That"s the way to take the wind out of his sails."
"What you got to say about it?" growled Andy, glaring at him.
"Whatever I choose to," was the answer, "and there"ll be plenty more to say if you give me any of your impudence."
Andy subsided, but for the rest of the journey his little eyes glowered with rage as he kept them fixed on the boys in front.
"He"s a sweet specimen, isn"t he?" chuckled Teddy.
"I"d hate to have to live under the same roof with him," answered Fred, little thinking that for the next nine months they would have to do just that thing.
"Starting off with a sc.r.a.p the first thing!" laughed Ted. "Wonder what mother would say to that?"
"I think she"d say we did just right," answered Fred, "and I"m dead sure that father would."
Nothing further happened to mar the pleasure of their journey. The country through which the train was pa.s.sing was entirely new to the boys, and, in the ever changing panorama that flew past the windows, they soon became so absorbed, that they almost forgot the existence of their unpleasant fellow-traveler.
"Green Haven the next stop!" sang out the brakeman.
"Here we are," said Fred, as the boys began to gather up their traps. A little quiver of excitement ran through their veins. They were on the threshold of a new life. It was the most momentous step they had ever taken.
With a clangor of the bell and hissing of steam, the train slowed up at the station.
Green Haven was a smart, hustling little town, much larger than Oldtown.
There was a row of stores stretching away from the station, quite a pretentious hotel, and the spires of three churches rose above the maples that bordered the village streets. There was the hotel bus drawn up beside the depot, and alongside this a much larger one, used by the students in going to and from Rally Hall, which was a little more than a mile from the town.
"Quite a crowd of people getting off here," commented Fred, as he stepped into the aisle of the car.
"Yes," answered Teddy. "h.e.l.lo, the bully is gone!" he exclaimed, as he glanced at the seat back of him.