BOMBARDED
BOB heard some object come rolling and ripping its way along from
the top of the bluff. It mowed down grass, snapped off bushes, and,
striking a rock, bounded up like a rubber ball.
“It’s a pumpkin,” said Bob. “Here she comes! Crackey!”
The pumpkin cut through the vines that sheltered the tramp and his
friend. The man with the green patch over one eye seemed to have heard
it coming.
He half arose, and just then the great yellow sphere struck him. He
went flat as a pancake. The pumpkin rolled over him, struck a tree, and
was smashed into a thousand pieces.
“Uh! what’s this now?” spluttered the tramp, as pieces of rind, seeds
and fiber rained over his body and face.
“Get out of this!” cried his companion.
“Yes, ’tain’t safe.”
“It’s them boys. They’ve seen us, and are playing tricks on us.”
“Let’s make ourselves scarce, then.”
Bob was about ready to laugh at the comical event of the moment. Just
then, however, he had all he could do to take care of himself.
A second pumpkin came bounding down the bluff side. It took Bob across
the ankles, and swept him off his feet. He was thrown headlong to the
ground, doubled up like a ball. The boy grabbed at a bush, missed it,
and went rolling over and over down the smooth incline.
[Illustration: “_It’s Raining Pumpkins!_” _Gasped Bob_]
There was a bare sheer descent for nearly thirty feet. Along this Bob
sped, and he could not stop himself. He landed at the bottom of the
slope, slid across the sand, and came to a stop not ten feet away from
the blazing fire.
“It’s raining pumpkins!” gasped Bob, sitting up and staring around him.
All along the beach the yellow balls were bounding into view. He saw
the guards and the scouts skipping about to get out of the range of
the missiles. Fellows who had been in hiding came dashing down to safe
ground. Dave gave the signal whistle for “All in.”
The boys gathered excitedly about their leader.
“See here, Dave,” cried Sammy, “this is the work of ‘The Blues!’”
“Of course it is,” said Frank.
“Let’s capture them,” shouted Bob.
“Yes, it’s pretty near time to go home, anyway,” agreed Dave. “Keep
together, fellows. If we catch any of them, we’ll put them through a
course of sprouts.”
“Hear them! hear them!” yelled Sammy.
Derisive cries floated down to the beach. This nettled some of the
boys. All of them were glad of a chance for new fun and excitement.
“Divide, fellows,” ordered Dave.
“Yes, surround the enemy!” cried Sammy.
The two crowds scrambled up the bluff. Bob looked about for some trace
of the two men he had found in their hide-out. They seemed to have
gotten away from the spot.
The two parties got to the top of the bluff and ran towards each other,
hoping to capture the mischief makers in a group.
They found a wagon which Jed and his friends had dragged from some farm
near by, loaded for the market. It was only half filled with pumpkins.
The rest of the load had been used to bombard the boys on the beach.
“They’ve sneaked across the meadow yonder,” said Dave.
“Yes, I see some of them now,” cried Sammy, eagerly. “See, they’re
making for that grove yonder.”
There was a hot chase. Sammy had called to Bob and Frank to join him.
They and several others kept with Sammy.
They reached the patch of timber and ran in and about it. They hunted
in the bushes and even up in some of the trees, but got no sight or
trace of the enemy.
Suddenly the well-known signal of the crowd rang out over near some
haystacks. The scattered group ran in the direction of the call. They
came upon Dave and six of his fellows, who had formed a circle. In its
center were two panting, done-out boys of “The Blues.”
“We’ve got a couple of them,” said Dave.
“Good!” echoed a chorus.
“Find some ropes, fellows,” ordered Dave.
Several boys ran towards a farm-yard near by. Bob noticed that one of
the captives was Jed Burr.
“What are you going to do with us?” asked Jed.
“Douse him in the lake!” cried one urgent voice.
“No, roll him down the bluff,” said another.
“We’ll do better than that,” replied Dave. “Here, tie their arms behind
them,” he ordered, as several pieces of rope were brought to him.
“Hold on,” said Jed. “Fun’s fun, you know.”
“Yes, you spoiled ours just now, so we’re going to have some fresh
fun,” laughed Dave.
Jed tried to fight off his captors, but the crowd found it easy to bind
him and his companion.
“Lead them over into the timber,” said Dave.
This was done. In its loneliest part they halted. Ted was tied with his
back to a tree.
“Now you’ll have lots of time to think,” said Dave.
“Yes, about pumpkins!”
“And tomatoes!”
“Ha! ha!”
They left Jed to his fate, kicking and scolding. The other prisoner
they took along with them. A little on their way, they heard Jed
whistling and yelling.
“Some of his friends will come and let him loose,” said Dave.
“What are we going to do with the other fellow?” asked Bob.
“Oh, we’ll give him a walk.”
“Say, I’m due home,” said the captive.
“Not quite yet,” replied Dave. “You’ve got a long tramp before you,
sonny.”
“I only rolled one pumpkin.”
“That’s as bad as twenty-six.”
“And it smashed before it hit any one.”
“Never mind. We’ve got to make an example.”
“Jed’ll make you smart for it.”
“Oh, Jed is smarting himself about this time,” chuckled Sammy.
“March!” ordered the leader.
They made their prisoner dearly earn his liberty. He had to escort the
whole crowd home. As they dropped out one by one, the unhappy captive
had to keep right on with the others. Some of the boys took the longest
way home they could think of, purposely.
Dick Hazelton was the last one to reach home. He lived about a mile
north of the town. They had dragged the captive around for nearly an
hour at this time. As Bob was bidding Dick good night, the prisoner sat
down in the road and began crying.
“Oh, well, if it’s the baby act, let him off,” said Bob.
He was tired out himself after an active and exciting day. When he got
home, however, he did not forget to tell his father about the two men
he had heard talking in the hide-out on the bluff.
Mr. Bouncer seemed to take the matter quite seriously. Bob did not tell
about Miss Simmons and the letters, nor about thinking he saw the tramp
at Silas Dolby’s house. He only said that he had met the tramp several
times during the day, before he saw him with the man with the green
shade over his eye.
His father went at once to the telephone and called up the village
marshal. The next morning Bob learned that the officer had not been
able to find the two tramps. They had probably left town.
Bob, Frank and Sammy the next day went over the route they had taken
when they went to the Dolby place. They found the dog chained up, and
even made a new search in the miser’s yard, but they did not find the
lost store key.
That day, too, the story of Simple Mary was told about the school. Some
Fairview ladies had gotten her a pleasant place to work on a farm. Miss
Williams explained in open school about the broken ink bottle, and all
Bob’s friends were made happy to see him cleared from a false charge.
The wind-up of the big bonfire had made “The Blues” and “The Grays”
more at war than ever. About all it led to, however, was closer rivalry
in baseball and football games.
Things started in smoothly at school. The daily routine of study had
the usual fun mixed in with it. There was nothing very new or exciting
until the second Monday of the term.
Then, just before school commenced, as Bob, Frank and Sammy passed the
house where Frank had stopped the runaway automobile, Sammy pointed
towards it.
“Hello!” he cried. “Some one has moved into that place since Friday.”
“That’s so,” said Frank, noticing some big empty boxes on the porch,
“and somebody is moving about there.”
“I wonder if it’s the fat boy’s father?” spoke Bob.
“I’ll bet it is,” said Sammy, as they walked on.
“Hi, hello! you fellows!” sounded a breathless voice, a minute later.
Tom Chubb came running out of the gate of the place the boys had just
passed.
“Oh, moved into town, have you?” asked Frank, shaking the hand of the
fat boy.
“Yes.”
“We’re glad of it,” said Bob. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going with you,” was the reply. “My father saw the teacher last
evening, and I’m to start at school this morning.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Sammy, waving his cap in the air.