"BABBLING BUTT-IN"
"You fellows seem to think that everything is done when you get
your own old duds back," complained Hi Martin angrily. "You don't
seem to think that there's any need of doing anything for me."
"Why should we?" demanded Dick curtly. "You're the fellow who
helped put up a job to hide our clothes. Now, you yell because
you can't find your own."
"I'll go and get you some other clothes, whenever I'm paid for
it in advance," Greg smilingly repeated his offer.
Dick's brain was busy with plans for holding Amos Garwood until
the latter's father and friends could take charge of him.
"You're all the meanest lot!" protested Martin, tears of anger
standing in his eyes.
"And you're the funniest fellow," mocked Tom. "To see a lot of
sport in playing a trick on us, but howling like a dog with a
can tied to his tail when you find yourself the only one stung
by the joke."
"I'm going to leave here," Dick suddenly declared.
"Oh, I wish you would find my clothes and bring them to me," begged
Hi.
"Come along, Greg. You, too, Dave. The rest wait here until
we come back."
Dick shot a significant look at Tom Reade, then glanced covertly
in Amos Garwood's direction. Reade understood and nodded.
"I don't really need or want you along with me, Dave," Dick murmured
as soon as the three boys were out of sight of the others. "What
I wanted was a chance to talk to you. Amos Garwood must be held,
if necessary, until we can find some men to seize him and turn
him over to the authorities. Be careful and tactful with him,
but don't let him get away from you. The other fellows will help
you, if necessary. I'm taking Greg with me, just so that Greg
may run in one direction and I in another, in case we don't find
help easily. But you get back and help Tom and the others. Of
course you won't lay hands on Amos Garwood unless it becomes necessary,
but in any case don't let him get away from you. Now, hurry back,
for, if Garwood suspects, and shows fight, it will take all four
of you to hold him. But if you all talk naturally and pleasantly,
I don't believe he will be suspicious, or make any effort to get
away."
Dave nodded, turning back, while Dick and Greg hastened to the
road. Barely had they turned into the highway, when, a short
distance, ahead, they espied a boy standing under a tree.
"There's Ted, and he has Martin's clothes with him," called Dick
quietly. "Let's hurry up to him and get him to take the clothes
back."
"A precious lot I care whether Hi Martin ever has any clothes
again," Greg retorted.
"Oh, well, Greg, there's such a thing as a joke, and there's such
a thing as carrying it too far. Hi Martin has had his dose of
punishment already. We can afford to be decent and let up on him
now. Hi, there, Ted!"
Teall looked as though uncertain whether to run or to stand.
"Don't be afraid, Ted," Dick called pleasantly. "A joke is all
right, and we admit that it was on us."
So Ted, after a first start of suspicion, decided to remain where
he was.
"Hi Martin sent you after his duds, I reckon?" inquired Ted as
the other two boys ran up to him. All of Hi's apparel lay on
the ground near Teall's feet.
"He certainly wanted some one to come," laughed Dick. "But, say,
Teall, the thing has been rubbed in too hard. Run back with the
things. You'll find all hands where you hid our things."
"And I'll find the crazy man there, too, maybe," ventured Teall.
"Also, I'll run right into a gang that is just waiting to trim
me. I thank you kindly, but if any one is to go back into that
crowd with Hi's things, it will be some one else. I won't go---too
much regard for my health, you know."
"Greg, you carry Hi's clothes back," urged Dick. "I'll take Ted
with me."
"I will not," flared Greg in open revolt.
"Be a good fellow," begged Dick.
"That's all right," grumbled Greg Holmes. "But I'm no valet to
any North Grammar boy.
"If you fellows won't either of you do it," protested Dick, "I'll
have to do it myself, and---oh, dear! I'm in such a hurry to
get help to take care of Garwood."
"What about that crazy man, anyway?" demanded Ted, his mouth agape
with curiosity.
"I don't believe he's crazy at all, though he may perhaps be a
little flighty in his head," Prescott answered. "At any rate,
he isn't violent. There's no danger in him. Ted, won't you take
back these-----"
Teall shook his head with vigor.
In the meantime four Grammar School boys had stationed themselves
around Garwood, who stood under a tree chewing a blade of grass.
Hi, either from modesty or humiliation, had retired into a clump
of bushes.
"They've gone to find that boy who took the clothes, I suppose,"
remarked Amos Garwood, looking towards Dave Darrin. "That was
a strange boy, a very nervous boy," continued Garwood aloud.
"Just as soon as I told him my name, he turned and fled like a
streak of lightning. I wonder what ailed him?"
"I wonder?" repeated Dave solemnly.
"And that boy said something else that made me very curious,"
went on Amos Garwood. "He said something about a crazy man.
I almost thought he referred to me, though the boy himself was
the only one who showed any signs of being crazy. What did he
mean?"
"He hasn't told us," Dave rejoined.
But Hi, who felt that he was being shamefully used by the crowd,
suddenly broke in with:
"If your name is Garwood, then Ted Teall meant that you're the
one that's crazy. And I know where the boys have gone. They're
not looking for my clothes at all. They're looking for constables
to come and seize you!"
"You shut up, Hi Martin!" raged Tom Reade, making a dash at Hi's
leafy screen.
But the harm was done. Amos Garwood changed color swiftly.
"Ha, ha! Ho, ho!" he laughed harshly. "I begin to understand
now. But no one shall seize me. I won't let any one take me."
He started madly through the bushes, not seeking a path. Dan,
who was nearest him as be passed, leaped and threw both arms around
the man, bringing him to the ground. Dave leaped to aid Dalzell,
nor was Hazelton long in getting to the spot. Tom Reade decided
to defer the punishment of Martin, and went to the aid of his
friends instead.
Though he had been downed swiftly, Garwood was almost as speedily
on his feet, fighting desperately. Darrin he seized and hurled
several feet into a thicket. Dalzell sought again to wind his
arms around the fellow's legs, but was brushed aside as though
he had been a fly.
Tom Reade received a blow against his right shoulder that sent
him reeling away, while Hazelton, in trying to get a new hold,
was boxed over his left ear in a way that seemed to make the earth
revolve about him.
Hardly had the scrimmage started when Garwood was free.
"No one shall stop me, or hinder me!" cried Amos exultingly, then
wheeled and raced through the forest.
After him, as soon as they could recover their faculties, dashed
the Grammar School boys. For a minute or two they had him in
sight. Then Garwood, on his long legs, sped ahead and out of
sight. For another half minute they could hear the man's progress
through the brush. After that all was so still that Darrin and
the others halted, gazing perplexedly at each other.
"Where is he?" gasped Tom.
"Which way did he go?" breathed Dan.
Though they listened, neither sight nor sound now aided them.
"Of all the sneaks and trouble-makers!" cried Dave Darrin indignantly.
"Hi Martin ought to be tied to a tree and switched until he can't
see! He's a regular babbling butt-in."
"What good did it do him to meddle in that fashion?" burst from
Reade. "The mean, worthless fellow! And we had plenty of reason
to feel grateful to Colonel Garwood, Amos's father, after the
handsome uniforms that were given us."
"It must have been Hi's reason for spoiling our plan," muttered
Hazelton. "He didn't want us to be able really to earn the uniforms."
"Come on," urged Dave. "We mustn't lose a bit of time. If we
spread out and keep on we may sight Garwood again."
"Huh!" muttered Reade. "If Garwood has gone right ahead at the
speed with which be started, then he's in the next county by this
time. We won't see him again to-day."
After a few minutes of searching the other boys came to the same
conclusion.
"Out into the road, then," ordered Dave, who naturally took command
when Prescott was absent. "We want to head off any men Dick may
have found and tell 'em what has happened."
They turned, making rapidly for the road. As it happened, they
came out near where Ted Teall stood guarding Hi's clothing.
"Have you seen Dick?" was Darrin's hail. "Yes; he and Holmesy
have run down the road to get some men. Here they come now with
the men," Ted answered, pointing.
Dick had had the good fortune to find help before going far.
With such a reward as had been offered for the capture of Amos
Garwood, it was not difficult to find men who could be interested
in taking part in such a capture.
"What are you all doing here?" Dick yelled up the road.
"Garwood got away from us," Dave shouted back. "Hi Martin spoiled
the game for us, and we simply couldn't hold Garwood."
Then Dick, Greg and the three men hurried up. Dave and Tom told
the story.
"What a miserable hound Martin is!" burst from indignant Dick.
"So that boy spoiled us from getting a good slice of a fat reward,
did he?" growled one of the three men. "Where is he?"
"Up in the woods," muttered Dick, "waiting until some one takes
him his clothes. Ted Teall, you've simply got to return the booby's
outfit to him."
"Won't do it," retorted Teall.
"But you took them away from him," Dick insisted.
"Suppose I did?"
"It may prove a serious matter, to steal any one's clothing,"
Prescott retorted. "And Hi Martin's father is a hot-tempered
man. Ted, if I were in your place I don't believe I'd run the
risk of being arrested. A joke is one thing, but keeping any
one's clothes, after you've taken 'em, is proof of intention to
steal. I don't believe I'd take the risk, if I were you."
The men were turning back down the road now, having decided to
telephone the Gridley police and then turn out more men and go
into the woods for an all-night search. Dick & Co. turned to
go with the men.
"Say, you fellows," Ted called after them. "You going to shake
me like that? Who's going back into the woods with me, if I take
these clothes to Hi?"
"No one," Dick retorted over his shoulder. "You don't have to
take the clothes back, you know, unless you happen to consider
it safer to do it."
"Hang those fellows," sighed Ted, as be gazed after the retreating
Dick & Co. "Well, I guess they've got me. The wise thing will
be for me to take these duds to Hi before he catches cold."
So Ted gathered up the articles of apparel and with them started
back into the woods.
"Hi, Hi!" he called, as be neared the thicket.
"Here," came an angry voice.
"Here's your old duds," growled Teall, as he reached the thicket
that concealed young Martin, and threw the things on the ground.
"It's about time you brought 'em back," snapped Hi, making a dive
for his belongings.
"I had a good mind not to do it at all," retorted Teall hotly.
"You'd have found yourself in hot water if you hadn't done it,"
Hi declared testily, as, having drawn on his underclothing, he
seated himself to lace up his shoes. Then he rose and reached
for his trousers.
"See here, Ted Teall," cried Hi suddenly, holding the trousers
forward, "what did you do with my gold watch that was in the pocket
of these trousers."
"I didn't see your old watch," grumbled Ted.
"Then you lost it out of the pocket while running through the
woods, did you?" insisted Hi angrily.
Teall felt cold sweat come out on his neck and forehead. Well
enough did he remember the gold watch, which was the envy of most
of the schoolboys in Gridley. Nor was there any denying the fact
that the watch was absent.
"Honest, Hi; honest," he faltered. "I didn't see the watch at all."
"You've got to find it, just the same," retorted Martin stubbornly.
"If you take things away and lose them you've got to find them,
or make good for them. Now, Mr. Smarty, I'm going home, and you're
going to find the watch."
"Say, you might help a fellow and be decent about it," pleaded
Ted.
"I didn't lose the watch, and I won't help you look for it," snapped
back Hi Martin, as he strode away. "But if you aren't at my home
with that gold watch before dark to-night, then you may look for
things to happen to you! Find the watch, or wait and see what
the law will do to you, Mr. Ted Smarty!"
Right on the spot Ted Teall started to look, a feeling of dull
but intense misery gnawing in his breast.
"Oh, gracious! But now I've gone and done it!" groaned Teall,
beginning to shake in his shoes. "Now, I'm in a whole peck and
half of trouble, for I'll never be lucky enough to find that watch
again!"