TROUBLE WITH THE RAH-RAH-RAHS
A broad-shouldered man, his back to Dick & Co., was assisting
a middle-aged woman to alight from the car.
As Tom's voice reached their ears five girls exclaimed in delight,
then began to wave their hands in most friendly fashion.
Dick & Co. were on the run by this time, for the broad-shouldered
man was Dr. Bentley, the woman Mrs. Bentley, and the five girls
Laura Bentley, Belle Meade, Susie Sharp, Clara Marshall and Anita
Murray.
"Hm! Young men, I'm beginning to feel annoyed," remarked Dr.
Bentley with pretended severity, though he shook hands pleasantly
enough with the boys. "Whenever Mrs. Bentley and I take some
of Laura's friends for a spin anywhere you appear to have our
route and you bob up on the map."
"Then we'll withdraw, sir, at once," Dick suggested.
"No, you won't," retorted the doctor. "Young Reade is engaged,
on the spot, to help me fit on a new tire. Perhaps Hazelton will
help. The rest of you may disappear, and take the ladies with
you, if you will. Yet, really, it looks as though you learn our
route and follow it."
"That isn't fair, doctor," Dave rejoined. "We're on foot, and
have been away from Gridley for something over a fortnight. It
is you who must have been following us, with that seven-passenger
automobile of yours. And may I remind you, sir, that you wouldn't
have bursted the tire if you hadn't been driving at something
under a hundred and eighty miles an hour in the effort to overtake
us?"
"I'm beaten", laughed Dr. Bentley. "I take it all back. I agree
that the appearances are all against me. But I didn't know that
you young scions of Gridley were on the road. I was driving fast
in order to bring the ladies to Ashbury in time for luncheon.
And now, they won't get it."
"Small loss to them, and great gain to us," smiled Dick. "We
have provisions enough in our wagon to offer all the luncheon
that your party can possibly care to eat."
"No, no! We've encroached upon your hospitality too often in
the past," replied Dr. Bentley, with a shake of his head. "We
won't be delayed long. Just how long, Reade, do you think it
is going to take us to fit on the new tire?"
"The car ought to be ready to run again in fifteen minutes," Tom
answered truthfully.
"And we can make Ashbury in another fifteen minutes," Laura's
father continued. "So we won't rob the pantry of Dick & Co. to-day."
Dick and three of his chums conducted Mrs. Bentley and the five
high school girls in under the trees. Of course the girls wanted
to see the outfit, though it was now packed on the wagon.
"Are you going far, this trip?" Dick inquired.
"Ashbury will be the end of our run," Mrs. Bentley answered.
"And of ours, too," Dick nodded. "We agreed to that this morning."
"But we are to stay at Ashbury two or three days," Laura added.
"Dad has been making arrangements for us at the hotel there,
and he calls it a fine summer place. We know some people who
are stopping there now, so we are going to have a pleasant little
time of it, I expect. When do you reach Ashbury, Dick?"
"To-night," Prescott answered.
"Mother," Laura went on, "aren't you going to invite the boys
to luncheon at the hotel tomorrow?"
"I shall be delighted to do so, if they will accept," replied
Mrs. Bentley smiling.
"We'd cause a sensation in the hotel, wouldn't we?" laughed Danny
Grin, looking down ruefully at his dusty "hike clothes."
"You have other clothing with you, haven't you?" asked Susie Sharp.
"Nothing better than what we're wearing now," Greg replied.
"Come, just the same, anyway," urged Mrs. Bentley. "You boys
are on a rough trip, and you're not expected to have large wardrobes
with you. So I shall expect you all at the Ashbury Terraces by
noon to-morrow."
"And there's to be a dance there to-morrow night," Belle continued,
a trifle mischievously. "Of course, you will come to the dance."
"Yes---if you invite us!" Dick took up the challenge thus unexpectedly.
"Then you're surely invited," laughed Susie Sharp. "Aren't they,
Mrs. Bentley?"
"Yes; if they promise to come," agreed the doctor's wife. "And,
perhaps, they would rather dine than lunch with us, and then they
can attend the dance after dinner."
"That would be much better, thank you," Dick replied gratefully.
But the other fellows eyed him askance, in wondering amazement.
What on earth could Dick 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?
"Dick 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," Dick 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, Dick 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, assisting 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," Dick smiled back, "unless circumstances beyond
our control prevent us."
Good-byes were eagerly called, Dr. Bentley warmly expressing his
thanks to Reade and Hazelton for their assistance. Then, with
a warning honk, the big car started away.
Then all hands turned upon Dick. "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 Dick.
"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," Dick 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 Dick & 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," Dick 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 Dick & 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 hoarsely. "Don't rub it in."
"Dick," 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 Dick 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.
"Rah, rah, rah!"
With noisy yells the eight young men descended upon the camp.
"Don't you think you'd better steer off?" called Dave, putting
himself as much as he could in their way.
"Why, it talks!" cried one of the rah-rah-rah fellows, in mock
astonishment.
"Just like a human being!" added a third.
"Wonder what these animals are doing here?" propounded another.
So they invaded the camp, poking their heads in at the tent entrance,
examining the wagon with a good deal of curiosity, and poking
into the boxes containing the food that Dick and Greg had just
laid out with a view to starting preparations for supper.
"Now, gentlemen," called Dick, "if you think your curiosity has
been sufficiently gratified, do you mind clearing out and letting
us alone?"
A variety of mocking replies greeted that proposition.
"We don't like to be disagreeable, you understand," Dave hinted,
"but, really, we begin to feel that we have had a great sufficiency
of your company, gentlemen."
"What are you going to do about it?" demanded one of the eight
intruders rather aggressively.
Dave Darrin doubled his fists, ready to fight, now, at any further
provocation. Even good-natured Tom looked about for some sort
of club. But Dick answered, coolly:
"What are we going to do? First of all, we are merely going to
suggest for your consideration the idea that gentlemen don't remain
where they're not wanted."
"Freshie!" yelled one of the eight contemptuously.
"Toss him in a blanket," advised another.
"We don't mind your presence as much as your bad manners," Dick
remarked coldly. "Will you kindly take your leave?"
"No!" shouted three or four of their tormentors derisively.
Dave, his fists still clenched, bounded forward. One chap, in
an especially brilliant blazer, reached out to box Darry on the
ear.
That blow never landed, but the tormentor did---on the earth.
_"Eight rainbow hoboes,
Looking for life's leaven,
One bumped his eyelash,
And then there were but seven!"_
improvised Danny Grin joyously.
"Clean out this camp!" yelled one of the others.
"Come on and do it, then!" yelled Tom Reade, losing all patience
at last.
Dick & Co. suddenly presented a solid fighting rank that had
accomplished great things on the gridiron. In this formation they
advanced toward their tormentors.
There might have been an ugly clash, but one of the eight shouted:
"Come on, fellows! Don't tease the babies. They haven't had
their warm milk yet."
Away darted the rainbow eight, Darrin's victim being on his feet
by this time and foremost in the retreat.
"Rah, rah, rah!" came back on the air as the high school boys
broke a formation for which they had no further need at present.
"Those fellows are plainly guests at the hotel, and we're going
to have trouble with them yet," Prescott predicted wisely.