DICK & CO. MAKE AN APPLE "PIE"
"Then I wish we had 'em here!" sputtered Tom Reade vengefully.
"I could eat two of them at this moment, and without salt!"
"They need salting badly!" growled Dave Darrin angrily.
The tent was not only down. Each guy rope had been cut in the
middle, so that the cordage could not be used again.
"I never saw anything more sneaking!" cried Reade in rage and
disgust.
"Unless it will be the way that we shall sneak up behind the rah-rah
crowd and square matters!" remarked Darry meaningly.
"First of all, we must be sure of their guilt," warned Dick.
"It won't do to try to even up a score that's based only on suspicion.
Wait until I get a lantern out of the wreck, and then we'll explore
the ground to see if we can discover any real proof against the
rascals."
"Let's get into our working clothes first," proposed Reade. "We
might want to wear these white clothes again before we get home."
So Tom and Dave held up a part of the canvas while Dick slipped
in under the folds of the tent to find the box in which they had
left their hike clothing.
"The box isn't here," Dick called. "Neither can I see any of
the bedding."
"Get hold here, fellows, and lift up more of the canvas," Reade
called.
"There isn't anything in the tent. All the stuff has been cleaned
out." Prescott announced in a voice of disgust.
"It was the tramps, then," Dave declared. "The rah-rah boys wouldn't
take the risk of stealing anything."
"Hold on! I've found a lantern," called Prescott. "I'll come
out with that."
He appeared a moment later, lighting the lantern.
"Now, let's see what we can find," he urged. Not far away the
high school boys came upon the prints of sharp-toed shoes.
"The tramps didn't wear shoes that would make these prints," declared
Dick. "Neither do any of our crowd. Fellows, we owe our surprise
to the rah-rah humorists."
"Then we'll pay 'em back in good measure," cried Darry in exasperation.
After some searching Dick & Co. came upon their clothes chest,
at a distance of some hundred yards from camp. The chest had
not been rifled, for it was locked and the key rested in Dick's
pocket.
"Help me with it, Tom, and we'll carry it back," said Prescott
in a low, hard tone. "We need our working clothes at once, for
there is work to be done to-night!"
The needed change of costume was quickly made. Off came the white
suits, which were carefully folded and put away. Then on went
the khaki and flannel clothing.
"Dan, you stay with the tent," Dick ordered, with the air of a
general. "Greg, you and Harry make it your main business to see
if you can find the horse. The rest of us will concern ourselves
with finding out whether the rah-rah fellows are still outside
the hotel."
"Here's the horse---grazing," shouted Greg, two minutes later.
"Run back, Dave, and pilot Greg and Harry here, after they've
staked the horse down," Prescott suggested. "We don't want to
make too much noise, for our tormentors may yet be about somewhere."
"Hazy stumbled upon some of the blankets," Greg announced, when
he and Harry joined Dave. "I don't believe any of our stuff has
been carried off, Dick. It has just been scattered."
"Perhaps we'd better gather in all our camp stuff first, then,"
Dick decided. "We can't afford to lose any of our camp outfit."
Ten or fifteen minutes of searching, with the aid of the lantern,
resulted in recovering all of their scattered possessions, even
to the last of the cots, pillows and blankets.
"Now, let's make a sweep of the dark parts of the hotel grounds,
and we may happen upon the rah-rahs, still chuckling over the
fun they've had with us."
But the five boys had not gone far when they were stopped by a
well-dressed young stranger of about twenty.
"Mr. Prescott?" asked the stranger.
"Yes," nodded Dick.
"I am one of the bell-boys at the hotel. When I went off duty
I asked the manager's permission to change my uniform for citizen's
clothing and watch those eight noisy fellows."
"The college boys?" asked Harry quickly.
"They're not college boys!" returned the young stranger. "They've
been giving a fake Saunders yell, and that was what made me dislike
them, for I've just finished the sophomore year at Saunders myself.
I'm working at the Terraces as bell-boy to help pay next year's
tuition at Saunders. The manager permitted me to watch those
fellows, but somehow they got away from me. I got track of them
again near to your camp. Just as I came along they were scooting
away, but a glance showed me the mischief they had worked, so
I followed them."
"Do you know where they are now?" Dick asked eagerly.
"I know where they were ten minutes ago," replied the bell-boy.
"Then please take us to them as quickly as you can," begged Darry
vehemently. "I'm fairly aching to pass the time of night with them!"
"I'll do it," agreed the bell-boy. "Follow me, please."
"I wonder why they went to all that trouble to be so disagreeable
to us," Prescott muttered, as the little party strode along.
"You had some dispute with that crowd, on the hotel porch to-night,
didn't you?" asked the bell-boy.
"Yes; they tried to address some of our girl friends, whom they
didn't know and we objected to their insolence."
"That was what made the rah-rah boys sore," went on the bell-boy.
"I heard them talking about it before I left them. It seems,
too, that the manager sent the head waiter to stop their nonsense
in the dining room to-night. For some reason these sham college
boys blame you fellows for that humiliation also. So they're
chuckling over what they've done to your outfit to teach you to
mind your own business, as they put it."
"I hope we catch up with 'em before they get back to the hotel,"
uttered Tom fervently. "But warn us, please, whenever we get
so close that they're likely to hear our voices."
The bell-boy now led them through an orchard.
"There seem to be a lot of apples on the ground," remarked Prescott,
halting.
"Green ones---they're no good," replied the bell-boy.
"Then they are good---just what we want!" ejaculated Prescott.
"Hold on, fellows! Fill your hats with these apples."
"What are you going to do when you come upon these fellows?" asked
the bell-boy.
"Scuttle 'em---the way they did our tent!" Tom retorted.
"I hope you pay them back generously," muttered the bell-boy.
"I've a score to settle with them for trying to blacken good
old Saunders! But see here! Up to date, at least, they're guests
of the hotel, and I'm an employe there. Now, if they get too
much the better of matters in a scrimmage, I'll sail in with you
boys, even though I have to resign my hotel job. But, if I see
that you can handle 'em all right, I shall just stand by without
taking any part in the fight"
"We understand your position, and appreciate it," Dick replied.
"We thank you, too, but we believe that we can take care of them
all by ourselves. If we can't, then we'll take our drubbing."
"You boys have done some things in athletics, haven't you?" asked
the bell-boy, noting the way that each of the five present members
of Dick & Co. carried himself.
"Gridley High School football team last season," Dick replied,
a trace of justifiable pride in his voice.
"You were?" demanded the bell-boy eagerly. "Then shake! My name
is Gerard. We know a lot about the Gridley High School brand
of football at Saunders."
Introductions were quickly passed.
"Now, I'd like to feel that I'm really one of you, and I'll fight
shoulder to shoulder with you!" chuckled Gerard.
"Please don't try to take a hand in any fight that may occur,"
Prescott begged. "If you're working your way through college,
just keep your eye on your job. Don't mix up in any trouble with
the guests."
"We'll soon be at the spot where I left the bunch," said Gerard,
a few moments later.
Over a rise of ground the bell-boy led Dick & Co. Then he pointed
to a little grove of chestnut trees.
"There is the rah-rah crowd," he whispered. "You see, they have
one of your lanterns, and they're lunching on some of your food
supplies that they brought along with them."
"I wonder what those freshies are saying now," came in a laughing
voice, from the rah-rah group under the chestnut trees.
"Their potted chicken is all right, anyway," laughed another.
"Cut me off another slice of the bread. Whee! This college
mischief on a dark night gives one an appetite."
Dick gave whispered instructions to his own forces, then signed
to Gerard, who drew back into the shadow.
"I'd like to see the fresh kids now," jeered another rah-rah youth.
"May all your wishes in life be as promptly fulfilled!" muttered
Tom Reade under his breath.
"We might have had a nice time to-night dancing with the girls
from Gridley if their kid friends hadn't stepped in and spoiled
it all in their juvenile way," grumbled another.
"We've finished up all the borrowed food," said another. "What
shall we do next?"
"For 'next,'" roared Dick Prescott, "you fake collegians will
stand up and take your medicine!"
There was instant consternation in the group under the chestnut
trees. All the rah-rah boys leaped to their feet, but, ere they
could stir, there was a whizzing sound on the air.
Plunk! Plunk! Ker-plunk! Missiles were flying through the air
and the rah-rahs were stopping a good many of them with their
own persons.
"Hey! Stop that!" bellowed one of the rah-rahs. "You---wow!"
For his utterance had been for the moment stopped by a large-sized
green apple that had struck him full in the mouth.
"Hey! Let up!"
But nothing could stay the fast and furious volley of green apples
until Dick & Co. had exhausted their ammunition. Most of the
shots found targets, too.
Once they had had time to recover from their bewilderment the
rah-rahs turned in full, inglorious flight, without attempting
to strike a single blow in their own defense. Who was going to
be fool enough, anyway, to run blindly into a storm of flying
green apples?
Dick and his chums expended the last of their ammunition while
chasing the rah-rahs. Their missiles gone, the Gridley boys put
on full speed, ran after and overhauled some of their late foes
and drubbed them well.
But at last, by common consent, Dick & Co. came to a halt.
"I reckon we paid the score," laughed Prescott. "They ought to
let us alone hereafter."
"No doubt they will," replied Gerard grimly, coming up with the
Gridley boys. "I haven't a doubt that the manager will order
them to leave the hotel in the morning."
After extending their heartiest thanks to Gerard, the Gridley
boys returned to their camp. There, from their supplies, they
rigged new guy-ropes and erected their tent. Soon after, all
hands turned in, feeling quite secure against another visitation
that night.
The manager, at first, the next morning, said nothing whatever
to the rah-rah youths. But, at about ten o'clock a constable
appeared and gathered in all of them on a charge of disturbing
the peace.
Dick & Co. were not even asked to go the justice's court. The
hotel manager and bell-boy were on hand, but the crest-fallen
lot of rah-rah youths all pleaded guilty. They paid fines of
ten dollars apiece.
Then, on their return to the hotel, they were informed that their
rooms were wanted at once.
The manager and Gerard personally escorted the rah-rah boys off
the grounds of the Ashbury Terraces, and they were seen no more
thereabouts. Who they were was not learned, but Gerard's word
was accepted that the rah-rah boys had no connection with Saunders
College.
Dick & Co. had two more pleasant meetings with their high school
friends before an about-face was made, and the return hike to
Gridley started.
Their liveliest adventures were yet ahead of them.