H. Irving Hancock

“ 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." ”

“ Mrs. Bentley presently joined the little Gridley group of young people on the veranda. That good lady noted, with secret pleasure, the well-groomed appearance of her young guests.
"Rah, rah, rah!" came boisterously up the veranda, as the camp visitors of the evening before suddenly appeared. "Rah, rah, rah!"
Then, halting in a compact group midway on the veranda, they shouted in chorus:
"S-A-U-N-D-E-R-S! Saunders! Saunders! Siss-boom-a-a-ah! Rah, rah, rah!"
"College boys!" exclaimed Susie Sharp in an impatient undertone.
"College boys, and the worst of their kind. They're noisy nuisances!" ”

“ No stealing of wash from a clothes-line, or of pies from a housekeeper's pantry, when there are millions to be stolen in the business world."
"Now, you're laughing at me," uttered Dave.
"No; I'm not."
"But you wouldn't steal money if you had millions right under your hand where you could get away with the stuff," protested Darry.
"I wouldn't," Dick agreed promptly. "I wouldn't steal anything. Yet it's no worse, morally, to steal a million dollars from a great bank than it is to steal a suit of clothes from a house whose occupants are absent. All theft is theft. ”

“ Dick went on, accepting the doubt of their future greatness, "we shall, at least, if we are worth our salt, become useful men in the world, and I don't know but that is very close to being great. For the man who isn't useful in the world has no excuse for living. Now, in a little more than another hour, we shall be treading the pavements of good old Gridley. Let us do it with a sense of triumph."
"Triumph?" quizzed Tom soberly. ”

“ It isn't that," protested the peddler confusedly. "The banks are all right, and honest men run them. But——-"
Whatever was in his mind he checked himself. It was as though he had been on the verge of uttering words that must not be spoken.
Dick Prescott found himself obliged to turn his eyes away. It was altogether too pitiful, the look in old Reuben Hinman's shriveled face. In his misery the small, stooped peddler looked still smaller and more bent.
Tom soon came along, carrying a lantern and followed by Dave, the latter yawning every step of the way. ”

“ Hearing a human voice so close at hand the peddler started for an instant. Then he pulled in the horse.
"I dunno whether you can be of much use to me," answered the peddler slowly. "You don't look old enough to know much about business."
"Still, I know more than anyone would think, from just looking at me," volunteered Reade, reddening a bit as he saw the laughter in Dick Prescott's eyes.
"Maybe you can explain this riddle," went on the peddler, extending the sheet of white paper. "It can't do any harm to give you a chance. You see, I had a bill of twenty dollars against Bill Peterson. ”

“ 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." ”

“ Danny Grin declared.
"Then go after it," urged Dick Prescott. "Get some real plan in your mind of what you're going to do in life, and then follow that plan, night and day, until you either win or drop from exhaustion."
"Wouldn't I be a funny-looking lamb in a midshipman's uniform?" queried Dalzell blinking fast.
"No funnier looking than any of the rest of us," Dick retorted. "Now, Tom isn't talking much, but we all know what he's going to do, for he has already been working at it. He has been studying surveying, for he means to make a great civil engineer of himself one of these days." ”

“ I don't have to dress up!"
"You'd feel first rate if you could be dressed up for a few hours, go into a hotel dining room, have a good meal and then slip into a ballroom for a dance," laughed Prescott.
"Bosh!" flared Tom. "I'm no dandy, and all I want is to be a man."
"How do you stand, Harry?" grinned Dave Darrin. "Do you agree with Tom that dirt is the best stuff with which to decorate one's clothing?"
"I never said that," broke in Tom hotly. "I'm as ready for a bath and clean clothing as any of you. I like to wear old clothes—-not soiled ones!" ”

“ The best men are needed in every walk of life. I'll promise, in advance, not to be 'sore' if you can win it away from me."
"Yes! I'd try all winter," scoffed Greg, "and then in the end some sad-eyed fellow from a back-country village would bob up and win it away from us both."
"Let the sad-eyed fellow have it, if he is the better man," Dick agreed heartily. "But fear of defeat isn't going to hold me back. Don't let it stop you, either, Greg!"
"It's going to be Annapolis for mine—-the United States Naval Academy and a commission in the United States Navy!" Darry declared, his eyes snapping. ”

“ Thereupon young Prescott fell to describing the trip that he, Dave Darrin, Greg Holmes, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton had mapped out for themselves.
"Just for pleasure?" asked Mr. Luce.
"No, sir; for training. We all hope to make the football team this fall. We're all of us in pretty good shape, too, I think, sir; but we're going out on this training hike to see if we can't work ourselves down as hard as nails." ”

“ But in the meantime, what of Dick and Dave?
Theirs had been a busy evening. After the first rough pummeling, which left them breathless and sore, the tramp who had directed the rough work turned to his friends of the road.
"These young gents have furnished us with some exercise," he grinned wickedly. "Now, suppose we make 'em supply us with a little amusement?"
"It's risky, close to the road," returned one of the tramps who had been back in the shadows. "We don't know when someone will come along and butt in on our sport." ”

“ They left here before eight o'clock, and now it's twenty minutes of eleven. If everything had been all right, they'd have been back here by half-past nine o'clock at the latest."
"Suppose we haul down the tent, pack the outfit and move on down the road, looking for some trace of them," proposed Greg.
"No; that would delay the start too much," Tom replied, with a shake of his head. "Whoever goes out to hunt for Dick and Dave must move fast and not be tied to a horse and wagon. I'm going, for one. Who will go with me?"
"I will," promptly answered Dan, Harry and Greg, all in one breath. ”

“ The wind still howled.
"Are we going to turn in, soon?" inquired Dave.
"My vote," announced Tom indolently, "is for another supper, and turn in at perhaps two o'clock in the morning."
"I second the motion—-as far as another supper goes," chimed in Danny Grin.
"It wants to be a supper of piping hot stuff, too," declared Greg. "It's warm here in the tent, but the surrounding world is chill and drear. Nothing but hot food will serve us."
Preparations for the meal were quickly under way.
"I hope everyone within the reach of this storm is as comfortable as we are," murmured Hazelton. ”

“ Then several men came out of the saloon, laughing boisterously.
"Come back, Drake! We can't let you slip off like that. You're too good a fellow to play the sneak with us. Come on back!"
"I—-I tell you, I'm due at home," insisted Drake, though he spoke more weakly.
"Hey! Here's Drake—-says he's going to slip home on us!" called one of the tormentors.
More men came out of the place, some of them staggering. With the new arrivals came one whom Dick and his friends rightly guessed to be Miller—-a thickset man, with swaggering manner, insolent expression and rough voice. ”

“ In the intervals of absolute silence the steady breathing of the six Gridley High School boys could still be heard, until one man in the rabble, less sober than the others, fell over a packing-case, barking his shins and giving vent to a yell of pain.
"What was that?" asked Greg Holmes, waking and rising on one elbow.
Outside all was quiet again.
"Hey, Dave, get up!" Holmes called, shaking the arm of Darry, who lay asleep on the adjoining cot. "I heard something going on outside. We'll both get up, light a lantern, and——-"
"Yes! Get up and come out!" jeered a voice near the tent door. ”

“ Dick took a sweeping glance at the peddler's shabby attire. While, of course, the size of a man's bank account cannot be judged from his wardrobe, Mr. Hinman had the appearance of needing money as much as he declared. The horse, too, looked as though a generous feed of oats would do him good. ”

“ Darry went on, "that a tramp, after one season on the road, is rarely ever reclaimed to useful work. I think I can understand something of the fascination of the life."
"I can't see any fascination about being a tramp," Prescott replied judicially. "First of all, he becomes a vagabond, who prefers idleness to work. Then, too, he becomes dirty, and I can't see any charm in a life that is divorced from baths. From mere idleness the tramp soon finds that petty thieving is an easy way to get along. If I were going to be a thief at all, I'd want to be an efficient one. ”

“ As though satisfied that they could get no sport out of the high school boys for the present, the tramps allowed them to lie on the ground, breathing fitfully and groaning.
Dick was watching his chance to get up and bolt, depending upon his speed as a football player to take him out of this dangerous company. Darrin was equally watchful—-but so were the tramps. Plainly the latter did not intend to let their prey get away from them easily.
As for Reuben Hinman, obeying a command, the peddler had alighted from his wagon and now sat with his back against a tree. ”

“ But Dave Darrin sprang into the crowd, saying, almost in an undertone:
"The respectable men here don't want to try to stop this affair. A lot of useful manhood depends upon the issue. Don't worry about my friend, if he does look rather young. He can take care of himself, all right, and he is calling for a fight that ought to be fought. You respectable men in the crowd keep still, and just come along and see fair play—-that's all." ”

“ At a quarter-past ten o'clock Dick called for another halt. The road map that the boys had brought along showed them that they were now eleven miles from Gridley.
"Pretty fair work," muttered Tom, "considering that these roads were built by men who had never seen any better kind."
"We can more than double the distance," suggested Dave, "before we go into camp for the night."
"If we hike a couple more miles this morning, then halt, get the noon meal and rest until two o'clock," replied young Prescott, "I think we shall do better." ”

“ At first, the idea met with instant favor among the dozen or more worthless men gathered in Miller's saloon. The plan grew in favor until one man, slighter than the rest, observed:
"Say! Stop and think of one thing. We know what one of the boys did to Miller, and there are six of those boys down at the camp!"
That rather cast a damper over the enthusiasm until one blear-eyed man of fifty observed, knowingly:
"Well, we don't need to go alone. There are other men in Fenton who think the way we do. ”

“ He is not worried that his father is ill, but hopes that the old man will soon be back at his work. Of course, he hopes that his father will be at work, soon; for when the old man stops working the younger man will very likely have to go to work himself."
"You don't mean, doctor, that that big, healthy-looking fellow is supported by his father?" gasped Dick Prescott. ”

“ Say, Prescott, but you are a fighter! I can imagine how 'sore' Miller will be, to-morrow, over having been whipped by such a stripling as you are."
"I've one great advantage over Miller," Dick rejoined. "I've never tasted alcohol, and Miller has saturated himself with it for years."
"I used to have an idea that liquor was strengthening," murmured Tom Drake. "I know quite a good many men who take it to keep up their strength."
"They're fools, then," Dick retorted tersely. "You could see, in Miller to-night, what alcohol does toward making one strong. ”

“ In a pot on the stove Dick put potatoes to cook.
Now Dave rattled out the dishes, as soon as Greg and Hazy had set up the folding table. Dan placed the chairs.
"Get ready!" called Dick, as soon as he had fried two platters full of bacon and eggs. Tom, will you try the potatoes?"
"Done," responded Reade, after prodding the potatoes with a fork.
"What shall we do with the food that's left over?" asked Danny
Grin, as he began to eat.
"There isn't going to be any food left over," Dick laughed. "You fellows will be lucky, indeed, if you get as much as you want." ”