H. Irving Hancock

“ Page, who, up to the present, had been rather silent.
"There is only one thing it needs," rejoined Mr. Ross. "If we had about six roasted ears of corn for each diner then this barbecue would be a huge success."
"Not even the corn could improve it," declared Laura Bentley, as Dick helped her to more of the roasted meat.
"Don't forget that pudding, ladies and gentlemen!" called out Jim Hornby, from where he sat. "That pudding is my best kind, and the best one of its kind that I ever turned out. When you have the pudding you won't be thinking of a little thing like roasted ears of corn." ”

“ Greg bawled up.
"I'm trying to see," Dick replied. "There, I got a glimpse then.
It's some kind of animals, heading for this camp at a gallop."
"It can't be cavalry," shouted Reade. "You don't see any men, do you?"
"No," Prescott called down, shielding his eyes with one hand.
"Say, fellows!"
"Have you guessed what it is?" demanded Harry Hazelton.
"I know what it is—-now!" Dick answered. Then he began to descend the tree with great speed.
"Careful, there!" shouted Tom Reade. "That isn't a low baluster you're sliding down."
"Keep quiet, until I reach the ground," gasped Dick. ”

“ Then Prescott called for the girls, whom he quickly rejoined.
"You didn't catch him?" asked Laura.
"Not I," laughed Dick. "He knows every trail in these woods and in a sprint, Tag Mosher could leave me hitched to a tree."
"I'm thankful you didn't catch him," quivered Miss Bentley. "He's a terrible fellow."
"Is he?" laughed Prescott good-humoredly. "As a bad man Tag Mosher, or young Page, as he really ought to be called, is about the biggest bluff that I've ever heard of. Look at these weapons. ”

“ He'd bite a pound or two out of some prowler's leg, and we don't want that to happen."
"Why not?" demanded Dave grimly, opening his eyes very wide.
Dick laughed softly by way of answer.
"I'd just as soon have a tramp chewed up as have our food supplies vanish," Darry maintained.
"Little David, your temper has the upper hand of you at this moment," laughed Prescott.
"When that temper is on top you're dangerous—-almost bloodthirsty. When your temper is in check you're as kind and gentle as any good-natured fellow. You wouldn't really want to see any human being mangled by a bull-pup's teeth." ”

“ Harry retorted. "It's much easier to tackle a living fellow than a stuffed dummy. What's the good of using the dummy, anyway, when we have plenty of live fellows around here?"
"Oh, the dummy has its uses," Dick replied wisely. "A lot of faults can be better observed with a dummy for a background than is the case when you tackle a live one. The dummy is better for showing up the defects in your work. Now, Reade, you make a few swift assaults on the dummy."
Tom did his work so cleverly as to call forth admiration from all the onlookers. ”

“ Instead of jumping at the offer, Dick's partners regarded the man in the four-quart hat with some doubt. Often, when offered a courtesy from strangers that they would like to accept, these boys were likely to regard the offer with this same attitude of suspicion. It was not that Dick & Co. meant to be ungracious to strangers, but rather that their boyish experience with the world had taught them that such offers from strangers usually have strings attached to them.
"Don't you young men like ice cream?" asked Mr. Hibbert, looking fully as astonished as he felt. ”

“ CHAPTER XV THE INTERRUPTION OF A TRAINING BOUT "Hazelton, the trouble with you is that you tackle a dummy just the way you'd catch a sack of potatoes that was being thrown out of a burning house!" laughed Dick.
"I don't see any other way to tackle a dummy," grunted Harry, looking puzzled.
"Why, you are supposed to tackle the dummy just as you'd tackle a running football player coming toward you," Prescott rejoined. "Greg, stand off there about fifty yards. At the word, run straight toward Harry. Hazelton, you grab hold of Holmes and don't let him get by you. ”

“ Dave disgustedly. "Dick can take only a half a step per minute.
Mr. Valden can use only one hand. Greg's head looks gory. The
lot of us couldn't scare a baby now!"
"I can still say, boo!" Prescott laughed.
"Is it wise to try to do so much walking?" questioned Darry, as Greg went back to the creek to wash the blood from the shallow cut on his forehead.
"Yes; for I don't want to grow stiff until I'm where I can take care of myself," Dick answered, taking a few more steps. "No; don't help me. I want to move alone, and I'm strong enough for that." ”

“ By this time, Tom, Dave and the others, Greg included, had taken Alonzo Hibbert's measure or believed they had. Their host, then, was a lunatic. A harmless and very amiable lunatic, to be sure, yet none the less the victim of a deranged mind.
"Eaten up your creams?" asked Mr. Hibbert, glancing around. "Then we'll have another apiece."
He signaled the waitress, giving the order.
"Don't ask me—-yet—-how I know," continued their host, turning once more to Greg Holmes, "but you're going to find yourself a millionaire within a week. I know it. It's all in your ear." ”

“ Dick replied, still smiling.
"I'm telling you," declared Mosher. "Want me to make good?"
"I wish you'd make something of yourself, instead," rejoined Prescott in a voice of intense earnestness.
"Get your hands up!" ordered Tag, with a decided increase in emphasis.
"That's a silly demand on your part," Dick retorted calmly. "Why should you want my hands up? I'm not armed, and am in no position to attack you. Are you such a coward, Mosher, that you're afraid of an unarmed fellow that you could thrash even if you were unarmed? ”

“ Tom responded.
"Oh, he guessed that," suggested Harry Hazelton.
"He's a good guesser, then," remarked Tom. "I always like to see a man so discerning. I'm ashamed to confess it, but Dick is the only fellow in our crowd who looks at all like a gentleman. He is dressed in his Sunday best. Look at us!" ”

“ Flame was now spurting up over more than an acre of the sun-baked strip of grass.
"Get a lot more of the grass going, fellows!" panted Dick, who was working like a beaver and dripping with perspiration. "It's our only hope. Hustle!"
With the flames arose a dense cloud of smoke. As the wind was from the southwest the smoke was in the faces of the onrushing cattle.
"There! We've done all we can!" bellowed Dick, running down the line formed by his chums. ”

“ Instead, I still contend that I feel a sneaking liking for poor Tag."
"'Poor Tag,' indeed!" mimicked Tom Reade. "Poor wives and kids of the deputy sheriffs whom Tag may shoot down in their tracks before he's cornered at last! Dick, young Mosher is a budding outlaw and a bad egg all around."
"No decent citizen should feel any sort of sympathy for him," affirmed Harry Hazelton.
"Let Dick alone," objected Greg Holmes. "Dick generally knows what he's about, even in regard to his emotions and sympathies."
"What do you say, Danny?" asked Dave. ”

“ Dick went on promptly. "Mosher, Page, or whoever he really is, is just as natural an anarchist as the world ever saw. He has never had anything of his own, and whenever he sees anyone else's property that will serve him, he just says, 'Tag, you're It!' That's the way he got his nickname."
"I believe I'll go over with Harry and see if anything is missing," declared Dr. Bentley. "In the meantime, Prescott, suppose you and your squad rest until I return. Just make yourselves agreeable to the girls. ”

“ Dick cried after him, as Tag started away. "Bill Mosher found you in a railroad wreck. Your real father is a man of wealth. He is nearly broken down from the many anxieties of trying to find you. He spent last night at our camp. This morning he and friends of his started off to find you. Tag, come back here, and I'll take you into camp."
"No, thank you!" leered the larger boy. "I've been taken into camp before, and you're the lad that turned the trick. You turned me over to Valden and Simmons, and they turned me over to the warden at the jail. I'm not going back to that jail—-alive!" ”

“ Dick & Co. had no firearms along, and could not put the injured cows out of their misery.
"Now, let's get out of here," urged Dick at last. "We can't do any good here, and this is no pleasant sight to gaze upon."
"It seems too bad to leave all this prime roast beef on the ground, doesn't it?" hinted Tom. "And we fellows have such good appetites."
"The cattle are not ours," Dick rejoined. "We have no right to help ourselves to any cuts of meat from the dead animals."
So they returned to the camp, which they found, of course, quite undisturbed. ”

“ Dick retorted grimly. "From the looks of things none of the rest of us will eat any of it, either."
"A dog got it, or some wild animal!" guessed Greg.
"No one animal could carry off four pieces of steak in his mouth at a time," Prescott answered, thinking fast. "And the tin plate I left here has gone with the meat. Animals don't lug off tin plates."
"Dick and I will stay behind to watch and take account of stock," Tom called. "The rest of you scatter through the woods and try to come up with the thief. If any fellow comes upon him, give a whoop, and the rest of us will hurry along." ”

“ It was now necessary, therefore, to leave but one boy at a time in the camp, and Dick, while his hip was mending, had usually been that one.
Every member of Dick & Co. was brown as a berry. Muscles, too, were beginning to stand out with a firmness that had never been observed at home in the winter time. Enough more of this camping and hard work and training, and Dick & Co. were likely to return to Gridley as six condensed young giants. Nothing puts the athlete in shape as quickly as does camping, combined with training, in the summer time. ”

“ I could fix you for a month's supply of meat!"
"Dick, do you remember what we came out here in the woods for?" queried Tom.
"To camp, and have a good time," Prescott laughed. "And, so far, we win. We're having a bully time!"
"What else did we come out here for?"
"To harden and train ourselves so that we can make a hard try for the Gridley High School football eleven this fall."
"Will a week of training table undo the harm of to-day's big feasts?" groaned Reade.
"No fellow is obliged to make a glutton of himself," retorted
Dick. ”

“ But Dick and Dave had jumped up, and were now running for the road as fast as they could.
It was ten days after the last word from Tag Mosher. The officers had been promptly notified by the messengers from Dick & Co., and presumably were still scouring the great stretches of forest, though so far without result.
"How did we do it, boys?" called the laughing voice of Laura Bentley, as Dick and Dave came in sight.
"Don't ask me!" begged Dave. "Girls never ought to try school yells. They ought to content themselves with waving handkerchiefs."
"Mr. Smarty!" cried Clara Marshall. ”

“ CHAPTER I THE MAN IN THE FOUR-QUART HAT "You'll find your man in the lobby of the Eagle Hotel or in the neighborhood of the hotel on Main Street," said Dick Prescott. "You can hardly miss him."
"But how will I know Mr. Hibbert, when I see him?" pursued the stranger.
"I don't know that his name is Hibbert," Dick answered. "However, he is the only young man who has just reached town fresh from Europe. His trunks are pasted all over with labels."
"You'll know the young man, sir," Tom Reade broke in, with a quiet smile. "He always wears a spite-fence collar. ”

“ Within a couple of years I'll get rid of the Miller place for at least sixteen thousand dollars. I've never known a time when real estate money came in as easily."
"Is he talking about real money?" grunted Darrin. "He can't be!"
"He is," Tom declared. "That's Buller, of Wrenville. He is a very successful man in real estate. Father knows him."
"Humph! Talking of thousands, when a few ten dollar bills would fix us for the summer," muttered Dave Darrin. "I wonder if men ever stop to think how it feels for a boy to go around broke."
"I spoke to my dad along those lines once," smiled Tom. ”

“ As the rope hung from the crotch of the tree both ends trailed on the ground. Seizing both lines Dick went up rapidly hand over hand, his feet braced against the tree trunk. In this position he was able to run nimbly up the side of the trunk.
Bump! The bull's head landed against the tree, the shock nearly bringing the high school boy to the ground. Dick managed to hold on to the rope, though his feet slipped from the trunk.
Rapidly he drew himself up into the crotch of the tree. Bump—-again!
Any animal with a head less hard would have been stunned outright. ”

“ Dick shouted, in order to make himself heard over the crackling flames and the greater noise of the pounding hoofs. "If we're not safe behind a curtain of flame, there is no other place near where we'd be safer."
Danny Grin turned to bolt, but Darry reached out, catching him by the collar and throwing him to the ground.
"Don't be a fool, Danny, and don't be panic stricken," Darrin advised. "We're safer here, at least, than we can be anywhere else within a quarter of a mile."
The bellow of a bull through the forest—-a bellow taken up by other bulls—-made all of the boys quake in their shoes. ”

“ If you're not guilty, then you should be man enough to face the world and prove your innocence like a real man. Don't be a cowardly sneak, Tag!"
"A coward?" blurted the other angrily. "You ought to know better'n that. And the officers know better, too; I may be only a boy, but the officers are out in packs, hunting for me. I know, for I've seen two pairs of those fellows go by on the road to-day."
"Are you going to be a man, Tag, or just a sneaking coward?" asked
Dick, as he rose. ”

“ Ross, looking the picture of indignation.
"I didn't know there were tramps in these woods," muttered the cattle owner.
"Tramp, thief, or whatever he is," exclaimed Dick Prescott, "that fellow must move on out of this part of the country. If he doesn't we'll catch him. After we get through with him, he'll be glad enough to move on."
"If he's able," added Dave Darrin significantly.
"Oh, what's the use of making a fuss, this time?" demanded Tom Reade good-humoredly. "For once we have so much meat that we could spare a hungry man two hundred pounds and not miss it." ”

“ Dick soon announced, stepping forward. "Reade! Darrin!"
So the work went on, though it was not quite so grilling after that. The girls looked on with interest, at first, but there was no contest in hand—-nothing for any "side" to win, so presently the high school girls found the spectacle less interesting.
Tom, standing by, mopping his face, turned to see that Miss Marshall, her red parasol resting over one shoulder, had strolled away.
"That was kind of Clara," laughed Tom. ”

“ Bentley placed one ear against Dave's chest, watch in hand, while the others looked on curiously.
"Just what I thought," nodded the physician, looking up at last. "Prescott, you have a lot of bright ideas in training, but you're driving your squad too hard. Darrin's heart doesn't come down to normal speed as soon as it should."
"Anything wrong with the heart, sir" asked Darry.
"Nothing. It's the trainer that's wrong," replied Dr. Bentley. "It is a fault with a lot of trainers without long experience that they work an athlete's heart overtime. ”

“ Hibbert," broke in Dave suddenly, "I've just happened to remember that there is a man in town who wants to talk with you. We met him at the station, and he inquired where he could find you."
"I think I know whom you mean," admitted Hibbert.
"We told him you were stopping at the Eagle Hotel," Greg added.
"Then, if the man who is looking for me went to the Eagle Hotel, he has already learned that I am elsewhere. It's his business to find me, not mine to run about town seeking him. He can find me as well in the ice cream shop as in any other place. Will you young men oblige me with your company?" ”

“ Hibbert pensively, "I believe Mr. Bull, unless he has human aid in freeing himself, will still be here when the meat inspector gets around."
"For a man who knows nothing about cattle," said Tom Reade, breaking the silence of the on-lookers, "it seems to me that you've done a most workmanlike job with that bull."
"To an amateur like you or me," admitted Hibbert modestly, "it looks like a very fair little tie-up. But I'm afraid my former friends on the Three-Bar-X would feel decidedly ashamed of me. Shall we now go back to camp, or were you intending to go further into the woods?" ”

“ Hazelton assented cautiously.
"Then what are we going to do!" asked Greg Holmes, turning to
Prescott.
"From the plans we've heard laid down," smiled Dick, "I think we will have to stay right here and keep the prowler from dropping in to carry away the rest of our provisions."
"Bother such sport as that!" snorted Greg.
"Humph! It may turn out to be the liveliest sport of all," declared Dick dryly. "Certainly if that fellow turns up it will take two of us to handle him with comfort. He's a tough customer."
"Dan, you always were an artist with a shovel," suggested Darry insinuatingly. ”

“ Valden and Simmons exchanged some words in an undertone, after which the latter deputy came over to where Prescott sat.
"Valden tells me you have been interfering between him and Tag
Mosher," began the officer. "How was it?"
Dick gave a quick, truthful account of his interference.
"You did right, Prescott," agreed Simmons, gripping the boy's hand. "Remember that any citizen has a right to interfere when he sees a prisoner being abused. Valden is a good fellow at bottom, and he's a brave fighter in time of real trouble. ”

“ Any boy who has ever been in the country knows that green grass won't burn. Hence the blaze was limited to a small area. A few trees whose trunks were near the edge of the clearing were smoking slightly, but no damage was done to the timber. There was really no work to be done in extinguishing this fire, which, furious while it lasted, was now dying out.
"Let's get back and see how our camp fared," proposed Hazelton.
"We don't have to," Dick replied. "We saw the directions taken by the cattle, and they didn't go anywhere near our camp. ”