Hearing the sound of voices, Corney and Semi-Colon had by now entered the mill, and were working the arm of their newly-found chum like a pump handle.
"But one thing makes me sore," said Bristles; "and that is, we don't know any more'n we did before who did this business. They were boys, you said, Colon; but how can we tell whether they hailed from Riverport or Mechanicsburg?"
"I give you my word——" began Felix Wagner; when Colon interrupted him.
"Say, there might be a way to tell," he remarked, jubilantly.
"As how?" demanded the eager Bristles.
"Why, you see, when they jumped me I gave 'em all I knew how, and kicked and hit as hard as I could," the tall boy went on.
"Think you marked any of 'em for keeps, Colon?" asked Bristles, feverishly.
"I'm dead sure," Colon continued; "that once I landed a straight from the shoulder jab square in the eye of a feller; because I heard him yell out like it hurt. And say, perhaps if you look around, you might find somebody with a black and blue eye."
Bristles gave a whoop that echoed through the dusty, cobwebbed mill.
"You got him, all right, sure you did, Colon!" he cried. "And it was a peach of a hit, too. It was Buck and his crowd that played this mean trick on you. How do I know? Why right now one of his fellers, Oscar Jones, is nursing a bruised left eye. Heard him tellin' how he got up last night, thinkin' he heard the fire bell ring, and run plumb into the corner of the bureau. Oh! there ain't any more suspicion restin' on your team-mates, Felix. We all ask you to forget it."