“If you meet up with any of those fellows tomorrow, take notice and see if they have a pair of black eyes among them,” said Dick.
“I’m pretty sure one has!” declared his chum, “for I saw you give him a straight-from-the-shoulder crack square in the face. How he did howl!”
“That must have been my first one, then,” agreed Dick. “I think the fellow I got was Dit Hennesy, for I noticed his gait when he rushed us like a mad bull.”
“Shall we go on now?” asked his chum.
“Well, we might as well, because they don’t mean to come back and try a second round with us. The creek lies in that direction, and unless I miss my guess, by this time they’re laving their bruises with cold water, and telling each other how they’d have downed us only for you picking up that paling.”
Leslie did not throw the “lucky find” away. Perhaps he meant to take Dick’s advice, and keep it in a post of honor in his den at home. Then when he had boy visitors he could point to it with pride as he narrated the story of the hold-up.
“Want me to cross over lots with you to your house, Dick?” he asked, presently, when they had reached the spot where their trails separated, Dick having to scale a fence and cross a field in order to reach his own home.
“Well, I should say not if I know it,” he replied, laughingly. “Things have come to a pretty pass if a fellow can’t peep out nights without having an armed guard and retainer at his side. No more danger from that crowd, for tonight anyway, Leslie. See you in the morning.”
“Don’t get thinking too hard about that farce business, Dick,” cautioned the other boy; “or you’ll lie awake nights losing sleep. But if you do make up your mind to go in for that prize I’d like to wager you’ll land it.”
“I wish I could believe that as easy as you do, Leslie,” sighed Dick, thinking what a fine thing it would be for him to have twenty-five dollars of his own to spend just as wished, even though most of it must go for the clothes he needed badly.