The boy in question turned fiery red, and his eyes fell under the steady gaze of the minister.
“That’s what I was doing, Mr. Holwell,” he finally managed to say, with a nervous little laugh. “I knew there was a fine chance to have some fun teasing the other side, and I tried it. But I dropped the ball, all right. I did my best to hold on to the crazy old thing, though.”
Dick and Leslie exchanged glances. They felt pretty certain that only for the opportune arrival of Mr. Holwell, Alonzo would have stuck to his story through thick and thin. Nat shrugged his broad shoulders, and looked disgusted at such signs of what he would call weakness.
“Oh! well, if he owns up, of course the play goes,” he remarked, with a sneer, and an ugly glance at Alonzo. “Get back in your places, fellers; and Peg’s run goes. Andy, take second, and count yourself mighty lucky. Anyhow, the rest of us really believed he held it tight.”
Mr. Holwell presently left the scene of action and walked on, with a serious expression on his face. Some time before he and the young man who served as leader to the town Y. M. C. A. had organized a Boys’ Department, which gave promise of doing a vast amount of good among the younger element in Cliffwood.
There had been more or less trouble with Nat Silmore and several of his followers, although just at present they seemed to be getting on pretty well. Mr. Holwell knew boys “like a book,” however, and from the little incident of the day he feared the “snake was scotched, not killed,” as the saying has it.
While the boys are continuing their game after the sudden dispute had been settled by an umpire whose decision none of them ventured to question, a few words concerning Dick and his comrades may not come in amiss, especially to such readers as may not have read the preceding volume of this series, entitled, “The Y. M. C. A. Boys of Cliffwood.”
Dick Horner lived with his mother, grandfather and little sister Sue in a neat cottage close to the bank of the Sweetbriar river. They had been barely able to get along on the veteran’s pension and the proceeds from a small investment. Suddenly bad news reached them to the effect that part of their little property had been swept away.
As has already been related in the previous story, a splendid thing happened for the Horners, and they were now comfortably fixed, so that Dick need not worry concerning his future.
Some of his friends were Leslie Capes, Dan Fenwick, Phil Harkness, Elmer Jones, Andy Hale, “Peg” Fosdick, “Clint” Babbett and Fred Bonnicastle.