"And he gave you more than ten scents, and let you stay," said Ted Smart. "What a horrid boy!"
Of a sudden, Dick Merriwell burst into a peal of laughter, struck by the comical side of the affair.
"Oh, ha! ha! ha! ha!" he shouted. "I can’t help laughing! Ha! ha! ha! ha! What a sight he is!"
"I am surprised at you!" said Ted Smart severely. "Such levity is most reprehensible! Stop it this minute! Go ’way back and sit down!"
But Dick’s laughter was so infectious that all the others present, excepting Old Joe, Smart, and Scudder were compelled to join him. In that moment not a few of them who had regarded him as silent and lacking in humor suddenly understood that bottled in this peculiar lad was a streak of merriment that might, burst forth on provocation and prove decidedly catching.
"Stop it! stop it!" cried Smart, holding in with difficulty. "I’m ashamed of you! You make me want to shed tears. Oh, dear! I know I’m going to cry in a minute!"
Then, unable to restrain himself longer, he joined in the outburst.
"Laugh at me!" screamed Scudder, beginning to kick. "Oh, you’ll all be sorry some time! Oh, you’ll——"
There came a tearing sound, and then the unlucky youth suddenly dropped, his trousers having given way beneath the continued strain. Fortunately, he fell sprawling and was not much hurt. He sat up, wiping the sticky, yellow mass from his eyes, and shaking his clenched fist at the ring of hilarious lads.
"Laugh!" he snarled furiously. "I hate you all—I hate you! I hate you!"