“You remember how Eli Gibbons was used when he refused to leave town a while ago?”
“Yes. It was scandalous. He was nearly killed by a gang of masked ruffians who carried him off into the woods somewhere, stripped him, tied him to a tree and lashed him with withes till he fainted. Several papers had articles in them about the outbreak of whitecaps right here in our county.”
“Well, I know the fellows who did that job,” grinned Dyke.
“You do?” gasped the father, with a look of great consternation and distress. “My son, I am astonished—I am pained! It cannot be that you associate with such disreputable characters? I will not believe it!”
“Perhaps, if it became necessary, they could be induced to give Mr. Frank Merriwell some of the same medicine. But of course, if you are going to have him arrested, it will not be necessary.”
“Haw! No, of course not. On second thought, however, I am not sure that the charge against him would stand. He might defeat us. He might show that we were the aggressors. That colored boy would swear to anything.”
“In that case——”
“Really, I don’t see that anything can be done.”
“Then the Bloomfield whitecaps will have to take a hand. Oh, he’ll be fixed, governor!”
“Hum! Don’t speak to me of such lawless acts. Really, I cannot countenance anything of the kind. Of course he should receive some punishment. If whitecaps were to take him out and give him such a walloping as Gibbons received, it would be my duty as a peaceable, law-abiding citizen to frown down upon such acts. However, in case it were discovered that you were concerned in it, Dyke, as a parent, I should be obliged to protect you. Money would do that, you know. It is a most disgraceful state of affairs, I must confess, but money will do almost anything in this country.”