A malicious laugh answered him.
“I got a gang. We do pretty well what we like around this camp, and if anybody don’t like it—even leaders, or even the Chief himself—why, they’re good and sorry for it! We have meetings in the middle of the night, and we sign the oath with our own blood, and swear that if anybody hurts any one of us, why, we get revenge! We go under the secret name of the Red Hand Revengers, and we want you to join with us, see?”
CHAPTER VIII
SHENANIGANS FOR BRICK
It didn’t seem a bad idea, the way Blum put it. The Red Hand Revengers, with their mysterious meetings in the dead of night, their oaths of blood brotherhood, and their secret signs and deeds of vengeance against those who thwarted them, sounded most exciting. Even before the leader of this mystic society had finished speaking, Dirk Van Horn had made up his mind.
“I’ll join!” he declared. “What do I have to do?”
“Oh, you won’t need to be initiated,” Blum assured him. “We’ll have our first meeting tonight after taps, and you can meet the rest of the guys. We all wear masks over our faces, and have secret names. My Revenger name is——Swear on your heart and liver you won’t tell anybody?”
“Yes, I swear.”
“Well, I’m known as the Headless Green Dragon, see? When you send me a secret note, always draw a picture of a headless dragon, and I’ll know it’s for me. If you want to, you can be the Silent Dagger, or anything like that——I know! How about Iron Gauntlet, on account of the way you knocked out Brick?”
“All right. That sounds splendid. And I’ll bring a watermelon to the meeting tonight. My father brought it up to give to the other fellows in the tent, but they don’t deserve it. And listen——”
“Yeah?”