“We’ll see if that new berry picking chap can get the best of us, Ern,” he said to Merritt when he was alone with a few of his cronies after Harry Dickson’s declaration that Jack was good enough for any of them to associate with.
“He won’t do it, Pete,” replied Merritt.
“There’s no use in doing anything in the dormitories,” remarked Zenas Holt, one of the party.
“No, that makes too much noise,” muttered another of the party all being interested in the scheme which they knew Herring must be concocting to get the best of Jack.
“No, everybody hazes new fellows in the dormitories,” growled Herring. “He’ll be watching for us and then he has made a lot of new friends and they will go to his help.”
“We want to catch him alone,” suggested Merritt.
“That’s the talk,” added Holt.
“Just what I was thinking of,” said Herring, “and if you fellows will stop talking so much, I’ll tell you how we can fix it.”
These boys were just the sort to attack another with the odds against him and never had a notion that there was anything cowardly in that way of accomplishing their ends.
As a matter of fact, Herring was afraid of Percival, who was his equal in size and strength as well as in athletic qualities and a good boxer to boot, and therefore did not wish to have the latter about when they set out to haze Jack.