“Oh, no, it was not. It was foolish for Herring to use the phone and try to disguise his voice. Why didn’t he get some one I did not know at all? He was the foolish one. And then I thought I might give him a dose of his own medicine.”
“Huh! did you give him as bad as you gave me?”
“Well, it was different,” and Jack laughed.
“I don’t treat all alike, you see. Have a little more of the mud cure?”
Then, without waiting for an answer, Jack plastered the bully’s face and neck with the sticky mud and left him.
“This is hazing the hazers,” he said. “They may not like it, but, then, that is merely the point of view. There is no reason why I should like it any better than they do.”
The other bully was sneaking away when Jack found him and he let him go, having really had enough fun with the bullies to last him some time, and considering that he had punished them enough for one while.
“Four to one was pretty good odds,” he laughed, “but I had the advantage of knowing what they were about. That was stupid of Herring to get on the wire himself. Why didn’t he get some one else? Fellows like these always make some stupid mistake which betrays them.”
Jack then returned to the house, where he found Bucephalus washing the wagon with warm water and soap.
“Give me a chance to wash my hands, Bucephalus,” he said. “Honest Injun, now, did you know anything about a plan to haze me? That telephone message was all a hoax.”