"They were on my land."
"Some of them were on the road, and they were doing absolutely no harm. You merely fired at them out of pure ugliness."
"See here, do ye want this?" And now the horsewhip was raised.
"If you strike either of us, I shall at once have you arrested. How many students do you suppose are now in bed under the doctor's care because of the shooting you did?"
At this question Mike Marcy turned suddenly pale.
"I—er—was anybody hurt? I—er—I fired into the air—just to scare 'em," he faltered.
"I ask you a question and I want you to answer it, and you had better do it unless you want to get into more trouble. Who told you to go out and do the shooting?"
"We want their names and we are bound to have them," put in Ben, following up Dave's bold manner, now that he saw the farmer was growing uneasy.
"The boys were named Nat Poole and Link Merwell. But they wanted their names kept secret."