"I'll fix you for this," he began, when Snap cut him short.
"Say another word and we'll thrash you good," he said. "Now get—just as fast as you can walk." And he pointed toward the river.
Muttering under his breath, Kiddy Leech moved on, and the three young hunters watched him until a distant bend hid him from view.
"Doesn't walk as if his back was lame," was Giant's comment.
"Oh, I guess that was all put on—just to arouse our sympathy," answered Snap.
The boys turned back in the direction of their camp, talking about the affair and glad that they had had no worse trouble in getting back their things. In the meantime Kiddy Leech walked on, fast at first and then more slowly, until Rocky River was reached. Here he came to a dilapidated building once used as an ice-house and sat down on a bench in the sun to rest.
"I'm having bad luck right along lately," he muttered to himself. "Thought sure I'd get away to-day with those things. Gee, but I'm glad they didn't shoot me! That fellow they call Snap looked mad enough to do it. And to think they took that money back too—after giving it to me! Say, I'd like to fix 'em for that!" And he shook his head savagely.
Kiddy Leech had been sitting on the bench less than quarter of an hour when he saw several boys coming along the frozen river on their skates. He looked at them indifferently at first, but soon became interested in two of the number. These boys were Ham Spink and Carl Dudder. The third youth was Barney Hedge, one of Spink's cronies.
"The same boys!" muttered the tramp to himself.
"Hullo, look at the scarecrow!" called out Ham Spink, as he swept up on an elegant pair of silver-plated hockey skates.