"No, they didn't. The game was honestly won. You go right home and change your clothes, and to-night I'll talk this over with you."
"Ain't you going to punish Fred?"
"No, because you started the quarrel," answered Mr. Yates, and then Sidney sneaked off like a whipped puppy. But once behind the lumber piles, he shook his fist savagely at Fred.
"Just you wait, Fred Rush, I'll fix you for this!" he cried to himself.
As soon as the excitement was over Fred transacted his business at the mill and then walked towards home. On the way he met Link and Harry. He told them of the encounter with Sidney.
"I'm glad you tackled him," said Link. "If he ever talks that way to me I'll do something he won't like."
"Sidney is a blower," said Harry. "I guess most of the boys know him by this time. I don't see how Si Voup can put up with him."
"Because he is willing to do anything for Si," came from Link. "They are hand-in-glove and always have been."
That evening, when Mr. Yates came home, he read Sidney a stern lecture. The boy tried to answer back, and as a result Mr. Yates told him he must come to the mill and go to work during the vacation.
"I am not going to have you idling your time away and getting into trouble," said Mr. Yates.