CHAPTER XVII
A SEARCH AND A BEAR
“Do you think he’ll really go?” whispered Harry to Joe.
“I guess not, Harry. But he is mad, no doubt of that.”
“I didn’t want to make him mad, Joe. And he hit me a pretty hard one over the shoulders, too.”
“Fred hates to be fooled. Perhaps we had better talk to him about it.”
“No; that will make him madder than ever.”
The two boys retired, but it was a long while before either of them could get to sleep. They hated to be on the “outs” with their chum, and could not bear to think of Fred leaving them.
The stout youth was angry, and showed it even at breakfast, when he scarcely replied to the questions put to him. The bit of rope still lay on the floor, and picking it up, he gave it a vicious toss out of the window.
“There, Fred, let that end it,” said Joe, kindly. “It wasn’t just the right thing to do, and Harry and I are ready to acknowledge it.”
“Oh, yes, after it’s all over,” grumbled the stout youth. “If I had played that joke on you, what then?”