"Don't talk—get!" interrupted Pepper.
"Let Roy alone!" sang out Bat Sedley. "If you don't, I'll crack you one!"
"Hello, you rascals!" came unexpectedly from nearby, and a farmer named Baker showed himself. "You here? Jest wait till I git my paws on you!" And he started in the direction of Roy Bock, Bat Sedley and two of their cronies.
"Great Scott! It's that farmer!" ejaculated Roy Bock, and he started to scramble out of the grandstand in a hurry, and after him went the others.
But they were not quite quick enough for Darius Baker, and at the foot of the stand the farmer caught Bock in one hand and Bat Sedley in the other. Then he swung the two together until their heads cracked.
"Will steal my apples and pears?" he shrilled. "Will talk sassy to my darter, eh? I'll teach you!" And then, letting go suddenly, he cuffed Roy Bock on the ear and thumped Bat Sedley in the jaw so hard that that student howled outright.
"Let up!"
"Please don't hit me again!"
"It was all a mistake!"
"No mistake!" bawled Darius Baker. "Git out o' here before I call the constable an' have ye locked up!" And then Roy Bock and his cronies lost no time in hurrying away, without so much as looking behind them.