“And I say you did! It was a mean thing to do.”
“Oh, you make me tired,” grunted Nick Paxton, but his tone betrayed his uneasiness.
“I believe you struck Andy so as to injure him,” said Jack. To this Paxton made no answer. Instead he moved on, and soon lost himself in a crowd of boys in another part of the gymnasium.
“Andy, does your wrist hurt much?” questioned Pepper, turning to his acrobatic chum.
“Yes, it does,” was the answer. “See, he scraped part of the skin off.”
“He ought to be hammered for it,” was Pepper’s emphatic declaration.
Andy walked over to a sink and there allowed the water to run over his wrist. Soon there was a small swelling, which pained considerably. Jack helped to tie a handkerchief around the bruised member.
“Well, Snow, are you ready for the contest?” demanded Gus Coulter, walking up. He had just passed Nick Paxton, and the latter had winked at him suggestively.
“Andy has been hurt,” explained Jack. “Paxton kicked him in the wrist.”
“Huh! Is this a trick to get out of meeting me?” grumbled Gus Coulter.