“Well, no, it wouldn't,” said Swatty, “because there won't be any Red Avengers, and we'll say, 'No, we ain't!' and that'll be the truth, because we won't be then. We'll bust up the Red Avengers right now.”
So we took a vote and voted that we were not the Red Avengers any more and that we never had been the Red Avengers. So that settled that, but it didn't make us feel much better. We sat and thought awhile and then Swatty said:
“I know! Georgie, you can ask Fan to tell Tom Burton to let us go free.”
“Aw! that won't do any good,” I said.
And I didn't think it would, but Swatty said it was our only chance, so I said I would ask Fan, and I did. I hated to, but I did it.
XIII. THE ICE GOES OUT
First, of course, I made Fan promise she would never tell, hope to die and cross her heart, and she promised, and then I told her all about the Red Avengers and how, if we did set Dad Veek's barn afire we didn't mean to, and she said she would talk to Tom Burton about it, but she said Tom Burton was stubborn and she would have to wait until she had the right chance. She was nicer than she had ever been to me.
“Have you told anybody else?” she asked me.