Now, on that very afternoon when Ralph and his two friends, on their visit to Crab Tree Hill, were driven by the storm to seek shelter in that preserve, Horace Elgert and his companion Dobson, were standing in close consultation.
And a very discontented, savage, and disconcerted pair they were, for things did not seem to be going right with them.
In the first place, that miserable five-pound note was still missing, and though the man at the cake-shop had promised that he would get it for them if possible, he had not yet kept his word; and while it was still in other hands both boys trembled with apprehensive fears.
They quarrelled over it, too, Elgert still declaring that, as Dobson had changed it, he would alone be to blame, and Dobson retorting by saying that he would confess that he received it from Elgert.
Then, added to this source of annoyance, there was the fact that, in spite of all their efforts, Ralph Rexworth was rising in his schoolmates' esteem, and his influence, coupled with that of Warren and Charlton, was making itself steadily felt, to the diminution of their own powers.
"It seems to me," grumbled Elgert moodily, "that the fellows look upon trying to give a criminal up to justice as a crime. Some of them actually hissed at me—and why? Just because my father lent the police his pony and trap! I can't make out what is coming to them."
"They are just as down on me in the Fourth," answered Dobson. "There is no fun in the place now. All the kids have got to be coddled like a lot of babies; and if you catch one of them a smack on the head for being cheeky, there are a dozen fellows ready to take his part. Look how that little beggar Green cheeked me."
"Well, why didn't you give him a hiding? You were afraid to, that is the fact."
"Afraid yourself!" retorted Dobson angrily. "As if I should be afraid of him! You know that if I had done anything I should have had Rexworth and all his set about me, and a fellow can't take the lot of them. You don't care to meet Rexworth yourself, and you know it."
A dark frown gathered upon Horace Elgert's handsome face. Ah, how that frown spoilt all his good looks!