“What about him?”
The chorus rose loud and general. Laura flushed, but held her ground.
“Our loyalty to Central High ought to be enough to prompt us to help one of our teachers. In some way the old professor is connected with this young man who is in danger of arrest. I don’t mean that we should actually thwart the officer of the law. But I, for one, certainly will not help the officer.”
“You are right, Mother Wit!” cried Bobby. “I’ll go a step farther. I’ll try to keep that man from landing here with his dogs.”
“I know nothing about the right or wrong of the case,” said Mrs. Morse; “but I am afraid of those awful beasts. There are five of them!”
“And Barnacle will only get into a fight with them if they land,” declared Jess, rather amused. “Let’s go down to the lake in a body and refuse to allow the dogs to come ashore.”
Liz Bean had listened from the cook-tent, but 193 said nothing. Her plain face was as expressionless as ever.
Now, when Mrs. Morse and the girls of Central High started down the slope on the northern side of the knoll, Liz slipped into the woods to the west, and quickly disappeared in the thick underbrush.
The big mainsail of the barge had been dropped and the men with the sheriff were paddling the craft in to the shore. Now and then a hound would lift its head and utter a mournful bay. Then Barnacle would strive to bark his own head off!
Laura recognized one of the paddlers with a start of surprise. It was the vicious farmer who had set his dog on Short and Long, on Bang-up Creek!