"You're right he hadn't," spoke up another youngster. "I was there, and I got some of that switch across my legs, too. Whew! I can feel the sting yet."
"I guess it's about time that Green heard from us," insisted Ben.
"If I were you I wouldn't do anything around here," advised Dick.
"You're right," nodded Dave. "And I guess, Ben, you fellows didn't get a bit more than you deserved."
"I'll show old Green whether we did," snapped Ben.
"Don't you think of it," warned Greg Holmes. "It's a serious business to monkey with railroad property. Besides, anything serious might put in danger the lives of people traveling on the railroad."
"Oh, keep quiet and do some thinking," retorted young Alvord. "Any of you fellows that never eat anything but milk, and are 'fraidcats, can cut out of this. I tell you, I'm going to get hunk with Green, and fellows with sand, who want to see it, can stay. The milksops can go home and to bed."
Not a boy stirred away just then. It isn't boy nature to withdraw under taunts.
"Say, Ben, I'll tell you something you dassent do," dared one of the boys.
"It'll have to be something pretty big that I don't dare do," boasted young Alvord.