"If you blab to any one," warned Ben angrily, "I'll give you a good thrashing."
"Try it, and perhaps you'll get more of what Dick gave you this afternoon," Toby shot back as he walked through the gate.
Toby was as good as his word. He told the news at school the next day, and Ben Alvord's stock went even lower. After school that afternoon Dave Darrin made Ben apologize. So did Reade, Holmes, Hazelton and Dalzell. It was a bitter pill for young Alvord to swallow. The fights that the other chums had claimed were now called off. They felt Ben to be beneath their notice.
CHAPTER XXI
AB. DEXTER MAKES A NEW MOVE
"Did you hear the latest from Ab. Dexter?" asked Dave, as he met Dick one Saturday afternoon in November.
"No; nothing very good, was it?"
"That's hardly to be expected," laughed Dave, as the two chums came to a halt on a street corner. "Did you happen to remember that Dexter and Driggs were due to come up for trial in court this afternoon?"