“The Smith boys! The Smith boys!” he murmured. “I’d never have believed it. Whoa, Pactolus! We have unexpected allies,” and he made his way through the crowd of wondering students to where our three heroes waited for him on the wagon steps.
CHAPTER XII
PROFESSOR CLATTER’S PLAN
Standing there, facing their fellow students who were gathered in a mocking crowd about the medicine wagon, Cap, Bill and Pete hardly knew how to begin, nor what to talk about after they had started.
“Do you mean to say you’re going to stick up for—for this person?” demanded Bondy, and he put all the scorn of which he was capable into the words.
“We certainly do,” declared Cap firmly. “If you’ll let us explain, we’ll—”
“Young gentlemen, permit me,” broke in the voice of Professor Clatter. “I believe I can—”
“No more of your patent medicine jargon!” interrupted some of Guilder’s cronies. “We’ve had enough.”