"I s'pose that was the reason," Skip replied in a nervous way.
"It seems to me you know more about this thing than anybody else."
"You'd better not say that again," and Skip stepped forward a few paces with clenched fists.
"You can get the best of me, so I'll have to hold my tongue; but I reckon I've had all I want of the regulators. Tryin' to kill a feller who never did much of anything to you is a mean trick."
"Shut up or I'll knock your head off. You can't back out of our s'ciety, an' if you ever say I tried to kill anybody I'll pound you till there won't be an inch of skin left."
Chunky did not wait to hear more. He started at full speed toward his own home, and Skip was more alarmed than before.
"Now I'm in a worse scrape than ever, for he's jest fool enough to tell what he knows, an' then there will be trouble. I'd better go to meet Billings, an' perhaps he can help me out."
He could reach the rendezvous without going through the village, and greatly to his relief the leader of the rioters was waiting to receive him.
"Now this is somethin' like business," and Billings patted the boy on the head.
Skip stepped back; the touch of the man's hand now, when through him he had gotten into so much trouble, was disagreeable.