"Well, what do you think of that for a nerve?" cried Frank, as coming around a curve from the float which had hidden the "grounds" that they had laid out the night before, they saw that the place was already occupied. "And, by George, it's Chip Dixon. I'll be jiggered if it isn't."
The Lollipops skated up slowly, but their arrival seemed to have no effect on the boys who were occupying their rink. Frank recognized, besides Chip, several of the Gamma Tau men, among them Cuthbert of the nine, who had been after candidates for the society not so long before, Boston Wheeler, the fullback of the eleven, and several others. They paid not the slightest attention to the real proprietors of the territory, but kept on gaily with their play.
A slashing drive sent the puck to the river bank, and while some one was recovering it Frank sculled slowly over to Chip and said, "I think you have our 'grounds,' haven't you? We laid these out last night, and planted the markers."
"Oh, is that so?" said Chip, indifferently. "Very nice of you. We like the place very much, indeed."
"But it is ours, and we want to play. It isn't the regular practice place of the school team, is it?"
"Our regular practice place is wherever we want to play, so run along, Freshie, and don't bother us. All right, I've got you"—this to a mate who sent the puck spinning across the ice in Chip's direction. Thereafter Chip was busily engaged, and paid no attention whatever to the Lollipops, who stood around glumly, hardly daring to break out into open revolt.
"Dixon has done this for spite and nothing else," said Jimmy. "The Wee One told me that the school team generally practises just below the boat-house float. I'd like to knock his head off," and Jimmy grabbed his stick and swung it around him vigorously. "I'll get even with him for this, see if I don't."
"He's got it in for both of us," said Frank, who had now turned his back on the players. "We can't make a fuss, although we do know he has chucked us out of our own place. Come on, let's go up the river and find another place where——"
Frank had not done speaking when a terrific collision sent him sprawling on his face, and as he got to his feet again a sarcastic voice said: "Can't you keep out of the way? Can't you give us room to play our game?"
It was Chip, who had deliberately run into Frank when the latter was unprepared and given him a nasty fall. Blood was trickling from a cut over Frank's eye where he had struck the ice. The sight of the blood made Jimmy wild with anger. He helped Frank to get his balance and then turned on Chip, who had started to skate away.