Perhaps, given time, and the Peters crowd might have attempted some further hostile move, looking to the capture of the boy who had just gained his freedom from a prison. Frank was grimly making up his mind that, no matter what happened, he did not mean to stand idly by and see Jerry fall into the hands of these fellows.
“Say, are you going to rush ’em?” demanded Bluff, fairly wild to make a charge.
“Not unless they start after Jerry. Just now they seem to be bent on capturing our friends, the hoboes, and we can afford to let them fight it out until both sides are exhausted, when our time will come. There they go at the door with the log as a battering ram! Whoop! what do you think of that?”
Frank’s last exclamation was caused by a sudden movement on the part of the besieged; for the door had suddenly opened, and a pan of hot water was thrown out on the huddled holders of the log.
CHAPTER XXI—THE LAST STRAW
“Ouch! I’m scalded!”
“Skidoo, boys! there’s more a-comin’!”
“Why didn’t ye shoot, Bill, when ye had the chance? Gee! the skin’s a-peelin’ off me nose a’ready!”
No sooner had Waddy Walsh thrown the pan of hot water upon the advancing group that carried the log than he bolted inside again, and the bar was heard falling back of the door.
Then they heard the young savage laugh loud and long. It was this sound that aroused the passions of the crowd. They no longer thought of flight. With the burning sensation that came with the hot water application, each fellow ached to be revenged. The worst of it was, most of them knew Waddy well, and indeed he had once been a member of this same crowd.