"He certainly is," admitted Rand, "but it's mostly fun with him; but Sam Tompkins, he's quite a different sort."
"What is the matter with him?" asked the colonel.
"I don't know," drawled Rand, "except he was just born that way.
I think he is bad just from love of it."
"Isn't that rather a sweeping condemnation, Randolph?" asked the colonel.
"Oh, he's the worst of the bunch," put in Pepper decidedly.
"That's all true," added Jack. "There hasn't been any mischief perpetrated in town for the last four or five years that he hasn't been at the bottom of it."
"He puts the other boys up to do all kinds of things and keeps in the dark himself," continued Pepper.
"He would have been put away long ago," went on Jack, "if it wasn't for his father's political pull."
"Where did you learn all these things, Jack?" asked the colonel.
"Oh, we find out a good many things in the newspaper business, you know."