Sam was considering the idea.
"Let's 'ave 'im," he said, pointing at the boy who was still sitting on the fence and spitting proudly at intervals. "'E's errand-boy at the grocer's, he is, an' 'e's offen round 'ere. 'E's called Halbert, 'e is."
Albert was approached, and expressed himself willing to join.
"I don't mind b'longing," he said, with a sigh of deep feeling. "I wouldn't mind murderin' of 'im sometimes, when 'e tells me to get out of 'is garding scornful like. I would 'a' murdered 'im long ago if it 'adn't been for my poor ole mother."
Even William was startled.
"You needn't murder him," he said, hastily. "He's only gotter be paid out."
The Secret Society of Vengeance met for the first time the next afternoon, in an old barn on the hillside.
Albert had brought a friend of the name of Leopold to swell their numbers. Leopold wore a tweed cap, many sizes too large for him, pulled down over his eyes. It gave him a dare-devil air. He announced, in a husky voice, that he "din' care nuffin fer no one, so there!"
William looked round at his small band with a proud heart. Though he had not forgotten the aims of his secret society, it was the fact of its existence that really thrilled him.
"Now we've gotter take a sacred an' solemn oath," he said, "an' sign it in our blood, an' get a secret password an' a secret sign an' a secret langwidge."