The next morning Dan stopped for his friend, and together the two proceeded to school.
"I wonder what they can do to us?" whispered Ted. But Dan could only shake his head and put a finger on his lips.
On reaching the school-house the boys found a group of their school-fellows eagerly discussing some important matter. The first words they heard were:
"He's been arrested, and as they've just come here there was nobody to go bail, so Percy was taken to prison."
At this there was a chorus of horrified "ohs!" from the girls, and grave shakings of the head on the part of the boys.
Ted and Dan stood mute, with white lips and dilated eyes, waiting to hear more.
At this moment Ralph Minting, one of the "big boys," pushed his way in among the crowd, demanding to know what had happened.
"Why, haven't you heard?" cried three or four in a breath, and then George Binder began:
"Only think, Percy Vance tried to run off with a four-horse sleigh! The coachman gave him the lines to hold for a minute, when the 'prig' started the team up. The man was knocked off the step, and away went Percy like the wind, until he ran into Mr. Renford's cutter, three miles from here, when he was thrown out and stunned. The cutter was upset, and Mr. Renford bruised a bit, while the horses ran into a stable-yard half a mile farther on, and stopped, with sleigh and all safe and sound. But the owner was in a towering rage, and as soon as Percy was brought back, he had him arrested for petit larceny, as they call it, and—"