"Then I'll cause your arrest, besides thrashing you into the bargain! You can take your choice of removing the log so travelers can pass or having a good hiding, you and Sam. Eradicate, you take Sam and I'll tackle Andy."
"Don't you dare touch me!" cried the bully, but there was a whine in his tones.
"You let me alone or I'll tell my father!" added Sam. "I—I didn't have nothin' to do with it, anyhow. I told Andy it would make trouble, but he made me help him."
"Say, what's the matter with you?" demanded Andy indignantly of his crony. "Do you want to—"
"I wish I'd never come with you," went on Sam, who was beginning to be frightened.
"Come now. Start up that machine and haul the log out of the way," demanded Tom again.
"I won't do it!" retorted the red-haired lad impudently.
"Yes, you will," insisted our hero, and he took a step toward the bully. They were out of the clump of bushes now and in the roadside ditch. "You let me alone," almost screamed Andy, and in his baffled rage he rushed at Tom, aiming a blow.
The young inventor quickly stepped to one side, and, as the bully passed him, Tom sent out a neat left-hander. Andy Foger went down in a heap on the grass.