BERT DODGE HEARS THE BATTLE CRY

Ten minutes after Dick had thrown himself on the grass a rustling
was heard above the camp.  Then down the slope strode three figures.

Dick sat up, regarding the visitors in silence until they came
within the fringe of the light of the campfire.

"Hello, Dodge," was Prescott's ready greeting.  "I didn't hear
you knock."

"Then maybe you will, before long," retorted Bert, in a voice
of barely suppressed fury.  "Prescott, you sneak, how long since
you have added grand larceny to your other bad habits?"

"Try that over again," requested Dick calmly.  "I don't believe
I quite catch you."

"Yes, you do," Dodge retorted.  "Come now, no lying about it."

"The nearest that I come to understanding you, as yet," Dick answered
in an unruffled voice, "is that you appear to be trying to be
offensive."

"I'll be more than offensive with you, before I get through!"
cried Bert, his temper rising.

The third member of the visiting party was a man of about forty
years, of sandy complexion and with a stubby, bristling red moustache.
He looked like a man who had been born a fighter, though his
face expressed keen attention rather than a desire to be quarrelsome.
In dress this man looked as though he might be a farmer.  Dick
and his friends judged the man to be a rustic constable.

"A nice trick you played on us!" Bert went on angrily.  "You took
our front tires off the wheels of the car and ran away with them."

"Easy!  Careful!" Dick smilingly advised.  "Did anyone see us
take the tires off and run away with them?"

Bert looked astonished, then gulped chokingly.  Did Prescott and
his friends intend to deny the charge?

"No one had to see you take the tires," Bert went on angrily.
"All that is necessary is for us to discover the merchandise
on you!"

"Then you have missed some tires, and you think I'm wearing them?"
Dick chuckled.

"Don't try to sneak, lie or equivocate" commanded Bert Dodge,
his face flushing with anger.  "Those are my tires hanging from
that line!"

"Are they?" Prescott inquired, in a tone of the mildest curiosity.

"You know they are!"

"Then, if the tires are your property, just help yourself!" Dick
coolly answered.  "If they are your tires, I will even offer to
forego making any storage charges for the time they have been.
hanging there."

"Hang you!" choked Bert

Then he turned to the man with them, demanding:

"Don't you see a pretty clear case of grand larceny here?"

"I can't sa-ay that I do---yet," drawled the stranger.

"You'll never see a clearer case!" quivered young Dodge.

To this the stranger did not reply.  He had been looking over
this sextette of high school boys, and if one might judge from
his face, the man seemed to be rather favorably impressed by Dick
& Co.

"If these are your tires," Dick went on smoothly, "would you mind
removing them from our camp?"

"I won't," Bert answered hotly.  "You fellows, who stole the tires,
will take them back to the car from which you stole them, and
there you will put the tires on again."

"You've missed some part of the idea in your haste," declared
young Prescott.

"What do you mean?" gasped Dodge.

"I mean simply that we'll have nothing whatever to do with taking
back the tires, or putting them on your wheels."

"Then I'll see what I can do to punish you all!" flared Bert hotly.
"You're none of you any better than a lot of low-lived thieves!"

The situation was growing too warm for Dave Darrin, though Dick
was still smiling.

Darry jumped to his feet, advancing upon Bert Dodge, who retreated
a couple of steps.

"Dodge," Dave began, "you want to put a halter on your tongue.
You can't come here to this camp and call too many names.  You
don't amount to much, of course, and nothing that you know how
to say should be treated very seriously.  It would be hard for
a rascal like yourself to be really insulting to anyone possessed
of the average degree of honor.  But we came up here for pleasure
and rest.  Both your face and your voice---not particularly your
words---are disturbing.  If those are your tires, kindly take
them and get out of camp!"

"You fellows will carry the tires back to the road, and you'll
put them on the wheels," retorted Dodge hoarsely.

"As Dick has already told you, we'll do nothing of the sort,"
Dave flashed back at him.  "All we want, Dodge, is for you to
get out of this camp.  Incidentally, if you want the tires, we
shall offer no objections to your taking them with you."

"What have you to say to that?" demanded Bert hotly, turning to
the man with the stubby red mustache.

"It seems to me like good judgment," replied the stranger.

"You say that?" screamed Bert, going into a blind passion.  "Is
that what we brought you here for?"

"I don't really know what you did bring me here for," replied
the stranger.  "All I know is that you stopped me, when I was
driving past with my load of produce for the Gridley markets,
and you offered me two dollars to come down here and not say much
unless I was spoken to.  I didn't come until you paid me the money.
It was good pay, and I'll stay here an hour longer if you really
think I owe you that much time."

"You're not a constable, or a sheriff's officer, are you, sir?"
asked Dick pleasantly.

"Not unless someone made me one when I wasn't looking," replied
the stranger, with a shrewd smile.

"I understand," nodded Prescott.  "This fellow Dodge hired you
to come down with him for more than one reason.  In the first
place, he and Bayliss were afraid to come here without backing.
For another thing, Dodge thought that we'd guess you to be a
constable, and I'll admit that I did mistake you for an officer
at the outset.  Dodge thought your presence would frighten us.
You look like a decent man, sir, and I'm sorry to see you in
such company.  These two fellows were chased out of the Gridley
High School just because they were considered unfit to associate
with the members of the student body."

"That's a lie!" sputtered young Dodge.

"If you want to find out, sir, whether I'm speaking the truth,"
Dick went on, looking at the stranger, "just ask any well-informed
citizen of Gridley whether Bert Dodge and his chum, Bayliss, were
really chased out of the Gridley  High School.  You'll soon discover
who the liar is---Dodge or myself."

"Hang you!" roared Bert, advancing with fists clenched.  "I'll
punch your head off your shoulders!"

"Wait one moment, though," advised the stranger, stepping between
Dick and Bert.  "Here, young man!"

"What's this?" Bert demanded, as the stranger forced something
into one of his hands.

"It's the two-dollar bill you handed me," replied he of the stubby
moustache.  "I reckon that I made a mistake in taking it."

"Aren't you on my side any longer?" gasped Bert, in utter
astonishment.

"I reckon not," was the crisp answer.  "I didn't realize that
I was in such bad company."

"But you've only that mucker's word against mine!" cried Bert,
flying into another rage.

"I've watched you both, and I'm a pretty good judge of human nature,"
replied the farmer.  "I prefer to believe this young man that
you seem to dislike so much."

"You're a nice one---you are!" uttered Bert, glaring in disgust
at the ally on whom he had counted.

"Perhaps you can calm down, Dodge, long enough to listen to reason,"
Dick suggested.  "First of all, I am going to admit that we did
remove the front tires of your car and that we  brought the tires
here and hung them on that line."

"Do you hear that?" demanded Dodge eagerly, turning once more
to the farmer.  "They admit stealing my tires."

"I didn't quite notice that the young man went as far as to admit
theft," the farmer replied.  "What I heard was that these young
men took your tires.  As yet I haven't heard their reason for
removing the tires of your car."

"The reason for doing so was," Dick went on coolly, "that we had
some questions to ask of this fellow Dodge.  We knew that if he
had to come here to look up his tires, we'd have a chance to ask
the questions.  Dodge, you thought you were having fun with us
when you decorated the entrance to that covered bridge with your
notice about a rabid mastiff at large in that part of the country,
didn't you?  You thought that a mad-dog scare would send us
helter-skelter home.  If it gives you any satisfaction, I'll admit
that the notice did startle us for a brief time.  But we soon got
at the truth of the matter, and learned that posting the notice was
your act."

"Can you prove it?" sneered Dodge.

Ignoring the question, Dick went on:

"Perhaps, had your trick affected only ourselves, then the trick
would have been only a piece of meanness without any very serious
results.  But are you sure, Bert Dodge, that no one but ourselves
was alarmed by that notice?  Do you know whether any woman traveling
over the road may have seen that notice, and then, noticing any
strange dog trotting in her direction was frightened, into convulsions,
or actually frightened to death?  Do you know whether some man,
traveling along the road on really important business, read the
notice and was afraid to continue on his errand, thereby losing
a good deal of money through your foolish trickery?  Do you know,
for certain, that twenty serious consequences to other people
have not followed on the heels of your stupid, senseless joke?
Have you any way of being certain that the sheriffs officers
are not already searching industriously for the two foolish young
fellows who took so many desperate chances in attempting such
a 'joke' as that of which you two fellows were guilty?"

"Who's going to prove that Bayliss or I put up that notice?" sneered
young Dodge.

"There's at least one witness," Dick answered, "who would testify,
at any time, that he passed by you on the road when you were both
laughing loudly over a joke you had played.  Then there's the
notice itself.  A handwriting expert could swear that it was done
with a pen held by your hand."

"Where's the notice?" asked Bayliss suddenly.

"It's where we can produce it at any time that it's wanted," Prescott
made reply.  "If anyone has been injured, Dodge, in health or
in business, by your stupid, brainless bit of horse play and meanness,
then I imagine that you'll find yourself in for a serious time
of it.  So now you know why we took the tires off your automobile.
We knew that our campfire would show you the way to our camp,
and that you'd surely be here to hear what we had to say to you.
Dodge, we don't care particularly for you, or for Bayliss, either,
but if the warning I've given you about pasting up such lying
notices to scare people traveling over a public highway is of
any use to you, then you're welcome to what you've learned."

The coolness of this proposition was such as to take Bert's breath
away for a few seconds.  When he recovered, he turned to the
red-moustached farmer, sputtering:

"Well, what do you---you think of that cast-iron nerve and cheek?"

"If the facts have been correctly stated," replied the farmer,
"I believe these young men have done you a service, and that you'd
show more of the spirit of a man if you admitted it."

"Humph!" muttered Dodge.

"Humph!" echoed Bayliss.

Then, enraged at the tantalizing smile on Prescott's face, Bert
lost all control of himself.

Striding over, he shook his fist before Dick's face, at the same
time shouting:

"All you need is a trimming with fists, and I'm going to give
you one---you hound!"