The Essential Edward Stratemeyer Collection. Stratemeyer Edward

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СКАЧАТЬ did not add one word of thanks for the information given to him.

      "That's like Marcy," said Dave. "If he thanked me for anything I think I'd drop dead."

      "Some men hardly know how to be civil," answered Phil.

      During the next few days word also came from Dodsworth Sadler that he was on the trail of Blodgett and Volney and hoped to catch them before many days. He added that he had evidence to convict the swindlers if he could only lay his hands on them.

      "That lets you and me out," said Dave to Gus Plum. "I don't think you'll ever hear another word from the two rascals."

      "If it hadn't been for you I should have paid them that money," said the former bully, gratefully. "And they would have kept me in their power if they could."

      Dave was anxiously awaiting a letter from his uncle, and when it came he could scarcely take time to tear open the communication, so eager was he to know its contents. The letter was very brief and simply asked the boy to come home on the following Saturday, and added that if he really wanted to go to London he could do so. Dave was to show the letter to Doctor Clay, in order to get the necessary permission to leave the Hall.

      "I shall be sorry to have you go, Master Porter," said the principal of the academy. "But I can understand how you feel about your father and sister, and it will perhaps be better for you to go in search of them than to sit down here and be on pins and needles over it;" and Doctor Clay smiled kindly.

      "Then you are really going to London!" cried Phil, when he heard the news. "Wish I was going, too!"

      "So do I, Phil," answered Dave. "We'd have as good a time as we did on your father's ship in the South Seas."

      "I am going to write to my folks about this at once," said Roger. His heart was set on going to England with his chum.

      As soon as Dave's friends heard that he was going away once more, several began to plan a celebration for him.

      "Let us hold a special meeting of the Gee Eyes, for Dave's benefit," said Sam Day; and so it was voted.

      The Gee Eyes, as my old readers know, was a secret organization that had existed at Oak Hall for a long time. The words stood for the two letters G and I, which in turn stood for the name of the club, Guess It. The club was organized largely for fun, and this fun consisted mainly in the initiation of new members.

      At one time Gus Plum had been at the head of a rival organization called the Dare Do Anything Club, but this had been broken up by Doctor Clay because of the unduly severe initiation of a small boy, named Frank Bond, who had almost lost his reason thereby. Now Gus had applied for membership in the Gee Eyes and had said that he would stand for any initiation they offered.

      "I have half a mind to take Plum up," said Phil Lawrence, who was the Honorable Muck-a-Muck, otherwise president, of the club. "He deserves to be put through a strong course of sprouts for what he did to Frank Bond."

      "All right, I am willing for one," said Buster Beggs, who was the secretary, under the high-sounding title of Lord of the Penwiper. "But we will have to ask the others first."

      A canvass was made and it was decided to initiate Gus Plum on Friday night, after which the club was to celebrate the departure of Dave in as fitting a style as the exchequer of the organization permitted. Plum was duly notified, and said he would be on hand as required. "And you can do anything short of killing me," he added, with a grin.

      "It will make Plum feel better if he suffers," said Dave. "He hasn't got Frank Bond off his mind yet." Which statement was true. Plum and Bond had made up, and the former bully now did all in his power to aid the small, timid fellow in his studies and otherwise.

      The club met in an old boathouse down the river. It was a bright moonlight night and about twenty members were present, all attired in their red robes and black hoods with yellow tassels. As before, some of the members had wooden swords and others stuffed clubs. Around the boathouse were hung a number of pumpkin lanterns, cut out in imitation of skulls.

      For the initiation of Gus Plum one of the club members had composed a new chant, which was sung slowly and impressively as the former bully of Oak Hall was led in by Buster Beggs and Sam Day.

      "Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly dall! Here's the victim, see him fall! Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly dees! Down upon his bended knees! Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly deet! Bind his hands and bind his feet! Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly dive! Let us cut him up alive!

      "Punch him, crunch him, smash him up! Let him drink the poison cup! Let him groan and let him rave As we put him in his grave!"

      As this strange doggerel was sung the masked students danced fantastically around Gus Plum, slapping him with their swords and clubs. Then of a sudden he was tripped up, bound hands and feet, and marched out of the boathouse. Here a bag was tied over his head, so that he could not see a thing, although the bag had holes in the rear, so that he would not be suffocated.

      "To the river with him!" came the loud command. "An icy bath will do him a world of good."

      Now if there was one thing Gus Plum hated, it was ice-cold water for bathing purposes, and the suggestion of such a bath, in the open air, with the thermometer below the freezing point, caused him to shiver.

      "Now, see here----" he began, and then shut his lips tightly. Come what might he resolved to utter no complaint.

      "What sayest thou?" demanded a voice by his side.

      "Wouldst thou beg off?" demanded another.

      "No, I'll take my medicine, no matter what it is," answered the former bully, doggedly.

      CHAPTER XIII

      AN INTERRUPTED INITIATION

      "He's full of grit this time," whispered Phil to Dave.

      "Oh, Plum isn't the boy he used to be, I am certain of that," was the low answer.

      Before long the students reached a point on the river front where there was a heavy clump of bushes. In a hollow between the bushes a fire had been built, and on the bushes had been hung some horse blankets, to keep off the wind.

      As the members of the Gee Eyes reached the hollow they saw two boys wrapped up in overcoats stealing away into the woods close by.

      "Hello, who are those chaps?" cried Roger.

      "One of them looked like Nat Poole to me," answered Dave.

      "Wonder what they are doing here?"

      "Came to see what was going on, I suppose."

      "I don't like fellows like Nat Poole to be hanging around," remarked Buster Beggs.

      The fire had been burning low, but now it was stirred up and more dry branches were piled on top, creating a roaring blaze. By the flickering glare the masked figures looked decidedly fantastic.

      Up to that moment the club members had been undecided what to do with Gus Plum. СКАЧАТЬ