Frank Roscoes Secret | Page 8

friends reached it
they found it was fastened. All the Upside Down boys had disappeared.
A dark mass of them could be seen hurrying across the fields, seeming
to bear some burden in their midst.
"They've got Ned!" cried Bart. "After them!"
"Wait!" shouted Fenn. "Maybe it's only a trick to get us away from the
barn, so they can steal the dinner!"
"That's so!" agreed Bart, much excited. "Are you sure they have Ned,
Frank?"
"Sure! We both came in together, and they grabbed us. But it was Ned
they wanted, because he was to be toastmaster. They must have gagged
him, as I didn't hear him yell."
"What had we better do?" asked Bart.
"Some of us stay here to look after things and the rest try to get Ned,"
suggested Fenn.

"They're five to our one," objected Frank.
"That's nothing! We've got to get Ned! They'll have the laugh on us if
we don't," said Bart.
There was a hasty consultation and the dinner party was divided into
two forces. Some were left on guard, while the others set off on a run
after the Upside Down boys.
But the delay had given the assailants the very chance they needed to
get a good start. When the pursuers set off across the fields the captors
of Ned were out of sight. There was a hasty search for them, but the
first year boys had apparently hidden in some place that defied the
efforts of the ball crowd to locate it.
"This is a pretty pickle!" exclaimed Bart, as he came to a halt in the
middle of the big field that stretched out behind the Masterson barn.
"They've beaten us all right enough. I wonder where they could have
taken Ned?"
"I guess it's up to us to find out," replied Fenn. "Come on. We haven't
half looked yet."
"Maybe that's just what they want us to do," put in Lem Gordon. "They
think we'll let the dinner slide."
"That's so," agreed Bart. "It's bad enough to have 'em take Ned, but that
shouldn't spoil the dinner completely. Let's go back, eat the grub, and
then continue the hunt for Ned. Besides maybe he'll get away from
them. He will if he has half a chance."
This plan of proceeding was talked over, and, though they all disliked
the idea of leaving Ned in the hands of the enemy, they felt it would be
the wisest move.
"Ned would want us to do it, if he were here," said Bart. "Let's go
back."

So the searching party went back, rather crestfallen, it is true, to report
failure to those left on guard. However, there was no help for it, and the
dinner had to be eaten without the presence of Ned, the toastmaster.
"It's a hard pill to swallow, boys," Bart announced, as he was voted into
the position of presiding officer, "but we'll pay 'em back some day. It
has taught us a lesson. I didn't believe that crowd had such a strong
organization. We'll have to form a society ourselves and get even with
'em."
"That's what we will!" declared Fenn.
In the meanwhile Ned was being borne away by his captors. At the first
sign of the attack he had guessed the object of it. He had fought
valiantly against being taken, but was overpowered by the weight of
numbers. He had given an involuntary call for help when first seized,
but, after that, he resolved to fight alone as best he could. That was why
he did not cry out when he felt the boys lift him to their shoulders, after
binding his arms and legs, and carry him away.
Ned hoped his friends would rescue him, not so much that he minded
being captured, as it was all in fun, but that he did not like the first year
boys to play such a trick on the older pupils. He had an expectation,
when Bart sang out for aid to effect his recapture, that he would be
taken from the hands of the enemy, but when he felt himself being
carried further and further away, he knew the Upside Down boys had
triumphed.
"At any rate," thought Ned, "they didn't get the dinner away from us,
even if they did get me."
Hurrying onward, his captors carried him for nearly a mile. They then
came to a halt in a dark thoroughfare. As he was being borne onward
face upward, Ned could not tell where he was, nor to what part of the
town his enemies had brought him.
"What are you fellows going to do?" he asked at length, when they had
remained for several minutes, as if waiting.

"That's for us to know and you to find out," replied a voice Ned did