Guns and Snowshoes | Page 6

lit a cigarette and offered one to his crony, and both fell to smoking.
That very evening both youths had to "face the music," and in a manner which did not please them in the least.
Coming home just before supper Mr. Spink, found a note awaiting him. It was from Andrew Felps and ran, in part, as follows:
"I have a complaint to make against your son Hamilton. To-day while I was on my way through the streets of our town I was assailed in the fashion of a ruffian by your son, who threw snowballs at me, knocking me down and ruining my silk hat and a rare volume of history I was carrying. I demand that your son apologize to me for his actions or I shall make a complaint to the authorities."
"Hamilton, what does this mean?" demanded Mr. Spink, after perusing the communication several times.
"I don't know," answered the undutiful offspring brazenly.
"Did you snowball Mr. Felps?"
"No. I didn't snowball anybody."
"He says you did."
"He must be mistaken."
"It is mighty queer," muttered Mr. Spink. "I will look into this to-morrow."
"The old Harry take Felps anyway," muttered Ham to himself. "How did he learn I threw that snowball? That Dodge crowd must have told him."
It was Mammy Shrader's neighbor, Samuel O'Brien, who called upon Mr. Dudder.
"Sure, Mr. Dodder, yer son ought to be locked up, so he ought," said the Irishman. "It's him as is wantin' to kill old Mammy Shrader."
"Why, what do you mean, sir?" demanded Mr. Dudder, in amazement.
"Sure an' wasn't it Carl as knocked the old lady down to-day and laid her on a sick bed, wid a doctor, an' me wife to nurse her till she gits betther? Sure it's a bastly shame, so it is, an' Carl will go to the lock-up onless ye pay all the bills."
"I do not understand you."
"Thin I'll be after explainin'," answered Samuel O'Brien, and gave his story in full, to which Mr. Dudder listened in a nervous fashion. Then Carl was called into the room.
"What do you mean by making trouble in this fashion?" demanded Mr. Dudder wrathfully.
"I didn't make trouble," said Carl, sullenly.
"Sure an' he did that," said the Irishman.
"Mr. O'Brien says you knocked Mrs. Shrader down."
"I didn't."
"He was seen--several b'ys saw him," put in Samuel O'Brien.
"I--er--it was an accident," stammered Carl, quailing before the stern gaze of his parent. "The--er--the snowball slipped. It didn't hit Mammy Shrader hard, and she fell down of her own account, not because of the snowball."
"She says th' snowball knocked her down," said Samuel O'Brien. "If ye was my b'y I'd be afther givin' ye a good walloppin', so I would!" he added pointedly.
"I will go and see Mrs. Shrader," said Mr. Dudder. "Carl, you remain at home until I get back."
"Can't I go over and see Ham?"
"No."
"I promised him that I would be over."
"Well, you can't go. You study your lessons, unless you prefer to go with me to Mrs. Shrader's."
"I don't want to go to her house," said Carl.
Mr. Dudder lost no time in paying Mammy Shrader a visit, and then he called on Doctor Reed. When he came home again he was very angry.
"Carl, I have a good mind to punish you severely," he said. "I did not think you would treat a woman as Mrs. Shrader has been treated. I shall have to pay her doctor's bill and also something more--at least fifteen or twenty dollars." Mr. Dudder sighed at the thought of parting with so much cash. "I shall take the amount out of your spending money, and out of the money I was going to give you for Christmas"
"Can't I have the five dollars you promised me for Christmas?" gasped Carl.
"Not a cent of it."
"Oh, you're a mean thing!" burst out Carl, and ran from the room before his father could stop him.
CHAPTER IV
THE EXPLOSION
On the following afternoon Snap was walking down to the river front, on an errand for his father, when he caught sight of Ham Spink and Carl Dudder, under a lumber shed. The pair were conversing in an earnest fashion, but ceased their conversation as Snap came closer.
Snap knew that Ham and Carl were in far from a friendly humor. Through one boy he had learned how Carl had been treated by his father, and through another how Andrew Felps had discovered that Ham had been his aggressor. There had been a lively interview when Mr. Felps and Mr. Spink had met, and in the end the latter had said he would stand for all damage done. Then he had gone home and laid down the law good and hard to Ham.
"To punish you I will cut off your spending money," said Mr. Spink, and thus Ham and Carl found themselves in the same trouble so far as cash was concerned. It galled them