Guns and Snowshoes | Page 5

throwing at Mammy Shrader."
"You can't knock me down!" growled Carl, doubling up his fists.
"A fight! a fight!" cried several boys, always ready for an affair of that sort.
There was an awkward pause. Snap did not wish to fight, and yet he wanted Dudder to understand that he was not afraid.
"I think I owe you something from last summer," said Dudder, coming closer and sticking his chin in Snap's face. "I haven't forgotten that."
"Yes, but you seem to have forgotten that we about kept you from starving to death," answered Snap calmly.
"And that's no joke," came softly from Giant.
"You keep your oar out, little one," grunted Dudder, turning to glare at Will.
"You and your crowd acted very meanly last summer and you know it, Dudder," said Giant, not in the least abashed. "Your treatment of Mammy Shrader is on a par with your other actions."
"Shut up!" roared the other boy, and made a quick pass at Giant's head. But the small boy dodged and the fist struck Snap on the shoulder.
The next instant Snap hauled off, struck out, and Carl Dudder measured his length in the snow.
CHAPTER III
THE RESULTS OF SNOWBALLING
Carl Rudder had not expected this telling blow and he was so dazed it was several seconds before he turned over in the snow and arose to his feet.
"Good for you, Snap!" cried Will. "That's the way to serve him."
"Wha--what do you mean by hitting me like that?" demanded Dudder, glaring at Charley, but still keeping a safe distance.
"What do you mean by hitting me?" demanded Snap.
"I'll punch your head good for you!
"Try it--if you dare," answered Snap, defiantly, and he took an aggressive step forward, at which Dudder retreated.
"I'll fight you another time--when you haven't so many friends around," said Carl Dudder lamely, and then turning on his heel he started away, followed by one of his cronies.
"If old Mammy Shrader is hurt, you'll be to blame," called Snap after him.
"He's a coward," was Giant's comment. "I wish I had got a whack at him. He is much larger than I am, but I am not afraid of him."
While this scene was transpiring Shep and Whopper had helped old Mammy Shrader to a seat on the porch of a house not far from where she had gone down. The old woman complained of a pain in her side and it was next to impossible for her to take another step.
"I'll have to go home," she panted. "But how am I to get there?"
"Here comes Mr. Sell in his grocery wagon," cried Whopper. "Perhaps he'll give you a ride."
"Maybe he will--I buy my things from him," answered the old woman.
The grocer was stopped and the situation explained, and he readily volunteered to take Mammy Shrader to her home, located at no great distance. He and the boys helped her into the wagon.
"The boy who struck her ought to be horsewhipped," said the grocer. "Fun is one thing, but hitting an old woman is quite another."
"Just what I say," answered Shep.
"Well, I knocked him down anyway," said Snap, coming up, and Giant told the details of the brief encounter.
Snap volunteered to go with the grocer, and between them they soon had Mammy Shrader at her home and lying on a couch. Shep hurried home and told his father the particulars of what had occurred.
"I will drive over and see her," said the doctor, and as his horse was hitched up he went immediately.
"She is suffering from a sprain and from the jar," said the physician, after an examination. "She must take it easy for a week or so." Then a neighbor, who had dropped in, said she would look after the patient during that time.
"Carl Dudder ought to be made to pay for this," said Doctor Reed.
"The Dudders won't pay anything--Mr. Dudder is as miserly as they make him, even if he is well off," said Whopper.
"Perhaps he can be forced to pay," replied Snap.
When Carl Dudder heard that a doctor had been called in to attend Mammy Shrader he was much frightened. He went to consult Ham Spink about it. The two were hand-in-glove in everything.
"Are they sure you threw the snowball?" asked Ham Spink, pointedly.
"They say they saw me."
"Who says so?"
"Oh, Snap Dodge and that crowd."
"Always that crowd!" muttered Ham Spink.
"They say they know you knocked Andrew Felps down," went on Dudder, finding some consolation in the fact that Ham was in difficulties too.
"They didn't see a thing!" roared the dudish youth.
"Well, that is what they say."
"Humph! Carl, they are bound to get us into trouble."
"Of course. They haven't got over last summer's trouble yet. I suppose they will make it as hot for us as they can."
"Well, let us stick together and maybe we can face them down," was Ham Spink's comment, and then he lit a cigarette and