Randy of the River | Page 6

that?" he demanded.
"Got it where you dropped it--at the pool where we left our fish."
"How do you know it is mine?"
"By the initials on it."
"Humph!"
"If you don't want the key ring we'll keep it," put in Randy, quickly.
"No, you won't keep it. Give it to me."
"Then give us our fish," said Randy, quietly but firmly.
"They are not all your fish. I caught two of them."
"The two smallest, I suppose."
"No, the two largest."
"We lost six big fish and these belong to us," said Randy, and took the
best fish from the string. "Bob Bangs, it was a contemptible thing to
do," he added, with spirit. "I wouldn't do such a dirty thing for a
thousand dollars."
"Bah! Don't talk to me, unless you want to get hurt," growled the large
youth, savagely.

"I am not afraid of you, even if you are bigger than I am," said Randy,
undaunted by the fighting attitude the bully had assumed.
"It certainly was a mean piece of business," came from Jack. "If you
wanted some fish why didn't you ask us for them?"
"Humph! I can buy my fish if I want to."
"Then why did you take ours?" demanded Randy.
"I--er--I didn't know they belonged to you. I just saw the strings in the
pool and took a few," answered the boy, lamely. "Give me my key
ring."
The ring with the keys was passed over, and Randy and Jack restrung
their fish. In the meantime Bob Bangs entered his father's garden,
slamming the gate after him.
"You just wait--I'll get square with you!" he shouted back, and shook
his fist at Randy.
"You be careful, or you'll get into trouble!" shouted back Randy, and
then he and Jack walked away with their fish.
"What's the matter, Master Robert?" asked the man-of-all-work around
the Bangs place, as he approached Bob from the barn.
"Oh, some fellows are getting fresh," grumbled the big youth. "But I'll
fix them for it!"
"I see they took some of your fish."
"We had a dispute about the fish. Rather than take them from such a
poor chap as Randy Thompson I let him keep them," said Bob, glibly.
"But I am going to get square with him for his impudence," he added.
After a long hard row and fishing for over an hour, Bob Bangs had
caught only two small fish and he was thoroughly disgusted with
everything and everybody. He walked into the kitchen and threw the

fish on the sink board.
"There, Mamie, you can clean those and fry them for my supper," he
said to the servant girl.
"Oh, land sakes, Master Bob, they are very small," cried the girl. "They
won't go around nohow!"
"I said you could fry them for my supper," answered Bob, coldly.
"They are hardly worth bothering with," murmured the servant girl, but
the boy did not hear her, for he had passed to the next room. He went
upstairs and washed up and then walked into the sitting room, where
his mother reclined on a sofa, reading the latest novel of society life.
"Where is father?" he asked, abruptly.
"I do not know, Robert," answered Mrs. Bangs, without looking up
from her book.
"Will he be home to supper?"
To this there was no reply.
"I say, will he be home to supper?" and the boy shoved the book aside.
"Robert, don't be rude!" cried Mrs. Bangs, in irritation. "I presume he
will be home," and she resumed her novel reading.
"I want some money."
To this there was no reply. Mrs. Bangs was on the last chapter of the
novel and wanted to finish it before supper was served. She did little in
life but read novels, dress, and attend parties, and she took but small
interest in Bob and his doings.
"I say, I want some money," repeated the boy, in a louder key.
"Robert, will you be still? Every time I try to read you come and

interrupt me."
"And you never want to listen to me. You read all the time."
"No, I do not--I really read very little, I have so many things to attend
to. What did you say you wanted?"
"I want some money. I haven't had a cent this week."
"Then you must ask your father. I haven't anything to give you," and
again Mrs. Bangs turned to her book.
"Can't you give me a dollar?"
Again there was no answer.
"I say, can't you give me a dollar?"
"I cannot. Now go away and be quiet until supper time."
"Then give me fifty cents."
"I haven't a penny. Ask your father."
"Oh, you're a mean thing!" growled the wayward son, and stalked out
of the sitting room, slamming the door after