The Grammar School Boys in Summer Athletics | Page 5

halt just in order to let that gang slip by without
seeing us."
"There are five of us against your single vote, Darry," Dick reminded
him. "Let us have our way."
"Well, we don't need to skulk, do we?" queried Dave.
"Oh, no," Dick assured him. "All we will do is to keep quiet and not
bring on a fight with that tough lot."
"Huh!" muttered Darrin, as though he could not see the difference
between that and skulking.
Presently, after holding a hand behind him to signal silence and stealth,
Prescott started on in the lead. He wanted, if possible, to see just where
Ripley, Dodge and their crowd went, so that the Grammar School boys
would not run too suddenly into them. The "Co." trailed on in Indian
file behind their leader.
Finally Dick halted again, his chums crowding on his heels. They

looked out into a clearing beyond. There, amid trees, stood a small
three-room house, looking still quite new in its trim paint, though the
building had stood there idle for some five years. At one time the city
had planned a new reservoir site on a hill just above, and this little
cottage had been intended for the reservoir tender. Then a better site for
the reservoir had been found, and, to date, the cottage had not been
removed.
"Ripley and his crew went around that cottage to the door side," Dick
whispered.
"Are they in the cottage?" Dave demanded.
"I don't know. They went around to the other side. Let's wait and see if
we can guess what's up."
So, forgetful of their suppers for the time being, Dick & Co. waited,
screened by the bushes.
"There's smoke coming up out of the chimney," whispered Tom Reade.
"Yes," nodded Dick. "I had just noticed that. I'm wondering what it can
mean. No one has any right to break into the cottage."
"Fred Ripley and Bert Dodge, because they have a lawyer and a bank
officer for fathers, don't feel that they need any rights when they want
to do a thing," muttered Darrin resent fully.
It was impossible to see what might be going on inside the cottage, for
the simple reason that all of the windows were shuttered tightly.
"Let's go ahead," begged Dave, after a few more moments spent in idle
watching. "I want to know why that crowd has broken into the cottage."
Truth to tell, even the leader of Dick & Co., usually very discreet, felt
himself a victim of curiosity.
"Shall we try to find out the secret, fellows?" Prescott inquired.

"That's just what we ought to do," responded Greg. "Especially as
Ripley and Dodge have always been so mean to us."
Dick went forward, with his best imitation of the way he imagined an
Indian scout would approach a strange house. Greg and Dan were at his
heels, while Dave and Harry went around the other side of the cottage,
Tom remaining well to the rear to watch.
Some low, vague sounds came from within the cottage. These were not
such noises as scurrying rats would make, so the boys were quick to
conclude that human beings were moving inside.
But what could possibly be going on? The noises that the Grammar
School boys heard were hard to classify.
At last Dick and Dave met before the door of the little cottage. Nor
were they much surprised at finding that the door of the cottage stood
perhaps a half an inch ajar.
This, however, did not furnish light enough to give a glimpse of what
was happening inside.
"Two or three of us may as well slip inside, eh?" whispered Dave to
Dick.
"Wait! Listen!" counseled Prescott. "We don't want to please that
crowd by stepping right into a trap. And I've an idea that by this time
they must know that we're around here."
"If they knew, they'd be out here making faces at us," retorted Darrin
wisely.
"And ordering us to get off the earth," supplemented Greg, in a
whisper.
"Listen," whispered Dick. "Perhaps we can guess what they're doing."
"I can guess what they're doing," murmured Reade, who had now
moved around to the front with his chums. "I've been watching the

smoke of that fire come up through the chimney. Humph! I don't
believe Rip and Dodge are doing anything worse than a little camping.
There must be a stove in there, and they're cooking some
supper---playing at camping out."
"I don't smell anything cooking in there," rejoined Dick with a shake of
his head. "We can't hear anything sizzling over the fire, either."
"Then what-----" began Harry curiously.
Bang! interrupted a crashing explosion inside the building. Boom!
Then the door flew wide open, followed by a single great belching of
white smoke.
Through the center of