The Grammar School Boys of Gridley | Page 7

time Abner Dexter was having all he could do, for three very determined schoolboys were assailing him. At last Dexter turned to retreat, but Dan Dalzell thrust a foot before him and tripped him.
"All down!" yelled Dan. "Set 'em up in the other alley!"
Though downed for the moment, the two men were disposed to make a livelier fight of it than ever. It was a brisk, picturesque, rough-and-tumble fight that followed, in which the young boys got a deal of rough handling.
Frightened, yet fascinated, Mrs. Dexter tottered against the fence and stood looking on.
Things might yet have fared badly with Dick and his friends had not a newcomer arrived on the scene. He came running, and proved to be Policeman Whalen in uniform.
"Here! What's on?" demanded the Gridley officer. "Let up on kicking them boys! I want you!"
With that Whalen, who was a big and powerful man, grabbed Abner Dexter by the coat collar and pulled him to his feet. With this prisoner in tow, he moved up and seized Gus in similar fashion.
"Now, what's the row?" demanded Officer Whalen.
"Arrest these boys for assault!" quivered Dexter in a passion.
"Yes, arrest them!" insisted Gus. "I'm an officer, too, and I was trying to take them in."
"You didn't seem to be having very good luck at it," grinned Whalen. "But I know these boys, and they're all good lads."
"Arrest them, just the same! They were assaulting me," insisted Dexter angrily.
"And what were you doing?" insisted Whalen wonderingly.
"He was trying to steal jewels and money from his wife," interposed Dick Prescott.
"Bah!" growled Dexter. "A man can't steal from his wife."
"But he can assault her," returned Policeman Whalen. "And a man can disturb the peace with his wife, just as handily as he can anywhere else. Mrs. Dexter, are these lads telling the truth?"
"Oh, yes, officer! My husband was trying to take this satchel away from me, and he knew that it contains my jewels and thirty-five hundred dollars in cash."
"Do you want him arrested?"
"Yes; I--I'm afraid I shall have to have him arrested, or he'll go right on annoying me."
"Will you appear against him, Mrs. Dexter?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll take him along. And what about this fellow?"
"Me?" demanded Gus with offended dignity. "I'm a police officer."
"What's your name?"
"August Driggs."
"Where are you a policeman?"
"In Templeton."
"Why were you lads fighting Officer Driggs?" inquired Whalen blandly.
Dick supplied some of the details, Dave others. Mrs. Dexter confirmed the statements that they made.
"I guess I'll take you along, too, Driggs," announced Policeman Whalen.
"But I'm a police officer!" protested Driggs aghast.
"Police officers can be arrested like anyone else, when they break the law," announced Policeman Whalen dryly. "Come along, the two of you! Mrs. Dexter, you wouldn't like to be seen walking along with us, but I'll ask you to be at the station house inside of five minutes."
"I'll be there, officer," promised the woman.
"Do you want us, too?" inquired Dick. He and all of his friends were eager to see the affair through to the finish.
"No; I know where to find you lads, if you're wanted," grinned Policeman Whalen. "I don't want a big crowd following. Mrs. Dexter, ma'am, I'll be looking for you to be on hand sharp."
With that the broad-backed policeman started off with two savage prisoners in tow.
"Say, if we're to have any dinner and get back to school on time, we'll have to be moving fast," declared Dan Dalzell.
"I thought we were surely going to get into a lot of trouble," muttered Hazelton, as the youngsters moved along rapidly. "But Whalen knew his business."
"I hope the judge can send that Dexter fellow up for a good, long time," muttered Dick. "He's been annoying that poor woman all the time lately."
"Just because she has her grandfather's money at last," grumbled Dave Darrin.
Soon the youngsters came to a point where they had to separate. But all hands were back at school on time. The work of the afternoon was duly progressing when the telephone bell at the principal's desk rang.
Old Dut held what proved to be a mysterious conversation for a few moments. Then he wound up with:
"All right. I'll send them right over."
Ringing off, Old Dut glanced at Dick.
"Master Prescott, it appears that you, Darrin, Reade, Holmes, Dalzell and Hazelton saw some trouble on the street this noon."
"Yes, sir."
"All six of you are wanted, at once, down at court, to give evidence. You are excused. If you get through at court early enough, come back to finish your afternoon's work."
Six Grammar School boys rose and filed out quietly. How enviously the other boys in the room stared after them! How curiously the girls glanced at the young heroes who were now wanted on the government's business!
"Say," ventured Dan as soon as they got outside, "I hope the judge orders Dexter hanged."
"He'll hardly do that," retorted Dave. "A