ith such a fellow," Clara warned him.

"When I'm even with the fellow, I won't have anything more to
do with him," snorted Ripley. "But I'll wait, watch and plan
for years, if I have to, to take all the conceit and meanness
out of that sneak. I'll never quit until I can look at myself
in the glass and tell myself that I've paid back the lowest trick
ever played on me!"

CHAPTER II

DICK & CO. GO AFTER THE SCHOOL BOARD'S SCALPS

In Gridley High School, sessions began at eight in the morning.
School let out for the day at one in the afternoon. The brighter
students, who could get most of their lessons in school, and
do the rest of the work during the evening, thus had the
afternoon for work or fun.

Often, though, it happened that there were parties, or school
dances in the evening. Then a portion of the afternoon could
be used for study, if need be. Saturdays, of course, were free
from study for all but the dullest---and the dullest usually don't
bother their heads much about study at any time.

Gridley was not a large place---just an average little American
city of some thirty thousand inhabitants. It was a much bigger
place than that, though, when it came to the matter of public
spirit. Gridley people were proud of their town. They wanted
everything there to be of the best. Certainly, the Gridley High
School was not surpassed by many in the country. The imposing
building cost some two hundred thousand dollars. The equipment
of the school was as fine as could be put in a building of that
size. Including the principal, there were sixteen teachers, four
of them being men.

In all the classes combined, there were some two hundred and forty
students, about one hundred of these being girls. Nearly all
of the students were divided between the four regular classes.
There were always a few there taking a postgraduate, or fifth
year of work, for either college or one of the technical schools.

With such a school and such a staff of teachers as it possessed
the Gridley standard of scholarship was high. The Gridley diploma
was a good one to take to a college or to a "Tech" school.

Yet this fine high school stood well in the bodily branches of
training. Gridley's H.S. football eleven had played, in the past
four years, forty-nine games with other high school teams, and
had lost but two of these games. The Gridley baseball nine had
played fifty-four games with other high school teams in the same