ak!"

"The coward! He fights only when he has his gang with him."

"I don't see what the high school fellows can find to admire in
that crowd," quivered Bayliss, tenderly fingering his damaged
eye.

"Never mind what anyone thinks of them!" raged Bert Dodge. "We've
nothing but our own side of the affair to settle!"

"What do you mean?" asked Bayliss curiously.

"Bayliss, what do you think I am?"

"Oh, I guess you're a pretty good sort of fellow, Bert."

"Do you think I'd let business like to-night's go by without
resenting it?"

"Are you going to try to take Prescott on again?" Bayliss asked
wonderingly.

"I'm not a fool!" retorted Dodge indignantly. "Prescott might
thrash me again. Bayliss, I'm going to hit him with the kind
of club that he can't beat!"

"Is the club big enough to take care of Darrin, too?"

"I'm after the whole Prescott gang, for good measure!" Bert raged.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll let you in on it, Bayliss, when I have all the details
planned---if you've nerve enough to do a man's part---of which I'm
not too sure," Dodge finished under his breath.

"You may count on me for anything---anything that is prudent!"
Bayliss declared.

CHAPTER VII

THE BOX THAT SET THEM GUESSING

"Look at that!" cried Tom Reade, leaping up from the breakfast
table so precipitately that he overturned his cup of coffee.

"What?" demanded Greg.

"Didn't you see that---out on the lake?" Tom demanded.

"I didn't see anything," Greg admitted.

"There it goes again!" cried Tom.

"Oh, I saw something rise from the water and fall back again,"
continued Greg.

"Do you know what it was?" Reade insisted.

"No."

"That was a black bass!" declared Reade, as though it were one
of the seven wonders of the world.

"Keep cool, Reade," chaffed Danny Grin. "We all knew, that there
are fish in the lake."

"But black bass-----" choked Tom.

"Are they any better eating than any other fish?" asked Hazelton.

"Not so much better," Reade confessed. "But black bass are gamey,
and hard fish to land when you hook 'em!"

"They're no better food, but it's harder work to get them," laughed
Greg. "Sit down, Tom, and keep cool"

"No real fisherman would ever talk that way," Tom insisted indignantly.
"The greatest charm about fishing comes in hooking and landing
the really good fighting fish!"

"How much does a black bass weigh?" asked Greg.

"That one probably weighed four pounds. Look!