had
they known that the subject of their conversation was even then
listening to them. Ted Teall, sore and angry, had come away from
town all by himself. He wanted a long swim in the pond, to see
if that would cool off the anger that consumed him.

Hearing voices as he came through the woods, Ted halted first,
then, crawling along the ground, made his way cautiously forward.
And now the captain of the South Grammar nine lay flat, his head
hidden behind a clump of low bushes.

"Having fun over me, are they?" growled Ted.

"It was a rough trick to play, of course," laughed Dick. "But
I felt so wholly certain Ted's fellows would start in to break
us up that I felt I had to spring that torpedo trick in order
to shut the other crowd up in advance."

"Oh, you did, did you?" thought Teall angrily.

"But now there's something else to be thought of," Prescott went
on. "Teall is bound to feel sore and ashamed, and he won't rest
until be has done his best to get even with us."

"Teall had better leave us alone," replied Tom, shaking his head.
"Ted's brain isn't any too heavy, and he'll never be equal to
getting the better of a crowd with a Dick Prescott in it."

"We won't do any bragging just yet," Prescott proposed.

"That's right. You'd better not," Ted growled under his breath.

"Fellows," announced Dan Dalzell, "I've made an important discovery."

"I wonder if he saw me?" flashed through Teall's mind, as he tried
to lie flatter than before.

"Name the discovery," begged Hazelton.

"Look at your watches, fellows," Dan continued, "and I think you'll
find that it's now proper time for us to go in swimming."

"So it is," Darrin agreed. "Hurrah!"

Little more was said for a few moments. All the fellows of Dick
& Co. were busy in getting their clothing off.

"Say, but I hope you fellows get far enough away from your duds!"
breathed Teall vengefully, as he watched through the screen of
leaves.

"Do you fellows think we had better leave a guard over our clothes?"
queried Dick, as they stood forth, ready for swimming.

"Not!" returned Dalzell with emphasis. "If I agreed to it, it
would be just my luck to have the lot fall to me. For the next
half hour I don't want to do a thing but feel the water around
me all the way up to my neck."

"What's the use of a guard over our clothes?" queried Dave. "There
isn't another soul besides ourselves in these woods this afternoon."

"Go on thinking that!" chuckled Teall.