l 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 det