dst of the melee a carriage came along the roadway. It
contained Mrs. Bangs and the man-of-all-work, who was driving.

"Mercy on us! What does this mean?" burst from the fashionable lady's
lips. "Can that be Robert?"

"Help! help!" roared the rich youth, more lustily than ever.

"It certainly is Robert," went on Mrs. Bangs. "John, stop the carriage.
You rude boy, let my son alone!" she went on, in her shrill, hard
voice.

"Hullo, here is Mrs. Bangs," remarked Jack, looking around and
discovering the new arrival.

For the instant Randy did not see the rich woman and continued to hold
down Bob, who struggled violently, sending up a cloud of dust in the
road. Then he noticed the carriage and looked up, and his face fell.

"You scamp! Leave my boy alone!" screamed Mrs. Bangs. "Oh, John,
perhaps you had better run for a policeman!" she added, as Randy let go
his hold and arose.

"You had better not, Mrs. Bangs," said Jack. "Bob deserves what he is
getting."

"I do not believe it! It is disgraceful to throw him down in the road
like this," stormed the fashionable lady.

"He hit Randy with a chunk of dirt."

"I--I didn't do nothing!" howled Bob, as he got up. He was too ruffled
to think of his bad grammar.

"And that elegant suit is about ruined," went on Mrs. Bangs. "I never
heard of such doings before. Boy," she went on, looking at Randy, "you
ought to be locked up!"

"It is Bob ought to be locked up," retorted Randy. "He started this
trouble; I didn't."

"I do not believe it. My son is a gentleman."

"I didn't do a thing," put in the rich boy, feeling safe, now that his
mother and the hired man were on the scene. "They pitched into me for
nothing at all."

"Bob knows better than that," said Jack.

"Yesterday he tried to steal some fish we caught, and to-day he mussed
up Jack's boat and ruined some berries that both of us had picked,"
explained Randy. "I took him to task about it and then he threw the mud
at me. Then I chased him and caught him, as you saw."

"Preposterous! My boy would not steal!" said Mrs. Bangs, tartly. She
looked meaningly at Jack. "I presume you and your family are very
bitter against us now," she added, significantly.

"Bitter against you?" said Jack, puzzled.

"Yes--because of that iron works affair."

"I don't know anything about that, Mrs. Bangs."

"Oh, then you haven't heard yet." The fashionable woman was nonplussed.
"Never mind. You must leave Robert alone."

"Ain't