'll take our drubbing."

"You boys have done some things in athletics, haven't you?" asked
the bell-boy, noting the way that each of the five present members
of Dick & Co. carried himself.

"Gridley High School football team last season," Dick replied,
a trace of justifiable pride in his voice.

"You were?" demanded the bell-boy eagerly. "Then shake! My name
is Gerard. We know a lot about the Gridley High School brand
of football at Saunders."

Introductions were quickly passed.

"Now, I'd like to feel that I'm really one of you, and I'll fight
shoulder to shoulder with you!" chuckled Gerard.

"Please don't try to take a hand in any fight that may occur,"
Prescott begged. "If you're working your way through college,
just keep your eye on your job. Don't mix up in any trouble with
the guests."

"We'll soon be at the spot where I left the bunch," said Gerard,
a few moments later.

Over a rise of ground the bell-boy led Dick & Co. Then he pointed
to a little grove of chestnut trees.

"There is the rah-rah crowd," he whispered. "You see, they have
one of your lanterns, and they're lunching on some of your food
supplies that they brought along with them."

"I wonder what those freshies are saying now," came in a laughing
voice, from the rah-rah group under the chestnut trees.

"Their potted chicken is all right, anyway," laughed another.
"Cut me off another slice of the bread. Whee! This college
mischief on a dark night gives one an appetite."

Dick gave whispered instructions to his own forces, then signed
to Gerard, who drew back into the shadow.

"I'd like to see the fresh kids now," jeered another rah-rah youth.

"May all your wishes in life be as promptly fulfilled!" muttered
Tom Reade under his breath.

"We might have had a nice time to-night dancing with the girls
from Gridley if their kid friends hadn't stepped in and spoiled
it all in their juvenile way," grumbled another.

"We've finished up all the borrowed food," said another. "What
shall we do next?"

"For 'next,'" roared Dick Prescott, "you fake collegians will
stand up and take your medicine!"

There was instant consternation in the group under the chestnut
trees. All the rah-rah boys leaped to their feet, but, ere they
could stir, there was a whizzing sound on the air.

Plunk! Plunk! Ker-plunk! Missiles were flying through the air
and the rah-rahs were stopping a good many of them with their
own persons.

"Hey! Stop