d," he told the other.
"Huh! then you ain't meanin' to gimme that duckin' after all?"
remarked the other, with a sneering look of triumph at Bobolink.
"You have to thank Paul for getting you off," asserted one scout,
warmly. "Had it been left to the rest of us you'd have been in soak
long before this."
"For my part," said Paul, "I feel that so far as punishment goes Jud
has got all that is coming to him, for that arm will give him a lot of
trouble before it fully heals. I hope every time it pains him he'll
remember that scouts as a rule are taught to heap coals of fire on the
heads of their enemies when the chance comes, by showing them a
favor."
"But, Paul, you're forgetting something," urged Tom Betts.
"That's a fact, how about the broken window, Paul?" cried Joe Clausin,
with more or less indignation. For while it might be very well to
forgive Jud his spying tricks some one would have to pay for a new
pane of glass in the basement window, and it was hard luck if the
burden fell on the innocent parties, while the guilty one escaped scot
free.
It was noticed that Jud shut his lips tight together as though making
up his mind on the spot to decline absolutely to pay a cent for what
had been a sheer accident, and which had already cost him a severe
wound.
"I haven't forgotten that, fellows," said Paul, quietly. "Of course
it's only fair Jud should pay the dollar it will cost to have a new
pane put in there to-morrow. I shall order Mr. Nickerson to attend to
it myself. And I shall also insist on paying the bill out of my own
pocket, unless Jud here thinks it right and square to send me the
money some time to-morrow. That's all I've got to say, Jud. There's
the door, and no one will put out a hand to stop you. I hope you won't
have serious trouble with that arm of yours."
Jud stared dumbly at the speaker as though almost stunned. Perhaps he
might have said something under the spur of such strange emotions as
were chasing through his brain, but just then Bobolink chanced to
sneer. The sound acted on Jud like magic, for he drew himself up,
turned to look boldly into the face of each and every boy present,
then thrust his right hand into his buttoned coat and with head thrown
back walked out of the room, noisily closing the door after him.
Several of the scouts shook their heads.
"Pretty fine game you played with him, Paul," remarked George Hurst,
"but it strikes me it was like throwing pearls before swi
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