ually come to life again, and been up to
his old tricks?"

"We're dead sure of it," Colon told him, nodding his head at a lively
rate.

"Then chances are you recognized one of the bunch?" suggested Bristles.

"No," said Fred, "we couldn't do that very well, because they changed
their voices, and had their faces hidden by their hats, coat collars, and
even some sort of cloth that seemed to be tied about their jaws. But
after the scrap was over, we picked up a clue that we think will give the
game away."

"What, Fred?"

"Take a look at this old hat, Bristles," continued the other, as he drew
the article in question from his pocket.

"Well, I'm looking at it," he was told.

"Ever see it before?" asked Colon, eagerly.

"Of course I wouldn't like to raise my hand, and swear to it," remarked
Bristles, slowly, "but I want to say this looks mighty like a
yellow-colored hat I've seen a certain fellow wear, time and again."

"Suppose you go a little further, then, and mention his name," proposed
Fred.

"Conrad Jimmerson!" promptly replied the other.

Colon laughed gleefully.

"Now turn the hat around, Bristles," he cried, "and look inside!"

Upon doing so the other uttered an exclamation.

"Here they are, two letters that give the thing away---C.J. as plain as
print could be!" was his cry.

"Glad that you think the same way we do," Colon told him. "And now, I
reckon you wonder what Fred's going to do about it."

"If it were myself, I'd take this hat to Cooney, and ask him if it was
his," Bristles went on to say, in his fiery fashion. "Course he'd have
to acknowledge the corn, and then I'd proceed to give him the licking he
deserves."

"We'd kind of expect that of you, Bristles," remarked Colon,
magnanimously, "but you see, Fred'n me, we made up our minds that we'd
given that bunch a pretty good layout as it was. What they need is
something to show the people of this town what a tough lot that Buck
Lemington is dragging around with him."

"But how could you do that?" the other asked.

"Fred thought of taking the hat to school, and telling the story around,
to the teachers and the pupils," Colon explained, in his accommodating
way. "When they learned how these toughs meant to injure Riverport's
chances of winning the great Marathon, just to gratify a little private
spite, the town would soon get too hot for Buck and his cronies. They'd
have to emigrate for a little while, till the storm blew over."