darkness.
"Don't run us down! Why, it's Dave!"
"Right you are," was the reply. Then he saw Roger and the others, who had started to walk to Oak Hall. They were soon beside the _Snowbird_, and the craft was headed for the school.
"So Poole and Merwell had her," observed Messmer, on the way. "Did you have any trouble making them give her up?"
"Just a little," answered Dave, modestly.
"Tell us about it, Dave!" cried the senator's son. "Somebody told me Merwell was of the scrappy kind."
"I really don't like to talk about it," said Dave, his face clouding. "I had some words with Merwell and I knocked him down. Then he and Poole were willing enough to let me take the ice-boat."
"You knocked Merwell down!" exclaimed Henshaw. "He's a big fellow."
"Dave isn't afraid of anybody," said Roger, in a tone of pride.
In the end Dave was compelled to tell his story, to which the others listened with deep interest. They understood the boy from the country perfectly, and said the treatment received had served Link Merwell right.
When they reached Oak Hall they were nearly an hour late. They expected Job Haskers would lecture them and give them extra lessons to do, but fortunately they found Andrew Dale, the head teacher, in charge. He listened to their explanations with a smile.
"After this you mustn't go so far, or else start earlier," said the instructor, and let them go in to supper.
"Gracious! what a difference between Mr. Dale and old Haskers," was Dave's comment.
"I wish all the teachers were like Mr. Dale--and Doctor Clay," returned Roger.
The party were just finishing their evening meal when Nat Poole and Link Merwell slunk in. The tall youth had one eye nearly closed by the blow Dave had delivered. He glared savagely at Dave, but said nothing.
"He'll chew you up--if he gets the chance," whispered Roger to Dave.
"Then I won't give him the chance," answered the other, with a quiet smile.
The story soon circulated among the students that Merwell and Dave had had a fight and the tall boy had gotten the worse of it. To this Dave said nothing, but Merwell explained to his friends that Porter had hit him foul, taking him completely off his guard.
"The next time we meet you'll see him go down and out," added the tall boy. "He won't be in it a minute after I once get at him."
Word was sent to Mike Marcy about his mule, and the farmer sent an answer back that the mule was now at home again, safe and sound. The mean fellow did not add one word of thanks for the information given to him.
"That's like Marcy," said Dave. "If he thanked me for anything I think I'd drop dead."
"Some men hardly know how to be civil," answered Phil.
During the next few days word also came from Dodsworth Sadler that he was on the trail of Blodgett and Volney and hoped to catch them before many days. He added that he had evidence to convict the swindlers if he could only lay his hands on them.
"That lets you and me out," said Dave to Gus Plum. "I don't think you'll ever hear another word from the two rascals."
"If it hadn't been for you I should have paid them that money," said the former bully, gratefully. "And they would have kept me in their power if they could."
Dave was anxiously awaiting a letter from his uncle, and when it came he could scarcely take time to tear open the communication, so eager was he to know its contents. The letter was very brief and simply asked the boy to come home on the following Saturday, and added that if he really wanted to go to London he could do so. Dave was to show the letter to Doctor Clay, in order to get the necessary permission to leave the Hall.
"I shall be sorry to have you go, Master Porter," said the principal of the academy. "But I can understand how you feel about your father and sister, and it will perhaps be better for you to go in search of them than to sit down here and be on pins and needles over it;" and Doctor Clay smiled kindly.
"Then you are really going to London!" cried Phil, when he heard the news. "Wish I was going, too!"
"So do I, Phil," answered Dave. "We'd have as good a time as we did on your father's ship in the South Seas."
"I am going to write to my folks about this at once," said Roger. His heart was set on going to England with his chum.
As soon as Dave's friends heard that he was going away once more, several began to plan a celebration for him.
"Let us hold a special meeting of the Gee Eyes, for Dave's benefit," said Sam Day; and so it was voted.
The Gee Eyes, as my old readers know, was a secret organization that had existed at Oak Hall for a long time. The words stood for the two letters G and I, which in turn stood for the name of the club, Guess It. The club was organized largely for fun, and this fun consisted mainly in the initiation of new members.
At one time Gus Plum had been at the head of a rival organization called the Dare Do Anything Club, but this had been broken up by Doctor Clay because of the unduly severe initiation of a small boy, named Frank Bond, who had almost lost his reason thereby. Now Gus had applied for membership in the Gee Eyes and had said that he would stand for any initiation they offered.
"I have half a mind to take Plum up," said Phil Lawrence, who was the Honorable Muck-a-Muck, otherwise president, of the club. "He deserves to be put through a strong course of sprouts for what he did to Frank Bond."
"All right, I am willing for one," said Buster Beggs, who was the secretary, under the high-sounding title of Lord of the Penwiper. "But we will have to ask the others first."
A canvass was made and it was decided to initiate Gus Plum on Friday night, after which the club was to celebrate the departure of Dave in as fitting a style as the exchequer of the organization permitted. Plum was duly notified, and said he would be on hand as required. "And you can do anything short of killing me," he added, with a grin.
"It will make Plum feel better if he suffers," said Dave. "He hasn't got Frank Bond off his mind yet." Which statement was true. Plum and Bond had made up, and the former bully now did all in his power to aid the small, timid fellow in his studies and otherwise.
The club met in an old boathouse down the river. It was a bright moonlight night and about twenty members were present, all attired in their red robes and black hoods with yellow tassels. As before, some of the members had wooden swords and others stuffed clubs. Around the boathouse were hung a number of pumpkin lanterns, cut out in imitation of skulls.
For the initiation of Gus Plum one of the club members had composed a new chant, which was sung slowly and impressively as the former bully of Oak Hall was led in by Buster Beggs and Sam Day.
"Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly dall! Here's the victim, see him fall! Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly dees! Down upon his bended knees! Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly deet! Bind his hands and bind his feet! Hoopra! hoopra! Dilly dive! Let us cut him up alive!
"Punch him, crunch him, smash him up! Let him drink the poison cup! Let him groan and let him rave As we put him in his grave!"
As this strange doggerel was sung the masked students danced fantastically around Gus Plum, slapping him with their swords and clubs. Then of a sudden he was tripped up, bound hands and feet, and marched out of the boathouse. Here a bag was tied over his head, so that he could not see a thing, although the bag had holes in the rear, so that he would not be suffocated.
"To the river with him!" came the loud command. "An icy bath will do him a world of good."
Now if there was one