" asked Phil.

"Well," Jim hesitated for words, "he worried a lot because all the real
Americans are dying off or going, somehow, and he always said it was us
kids' business to find out why. That's the chief job."

"I don't see what you can do about it," said Phil. "That's a foolish
thing to worry about. Why----"

A boy screamed on the opposite side of the pond. It was so different
from the shouts and laughter of the moment before that Jim and Phil
jumped to their feet. Across the swimming hole a naked boy was dancing
up and down, screaming hysterically,

"Take 'em off! Take 'em off! Take 'em off!"

"It's the new minister's kid, Charlie," laughed Phil. "The fellows have
got the bloodsuckers on him. Ain't he the booby? Told me he was fifteen
and he's bigger'n you are. Screams like a girl."

Jim stood staring, his hand shielding his gray eyes from the sun. Across
the pond, the boys were doubled up with laughter, watching the
minister's son writhe and tear at his naked body. Suddenly, Jim shot
round the edge of the pond, followed by Phil. A dozen naked boys hopped
joyfully around the twisting Charlie. They were of all ages, from eight
to sixteen.

When Jim ran up to the new boy, his mates shouted: "Don't butt in, now,
Jim. Don't butt in. He's a darned sissy."

Jim did not reply. Charlie was considerably larger than he. He had a
finely muscled pink and white body, liberally dotted now with wriggling
brown suckers. This was a familiar form of hazing with the Exham boys.
There was a horror in a first experience with the little brown pests
that usually resulted in a mild form of hysteria very pleasing to the
young spectators. But Charlie was in an agony of loathing, far ahead of
anything the boys had seen.

As Jim ran up, Charlie struck at him madly and the boys yelled in
delight. Jim turned on them.

"Shut up!" he shouted. "Shut up _now_!"

Thin and tall, his boyish ribs showing, his damp hair tossed back from
his beautiful gray eyes that were now black with anger, Jim dominated
the crowd. There was immediate silence, broken only by Charlie's wild
sobs.

"Take 'em off! Take 'em off!"

"He's going to have a fit!" exclaimed Phil.

Charlie's lips were blue and foam flecked. Again as Jim approached him,
the minister's boy planted a blow on his ribs that made Jim spin.

"Charlie!" cried Jim. "_Shut up!_"

The same peculiarly commanding note that had silenced his mates pierced
through Charlie's hysteria. He pau