the football crew are making all that row over a mere freshman,"
thought Chairman Stone, "then young Prescott must be the inventor
of the yarn that has made Gridley wonder whether we of the Board
are so many 'dead ones.' Hm! hm! I'll find out if that's the
case. Such a trick is clearly one that would call for expelling
the young man from the High School!"

CHAPTER IV

CAPTION OF THE HOUNDS

"Is that mucker going to run today?"

The questioner was Fred Ripley, and his voice was full of disgust.
He glared at Dick Prescott, who was seated unconcernedly on a
stone wall, awaiting the arrival of Tom Reade and Dan Dalzell,
the only other members of Dick & Co. who were to figure in today's
event.

"Is who going to run?" asked Ben Badger.

"That little mucker, Prescott?" insisted Fred.

"Yes," returned Badger, shortly.

"Gridley H.S. is getting worse and worse," growled Ripley.
"Athletics ought to be confined to the best sort of fellows
in the school. These little muckers, these nobodies, ought
to be kept out of everything in which the real fellows take part."

"Don't be a cad, Ripley," retorted Badger, half angrily.

"Oh, I'm no great stickler for caste, and that sort of thing,"
Fred grumbled on. "I'm democratic enough, when it comes to
that, and I associate with a good many fellows whose fathers don't
stand as high in the community as mine does."

"That's really kind of you," mimicked Ben Badger, with another
look of disgust at the rich lawyer's son. "Of course, you feel
just as though anything that your father may have accomplished
puts you in a rather more elect lot."

"Of course, it does," retorted Fred, drawing himself up stiffly.
"Still, you know as well as anyone does, Badger, that I'm not
stuck up just on account of family or position. I'm ready to
give the friend's hand to any of the right sort of fellows. But
what is that little mucker, Prescott? His parents peddle books
and newspapers."

"They run a book and periodical shop, if that is what you mean,"
rejoined Ben, disgustedly, as he looked the young snob over for
the third time. "Some mighty big people have done that in times
past. As to position, Prescott's father isn't a rich man, nor
a very successful one, but I wish I could look forward, some day,
to being half as well educated as Dick's father is."

"A dreamer, a fool, a man who couldn't and didn't succeed," sneered
Fred. "And his son will be a bigger mistake in life. I