atter.

But now the crowd bethought itself of the heroes that a crowd
always loves. Hundreds pressed about to shake the bands of Prescott
and Darrin.

"Get into my car! Stand up in front of Mrs. Macey and myself
until we can get out of this crowd," urged Mr. Macey, bustling
the boys toward the runabout.

Mrs. Macey, whitefaced, was crying softly and could not speak.
But her husband, with the two boys standing up before him, honked
his horn and turned on the power, starting the car slowly. A
path was thus made for their escape through the crowd, though
the cheering began again.

"Now, you can put us down, if you will, sir,", suggested Dick,
when they had reached the outer edge of the crowd.

"Not yet," retorted Mr. Macey.

"Why not, sir?"

"You've a little trip to make with me yet."

"Trip?"

"Wait a moment, and you'll see."

Less than two minutes later Mr. Macey drove his car up in front
of one of the banks and jumped out.

"Come on, boys," he cried. "I want to get that reward off my
mind."

"You run in, Dick," proposed Dave, on the sidewalk. "I'll wait
for you."

"You'll go with me," Prescott retorted, "or I won't stir inside."

So Darrin followed them into the bank.

"I'm so thankful to see you boys safely out of the scrape," declared
Mr. Macey, inside, "that I'm going to pay the full reward to each
of you."

"No you won't," retorted Dick very promptly. "You'll pay no more
than you offered. Dave and I'll divide that between us."

"Not a cent for me!" propounded Darrin, with emphasis.

"If you don't share the reward evenly, I won't touch a cent of
it either, Dave Darrin," rejoined Dick heatedly.

Dave tried to have his way, but his chum won. Mr. Macey made
another effort to double the reward, but was overruled.

So young Prescott received the two hundred and fifty dollars in
crisp, new bills, and as promptly turned half of the sum over
to his chum.

Now that it was safely over with, it had not been a bad morning's
work!

CHAPTER XIII

Dick Begins To Feel Old

Despite the strain of what they had gone through Dick and Dave
led the Gridley boys through a fierce gridiron battle that same
afternoon, and won again by a score of 13 to 5.

But the people of Gridley paid little heed to the score that day,
or the next. The sensation that Dick and Dave had supplied was
the talk of the town, to the exclusion of other topics relating to
high School boys.

Mr. Pollock bought