culties, and afterwards tried to fool you with the fake
window-breaking, some of the Central fellows had been down at
Ritchie's playing tick-tack on one of his front windows. Tick-tack
is a stupid game, and it got me into a mess that night.

"It seems that Mr. Ritchie had already been bothered that evening
before the Central fellows began, and he had telephoned to a friend
down the street who had two college boys visiting him. So the
friend and the two college fellows went out, on their way to Mr.
Ritchie's. Then he heard the tapping on his window again, and
Mr. Ritchie ran out through the front door. The fellows who had
been doing the trick had just time to drop behind a flower bed.

"I had shaken off the crowd that started after me from Main Street,
and had turned the corner down that side street. As luck would
have it, I had just passed the Ritchie gate when Mr. Ritchie opened
his front door. He thought I was the offender, and started after
me, yelling to me to stop. Just for the exercise I kept on running,
though not so fast, for I wanted to see how far Mr. Ritchie would
chase me. And then I ran straight into the friend and the two
college boys.

"Those college boys tried to collar me. I was foolish enough
to stop and tackle. I had one of them on his back, and was doing
nicely with the other, when the two men joined in. I was down
and being held hard, while Mr. Ritchie was threatening to have
me sent to jail for life---for something I hadn't done, mind you!

"As I ran by the Ritchie yard I saw the three Central Grammar
School boys hiding behind the flower bed. It made me mad, I suppose,
to think that college boys, who aren't real men, anyway, should
stoop so low as to try to catch a lot of grammar school prankers,
so I fought back at my captors with some vim. Of course I got
the worst of it, including the bruise on my cheek, but I mussed
those two college boys up a bit, too. Then, when I got on my
feet, the two college boys still holding me, I demanded virtuously
to know what it was all about. Mr. Ritchie explained hot-headedly.
I told him I could prove that I had just come from Main Street,
but my captors didn't let go of me until we came to Mr. Ritchie's.
Then I saw at a glance that the Central fellows had made a good
get-away, so then I told Mr. Ritchie how the trick had been done
against him. I showed him just how the string had been rigged,
and pointed out the spot where the Central boys ha