ash! slash! slash!

Dave plied the whip relentlessly until he had inflicted half a
dozen more blows on the legs of each High School boy.

"If you try to run away," warned Dave, "either of you, I'll run
after you and lay on ten times as much as I'm giving you."

"Quit, now, Dave," urged Dick, running to his chum and laying
a hand on Darrin's active right arm. "They've had lots---plenty.
Such things as they, can't stand a man's dose."

"I'm not a bit tired," retorted Dave ironically. "Besides, I
rather enjoy this exercise."

"We'll have you arrested, Dave Darrin!" moaned Ripley.

"You will, eh?" Dave demanded, breaking away from Prescott's
restraining hold and making for Fred.

"No, no, no!" cried Ripley, cowering.

"Yes, we will---you can wager we will!" yelled Dodge from a safer
distance.

"Arrested---for what?" demanded Darrin.

"For assaulting us," returned Bert Dodge. "Oh, you'll catch it!"

"Have I been guilty of any more of an assault than I found you
fellows engaged in", Dave asked coolly. "Don't you think you'd
look rather funny in court when it was known why I laid the whip
over you?"

"We'll get the better of you, just the same," yelled Ripley, who
had now retreated to the side of his friend and felt bolder.
"My father's a lawyer---the smartest in the town."

"And he's also a gentleman," broke in Dick. "I wish his son took
after him. As for arrest---and trouble in court---bosh! Try
it on!"

Prescott now walked coolly to where his little package lay, and
found it uninjured.

"How did you happen to come along on the wagon?" Dick asked, as
Fred and Bert limped away from their Waterloo.

"One of the express company's drivers was late coming back from
dinner, and there was a package that had to be delivered at once,"
Darrin answered. "The manager offered me ten cents to make the
delivery. I am glad that I took the job. Where are you going?"

"In there," Prescott answered, pointing to the house. "I've got
to deliver this book collect to a Mrs. Carhart."

"Get up on the seat and I'll drive you in there," proposed Dave.
"Though I don't believe there's any one living in the house.
All the front doors and windows are boarded up."

After five minutes of doorbell ringing Dick concluded that he
would find no Mrs. Carhart there.

"I guess I understand," nodded Prescott. "Either Dodge or Ripley
must have sent that 'phone message. That was their way to get
me alone where they could both handle me wi