o so. He let go his hold
upon his cousin and seized the halliards.

"Never mind the relationship," he yelled, when Marcy said that if Rodney
were not his cousin he would be tempted to thrash him within an inch of
his life. "I am more ashamed of it than you can possibly be. Let go
those halliards."

"Looks as though there might be a slight difference of opinion between
the parties most interested, and there's no telling who is Governor
until after the election," said Dixon quietly. "But I respectfully
submit that the top of a high tower is no place to settle a dispute that
may end in a scrimmage. We don't want to begin killing one another until
we have to, and there are two ways in which the matter can be arranged:
Wait until after dark, and then go silently to the parade and have it
over before anybody knows a thing about it, or else kiss and make
friends right here."

Dick Graham, who had thus far kept himself on the other side of the
belfry out of sight, broke into a loud laugh when Dixon, speaking with
the utmost gravity, made the last proposition. Dick had a cheery,
wholehearted laugh, and the effect was contagious. The laugh became
general and finally such an uproar arose that the students at the foot
of the tower, who had been watching proceedings on the top with no
little interest and anxiety, pulled off their caps and joined in with
cheers and yells, although they had not the faintest idea what they were
cheering and yelling for. Marcy smiled good-naturedly as he looked into
his cousin's face, but Rodney scowled as fiercely as ever. When anything
made him angry it took him a long time to get over it. He was almost
ready to boil over with rage when he caught his cousin in the act of
hoisting a brand new flag in place of the one that had been stolen, and
if his friends had only been prompt to hasten to his support, he would
have torn that flag into fragments in short order. But they had held
back and given Marcy's friends time to come to his assistance, and now
there was no hope of victory. This made him believe that the boys who
pretended to side with him were cowards, the last one of them.

"If I will give you the halliards, will you promise not to haul the
colors down?" asked Marcy, who had no heart for trouble of this sort.

"I'll promise nothing," answered Rodney, in savage tones. "You and your
gang have the advantage of me this time, but it will not be so when next
we meet. Mark that."

"Hear, hear!"