"

"I guess it's about time that Green heard from us," insisted Ben.

"If I were you I wouldn't do anything around here," advised Dick.

"You're right," nodded Dave. "And I guess, Ben, you fellows didn't get a
bit more than you deserved."

"I'll show old Green whether we did," snapped Ben.

"Don't you think of it," warned Greg Holmes. "It's a serious business to
monkey with railroad property. Besides, anything serious might put in
danger the lives of people traveling on the railroad."

"Oh, keep quiet and do some thinking," retorted young Alvord. "Any of
you fellows that never eat anything but milk, and are 'fraidcats, can
cut out of this. I tell you, I'm going to get hunk with Green, and
fellows with sand, who want to see it, can stay. The milksops can go
home and to bed."

Not a boy stirred away just then. It isn't boy nature to withdraw under
taunts.

"Say, Ben, I'll tell you something you dassent do," dared one of the
boys.

"It'll have to be something pretty big that I don't dare do," boasted
young Alvord.

"Do you dast to pick up a stone and smash one of the red or green lights
over there?"

The lights referred to were the signal lights for passing trains.

"Don't do that!" protested Dick Prescott sharply. "That certainly would
be downright criminal!"

"Milksop!" retorted Ben. "I dast to do anything that I want to."

"I think I dare do anything that's decent," retorted Dick quietly. "But
I don't pretend that I'm brave enough to commit crimes, if you call
breaking the law bravery."

"Crime?" sneered Ben. "Bosh! This is only fun, and getting square with a
man who has been mean to some of us."

"If you don't take Dick's advice, and cut out the trick, you'll be
mighty sorry afterwards," urged Tom Reade. "Come on, fellows. Let's move
along and find some fun that is more decent."

"Babies!" jeered Ben Alvord. "You haven't nerve enough to stand up for
your rights and pay Green back for the way he treats the fellows when he
loses his temper. You're babies! Go on. Those who aren't babies will
stay right here and see what happens."

"You're talking boldly enough, now, Ben Alvord, but you'll be whining
to-morrow, instead. Come on, fellows; let's have nothing to do with the
scheme," cried Dick.

"Babies!" sneered Ben again. "You fellows who want to be classed with
the babies can go. The fellows with nerve can stay right here."

"Come along, then," urged Dick, and he and his chums started away. At
th