e!" quoth the youngest boy in school, "that's pretty fierce, just for
fishing on Sunday!"

"He was poaching," explained Sid. "Anyhow, Emmy says he was. Old Mercer
swears he saw him on his place yesterday afternoon. Why, a couple of
years ago there was a fellow _fired_ for poaching!"

"Gee!" echoed the youngest again in wide-eyed amaze.

"Well, Sid, who'll play first?" asked another of the audience. Sid shook
his head dispiritedly.

"Patten, I s'pose. I think it's a beast of a shame, that's what I think!
Take a fellow off the nine just five days before the big game! Of course
Hammond'll lick us."

"Sure!" was the concurrent opinion.

"If Patten goes back to first you may get his place at right-field,"
suggested the youngest boy.

"Maybe I will," answered Sid gloomily, "but who wants to play if Roy's
out of it?"

And the countenances of the audience answered:

"Who indeed?"

"I'll bet if we wanted to we could get him back on the nine," said Sid
presently.

"How?" asked half a dozen voices eagerly.

"Oh, I know a way," was the unsatisfying reply.

"Go on and tell us, Sid!"

"I would if you'd promise never to tell anyone, cross your heart and
hope to die."

Everyone promised instantly and fervidly.

"Supposing, then," resumed Sid, "that a whole raft of us were caught
fishing on old Mercer's place. What would happen?"

"We'd all get suspended," piped up the youngest boy promptly.

"Inner bounds," suggested someone else.

"Huh! I guess not! It isn't likely Emmy would suspend half the school,"
replied Sid scornfully. "He'd see the injustice of it, of course, and
give us all a good blowing up and let us go. And if he let us go he'd
have to let Roy off too. It would be a--a--" Sid paused for a word--"it
would be in the nature of a popular protest!"

"That's so," said one of the number. "He couldn't punish all of us very
well."

"He might, though," muttered the youngest uneasily.

"Oh, we don't want you in it," answered Sid contemptuously.

"I'm going if the rest do," was the dogged answer.

"We'd ought to get a whole lot of fellows, though," one of the Middlers
said.

"Yes, about twenty," answered Sid. "We can do it, too, you bet!
Supposing we call a meeting of the Middlers and Juniors for this
afternoon after supper?"

"Good scheme! Whereabouts?"

"At the boat-house. You fellows tell it around, but don't say what the
meeting's about. If you do Emmy'll hear of it, sure."

Then the dinner be