s the matter--don't you want to speak to me?" demanded Jasniff, a
sickly look overspreading his face.

"I assuredly do not, Mr. Jasniff," answered Vera, stiffly.

"And I suppose you don't want to speak to me either," came sourly from
Link Merwell.

"You are right, Mr. Merwell--I do not."

"After this you will please us best by not recognizing us," added Mary,
coldly.

"Oh, I see how it is--these chaps have been filling you up with stories
about us!" cried Merwell, roughly. "Well, if you want to believe them
you can do it. I don't care!" And he turned on his heel and entered a
nearby store.

"Some day you'll wish you hadn't made such friends of Porter & Company,"
said Jasniff, and he glared defiantly at Dave and his chums. "Maybe
you'll find that they are not just what you thought they were," and
having thus delivered himself, he, too, entered the store. In the
meantime the automobile had gone on along the street to the post-office,
where the two strange cadets went in to see about mail.

"Say, I think I'll lay for Merwell and Jasniff and----" began Phil, when
a warning pinch on his arm from Dave caused him to break off.

There was an awkward pause, neither the boys nor the girls knowing
exactly what to say or do.

"Well, we must be going," said Vera. "I promised to be home by dark."

"And I have some errands to do before I go back," added Mary. "So we'll
say good-by."

"I hope we meet again," remarked Phil.

"Maybe we'll come to some of your football games," ventured Vera. "I
did so enjoy some of those other games."

"We are not playing on the eleven this season," answered Dave. It gave
him a little pang to make the admission.

"Oh, is that so!" Both of the girls gave the boys a studied look. "Well,
we must be going." And then they hurried down the street, around a
corner, and out of sight.

"Fellows, we ought to lay for those chaps!" cried Roger, as soon as the
chums were alone.

"Just what I was going to suggest," broke in Phil.

"What good will it do?" asked Dave. "We can't make anything out of
Merwell and Jasniff by talking, and we don't want to start a fight."

"I'd like to duck 'em in a mud pond!" muttered the shipowner's son. "It
is what they deserve."

"They deserve tar and feathers!" was Roger's comment. "Why, in some
places they'd be run out of town. How they ever got into Rockville
Academy I can't understand."

"Money sometimes goes a great way," said Dave. "They may have literally