here the contest for supremacy had brought them to the point
of battle.

Each time Andy was supposed to have gotten the better of the conflict,
though his friends thought he paid dearly for his victory; but Jerry
seemed never to know when he was whipped, and was just as ready to try
conclusions with the other as before.

"Some fine day I'll know how to outwit the big brute, and then I mean to
cure him of his bullying ways," he was wont to say cheerfully, as he
festooned his face with strips of adhesive plaster, and tried to grin
through the pain.

"What d'ye mean upsetting me that way, Jerry Wallington? Think just
because your dad's a big railroad man you can knock poor fellers around
any old way? I guess I've got some rights. You might have killed me,
tumbling that pile of boxes down, with me inside. You ought to be made to
pay fur it, that's what," grumbled the fellow, scowling vindictively, and
yet not daring to assume the offensive while the four chums were present;
for he had never tried conclusions with Frank, and was suspicious of the
new boy in Centerville--for the Langdons had lived there about a year,
Frank's father having purchased the bank of which he was now president.

"How could I know anybody was hiding up there?" demanded Jerry, in
pretended ignorance, though his eyes twinkled with humor as he watched
the bully limping around and still rubbing his knee.

"Ain't I got a right to play hide-and-seek with my friends? Who told you
to stop just underneath, and talk about campin' out up above the lumber
docks? Think you're the whole team, do you? Well, perhaps you won't shout
just so loud when you know me and some of my mates are going up in that
region ourselves, to-morrow, to see old Bud Rabig, the trapper, and if we
have any trouble with you sissies there's bound to be a high old mix-up,
see?" and he glared first at one and then at each of the others in turn.

The boys looked at one another in dismay, for it seemed as though some
would-be joker had tossed a bucket of ice-cold water over them; this
vague threat of Andy Lasher's was not to be lightly dismissed as mere
bluff, for whatever his reputation might be, the fellow had a way of
keeping his word, especially when it concerned any sort of mischief.

Frank, however, laughed aloud.

"That sort of talk doesn't cut any figure with us, Lasher. If we go up to
the head of the lake we'll try and mind our own business, and advise all
others to do the same