anded the other sternly. "And now back
to you cosy little bed for you! Fade! Vanish! If you don't
then you'll soon wish you had!"

But Dick held his ground, despite the very evident sincerity of
the other's threat, and gazed unflinchingly back at the prowler.

"Let me tell you," Dick went on. "Of course I cannot be positive,
but there is a missing heir who has, on his chest and one shoulderblade
just such marks as I saw on you to-day when you were sitting by
the pool putting on your shirt?"

"Oh, forget that thrilling stuff!" jeered the other. "Don't you
suppose I know who my father is? Old Bill Mosher hasn't suddenly
grown rich. How could Bill get rich when he is in jail for drunkenness?"

"So you think your name is Mosher?" pursued Prescott.

"I know it is," replied the prowler harshly. "And, around this
neck of the woods a fellow couldn't have a harder, tougher name
than Mosher."

"But if your name were really Page-----" pressed Dick.

"No use stringing me like that," snapped the other. Even in the
darkness, lit only here and there by starlight, the scowl on his
face was visible. "Tell you what," declared Mosher, an instant
later.

"Well?"

"Beat it!"

"I don't under------"

"Yes, you do," retorted the self-styled Mosher. "Vamoose!
Twenty-three in a hurry! Make your get-away!"

"Until I've made you listen to reason," Prescott insisted, "I
won't leave you."

"Oh, yes, you will, and right now, or-----"

"No!"

"See here!"

Mosher held a hard, horny fist menacing before Dick's face, but
the high school boy failed to wince.

"Git! Now, or crawl later!" warned Mosher.

"I'm going to make you listen to-----"

"Put up your guard!"

At least Mosher was "square" enough to give warning of his intentions.
He threw himself on guard, then waited for perhaps five seconds.

"Are you going to cool down and listen!" demanded Dick Prescott
firmly.

Out shot the Mosher youth's left fist. Dick dodged. It was a
feint; Dick nearly stopped Mosher's right.

Blows rained in thickly now. Not every one could Prescott dodge,
though he was more agile and better trained than this more powerful
youth.

At last, smarting from a glancing blow on the nose, Dick darted
in and clinched with his adversary. It was bad judgment, but
punishment had stung him into desperate recklessness.

"Stop it!" panted the high school boy.

"Won't!" retorted Mosher, increasing his pressure about the smaller
boy's