Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/171

Rh him. Macklin also went down, and was made a prisoner with ease. Then both doors were closed and locked once more.

"Hi, let up!" cried Gus Plum, when he could speak. "Let up, do you hear?"

"Stop your racket, Plum," said Dave in a low but intense tone. "If you don't——"

"We'll all pile on and fix you," finished Sam Day.

"I—I don't know what you mean by treating me so," stammered the bully, as Dave allowed him to rise.

"Don't you?" sneered Phil. "Just look around and you'll understand."

"I—I didn't have anything to do with this," put in Chip Macklin, in a shivering voice.

"Who has been rough-housing you?" asked the bully, with a pretended look of surprise.

"You and Macklin," answered Phil, boldly. "You needn't deny it."

There was a pause, and the bully and the sneak looked at each other. How had their guilty secret leaked out?

"We ought to give you a hard drubbing for this," came from Roger.

"I suppose you will—since you are twelve to two," answered the bully of Oak Hall.

"We'll let you go under one condition," said Dave, after a few words with his chums.