Page:Fairview Boys and their Rivals.djvu/42



" mischief!" cried Frank, as he joined Bob and Sammy.

Jed Burr and his crowd thought it was funny to see the old man flounder around.

"Buffer!" cried one of them.

"Hey, want a back-stop?" echoed another.

"He's smashed something," spoke a third.

"Seems to be his watch," reported the first speaker.

"You're in a fix, Bob, this time, sure," said Sammy.

"I'm sorry it's Mr. Dolby," replied Bob. "He doesn't like any of us any too well."

Silas Dolby was a miserly old man who had few friends in Fairview, and he was tight-fisted, cross, and too shrewd to please honest people.

Bob, Frank and Sammy were "down in his bad books," as the saying goes. It was none of their fault, but rather a merit. While camping in the mountains on Sammy Brown's treasure search, they had found a pocketbook.

This they gave to Frank's father, who looked it over. It belonged to Silas Dolby, who had lost it, and was full of papers. Among them Mr. Haven found some notes that should have been given to a poor widow in the village, the mother of little, crippled Benny Lane. It seemed that her husband had paid money on a mortgage on their little home to old Dolby. After Mr. Lane died the miser said