Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/94

72 be coming out pretty soon." The two boys touched their hats and the doctor drove rapidly away.

Stoddard and Rupert walked on in silence, and came in sight of the Pie House just as the lawless revelers, who thought they had allowed a sufficient time to elapse after the doctor's departure, were emerging. Herrick and Albree and Frank Windsor had already come out, and two others were in the doorway; and when they saw the two figures approaching along the road, they betrayed for an instant the most ludicrous consternation. One of the boys darted back into the house and banged the door, and the others stood dismayed.

"Oh, it's all right, fellows; it's only Ormsby and Stoddard!" Herrick exclaimed, after a moment, with contemptuous relief.

And at just the same moment Rupert was saying to Stoddard:—

"You've never seen me really fierce; you watch me." Stoddard did not know quite what to make of the humorous gleam in Rupert's eyes, so