Guns and Snowshoes; Or, the Winter Outing of the Young Hunters Part 4

"Mr. O'Brien says you knocked Mrs. Shrader down."

"I didn't."

"He was seen--several b'ys saw him," put in Samuel O'Brien.

"I--er--it was an accident," stammered Carl, quailing before the stern gaze of his parent. "The--er--the s...o...b..ll slipped. It didn't hit Mammy Shrader hard, and she fell down of her own account, not because of the s...o...b..ll."

"She says th' s...o...b..ll knocked her down," said Samuel O'Brien. "If ye was my b'y I'd be afther givin' ye a good walloppin', so I would!" he added pointedly.

"I will go and see Mrs. Shrader," said Mr. Dudder. "Carl, you remain at home until I get back."

"Can't I go over and see Ham?"

"No."

"I promised him that I would be over."

"Well, you can't go. You study your lessons, unless you prefer to go with me to Mrs. Shrader's."

"I don't want to go to her house," said Carl.

Mr. Dudder lost no time in paying Mammy Shrader a visit, and then he called on Doctor Reed. When he came home again he was very angry.

"Carl, I have a good mind to punish you severely," he said. "I did not think you would treat a woman as Mrs. Shrader has been treated. I shall have to pay her doctor's bill and also something more--at least fifteen or twenty dollars." Mr. Dudder sighed at the thought of parting with so much cash. "I shall take the amount out of your spending money, and out of the money I was going to give you for Christmas."

"Can't I have the five dollars you promised me for Christmas?" gasped Carl.

"Not a cent of it."

"Oh, you're a mean thing!" burst out Carl, and ran from the room before his father could stop him.

CHAPTER IV

THE EXPLOSION

On the following afternoon Snap was walking down to the river front, on an errand for his father, when he caught sight of Ham Spink and Carl Dudder, under a lumber shed. The pair were conversing in an earnest fas.h.i.+on, but ceased their conversation as Snap came closer.

Snap knew that Ham and Carl were in far from a friendly humor. Through one boy he had learned how Carl had been treated by his father, and through another how Andrew Felps had discovered that Ham had been his aggressor. There had been a lively interview when Mr. Felps and Mr.

Spink had met, and in the end the latter had said he would stand for all damage done. Then he had gone home and laid down the law good and hard to Ham.

"To punish you I will cut off your spending money," said Mr. Spink, and thus Ham and Carl found themselves in the same trouble so far as cash was concerned. It galled them exceedingly, and, as was their habit, they laid the blame entirely on others.

As Snap pa.s.sed the shed both Ham and Carl scowled at him. Then, after he had gone a dozen steps, Ham called out:

"Come back here. I want to talk to you."

"Did you address me?" demanded Snap, wheeling around.

"I did. Come here, I want to talk to you."

Snap did not budge.

"If you want to talk to me you can come where I am," he said.

"Oh, you needn't get so mighty high and loftly!" sneered Ham Spink.

"I am not your servant."

"Nice stories you and your crowd have been telling about me and Carl,"

went on Ham, coming closer.

"Trying to get us into trouble," put in Carl. "It's a jolly shame and you ought to be thrashed for it."

"See here, Dudder, and you too, Spink," answered Charley firmly, "I want no quarrel with you. Ever since our outing last summer you have been like bears with sore heads. If your camping out was a failure it wasn't our fault. When you hadn't any game we let you have some of ours, and we did a great deal more for you than you deserved. Now--"

"Oh, don't preach!" cried Ham.

"What do you want of me?"

"I want to give you fair warning that neither I nor Carl will stand for the way you are acting. Either you keep your distance, or it will be the worse for you."

"I am not afraid of you."

"Well, you had better be."

"What do you mean by that?" demanded Snap. He fancied there might be some hidden meaning to Ham Spink's words.

"Oh, you'll find out one of these days," came from Carl, significantly.

"If you try any of your underhanded tricks you'll get the worst of it--just as you did up to the camp," answered Snap, and went on his way.

"Oh, I wish I could mash him!" muttered Ham Spink, between his set teeth.

"Yes, and mash the whole crowd of 'em," added Dodder. "I hate the very sight of 'em!"

"Do you know that they are talking about camping out again?"

"What, this winter?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"That I don't know."