"You were taken in and looked after, and now you've brought this gang of hoodlums down on us." "Be careful there, small boy!" warned Fred Ripley, flushing.
"As for you, Ripley," Dick went on, "wouldn't your father be proud to find you with a crowd like this, and stealing food that belongs to other people ?" "See here, you little rat," snarled Fred inelegantly, as he leaped up, kicking his chair over and striding toward the Prescott group, "you want to keep your tongue under control, or you're going to be sorry that you didn't." "Let's take the kid down to the spring, break the ice and give his head a soaking in the spring water," proposed Bert Dodge, rising, too, and coming forward.
"Hurrah!" cheered Hen.

"That's the stuff.

Not a bit too good, either, for a chump like Dick Prescott!" But Dick wouldn't pay any heed to this renegade Grammar School boy who had gone back on his own mates.
"And where are the two friends we left here ?" demanded Dick, undismayed by the advance of Fred Ripley and Bert Dodge.

Tom and Dave drew a little closer to their chum, while Harry Hazelton flanked Dave.
"What do we know about your friends ?" sneered Ripley.

"What do we know about any of your cheap crowd ?" "And what do you imagine we care about them, either ?" demanded Dodge.
"Are you fellows going to get out of here ?" Dick demanded.
"When we get good and ready," retorted Fred, grinning.