"Hen is just a little way down the street, holding forth to a lot of fellows." "Come along, then," nodded Tom.

"Perhaps we can slip in behind Hen without his seeing us, and then we'll know all that he did while we were snowbound." Toby piloted them.

A block and a half down Main Street a group of some twenty Grammar School boys stood, gathered closely around a central object.

When Dick and his chums slipped up to the outer edge of the crowd they discovered that central object to be Hen Dutcher, whose back was turned to them.
Though Hen didn't know who was now near him, several of the other boys did, and they passed the wink.
"Hen, tell us again just how it was that you cowed Mr.Fits when he first showed up at the cabin," urged one of the juvenile bystanders.
"Huh! There wasn't much to cow," retorted Hen airily.

"Dick Prescott and his chums were pretty well scared, I can tell you.