CHAPTER XXVI

THE SCAR AND THE LIMP

The chums came up shuddering, with hair plastered over their faces and the water streaming from their shoulders.

"Ugh," sputtered Fred, "the water's as cold as ice!"

"A polar bear would like it," chattered Skeets.

"Turn on the hot water faucet, Jeems," laughed Bobby.

"We'll be all right in a minute or two," remarked Sparrow.

They swam around, racing and diving like so many young porpoises, and in a little while the blood returned to their chilled surfaces, making them perfectly comfortable again.

"Reminds you something of Plunkit's Creek, doesn't it, Fred?" said Bobby.

"Yes," agreed Fred, "only this is a good deal longer and wider than that."

"Then, too, we haven't got Ap here, watching us from the bank and getting ready to set his dog on us," grinned Mouser.

"We don't owe Ap anything," laughed Bobby. "We paid him all up that day we made him walk the plank."

"Do you remember how he looked when he struck the water?" chuckled Pee Wee.

"I wonder if he and Pat have met each other since we came away," said Bobby, as he recalled the scene at the railway station on the morning they left Clinton.

"Ap had better keep his whip handy," observed Fred.

"That wouldn't help him much," returned Bobby. "Pat would take it away from him and wade into him."

They had been in and out of the water for perhaps an hour, when Bobby, who had swum down to where the shore curved a little, suddenly turned and swam back again as fast as he could.

"Come along with me, fellows," he cried, "and don't make any more noise than you can help."

The others followed him wonderingly until they reached the bend. Then, while they hid behind some grasses, Bobby pointed to two men who were lounging under a tree a short distance away.

They were smoking stubby pipes as they lay at their ease. Their faces were rough and unshaven and their clothing dirty and ragged.

"Don't see much to get excited about," remarked Shiner disappointedly. "Just a couple of tramps."

"They're more than that to us," replied Bobby. "They're the very tramps who robbed us in that old hut."

The boys were on edge in an instant. Just then one of the men rose, stretched himself lazily and took a few steps toward the tree. As he did so, the boys saw that he had a perceptible limp.

"And the other one has a scar on his face," whispered Bobby excitedly. "You can see it if you look close."

They looked more closely, and Fred in his eagerness rose a little too high. His red head caught the eye of the man with the scar, and he uttered a startled exclamation.

"Now you've, done it," whispered Mouser disgustedly. "Why didn't you keep that red mop of yours out of sight?"

"Hurry, fellows," urged Bobby. "We've got to catch those fellows before they can get away. Whip on your clothes and let's get back after them."

The boys swam back as fast as possible and rushed up on the bank.

"Who put a knot in the leg of my pants?" came in a howl from Fred as he struggled desperately to unfasten the knot.

"I'd like to catch the fellow who tied my socks together," growled Mouser.

"And here's one of my shoes floating in the water," wailed Skeets.

They had to pay the penalty now of the tricks they had played on one another, and they felt as though they were in a nightmare as they tried frantically to get into their clothes.

"They'll get away sure," groaned Bobby. "Hustle, fellows, hustle! Come along just as you are if you can't do any better."

He led the way, and the rest came stumbling after him in all conditions of dress and undress. Mouser had stuffed his stockings in his pocket, Skeets carried his wet shoes in his hands, while Fred, with one leg in his trousers, held up the rest of the garment in his hand and made what speed he could.

But when they reached the tree under which the tramps had been sitting, they found no one. The birds had flown. They may possibly have recognized Fred's red head as that of one of their victims, or they may have thought that he was one of a company, including men, who might ask them curious and troublesome questions. At any rate they had quickly gotten out of sight.

The boys searched about everywhere in that part of the woods, but fruitlessly. Pee Wee fell into a small excavation, this time barking his shins in reality. But he had no other injury except to his feelings, and his comrades hauled him out without much trouble.

"Well," said Fred at last, "there doesn't seem any more reason for hurry, and I guess I'll get my pants on."

"And I'll put on my shoes," said Skeets, suiting the action to the word. "This stubble has hurt my feet something fierce."

Mouser's socks also took their rightful place, and the boys began to feel more like human beings.

"What would you have done anyway, Bobby, if you'd found them under the tree?" asked Mouser.

"I don't know exactly," answered Bobby frankly. "Of course, we couldn't tackle grown men. But we could have kept them in sight until we met some farmers and had them nabbed. Or one of us could have gone back to Rockledge and got the constable. But we know that they're hanging round in this neighborhood now, and we'll tell the constable about it and he'll telephone to all the towns near by to be on the lookout for them."

"I sure would like to get back my ring," said Fred longingly.

"Those sleeve buttons would look mighty good to me," chimed in Pee Wee.

"I could use my scarf pin too," added Mouser.

"I don't _much_ expect to see my watch again," said Bobby, "but there's a _chance_ of finding where they pawned 'em if we can get those fellows arrested."

"There were only two of 'em," mused Fred. "I wonder where the other one was."

"Round at some farmhouse begging for grub maybe," suggested Skeets.

"Or in jail perhaps," guessed Sparrow. "If he isn't, he ought to be."

"He'll get there sooner or later," said Fred, "and so will the rest of the bunch."

The boys hurried back to town and put the matter in the hands of the constable, who promised that he would do all in his power to catch the thieves. But the days passed into weeks with the tramps still at liberty, and the chances of the boys ever getting back the stolen articles became more and more unlikely.

But this did not hold such a place in their thoughts as the race for the championship of the Monatook Lake League, which kept getting hotter and hotter as the various teams tried their strength against each other.

It was a case of nip and tuck. First one team and then the other would forge to the front. By the time the first five games had been played not a single team could be said to be out of it.

But what grieved the Rockledge boys was that their bitter rival, Belden, although it started the season with a defeat at the hands of Ridgefield, had made a strong rally and was now in front with a total of four victories and one lost game. Somerset and Ridgefield were tied for second place, while Rockledge--Rockledge, which had so proudly counted on the pennant--was _last_!