"Get off my shoulders!"
"I will---when I'm through with you," Dick agreed.
"You'll get off at once, or I'll roll you off!" came the now angry
threat.
"Try it," Dick urged coolly.
Right then and there the stranger did try it. He "heaved," then
attempted to roll and grapple with the young camper. He would
have succeeded, too, had Prescott relied upon his strength alone.
But Dick employed both hands in getting a neck-hold that hurt.
"Now, quit your fooling," Prescott advised, "or I'll let out a
whoop that will bring five more fellows here. Do you know what
they would do to you? They'd just about lynch you---schoolboy
fashion. Do you know what a schoolboy lynching is?"
"No," sullenly answered the stranger, as he started to renew the
struggle.
"You will know, soon, if you don't stop your stupid fooling,"
Dick told him.
"Hang you, kid. Get off of me, and keep your hands away, or I'll
hurt you more than you were ever hurt in your life, and I'll get
away with it, too, before your friends come!"
So lively did the struggle become that Dick was obliged to use
his clenched fist against the side of the prowler's jaw. That
quieted the stranger for an instant.
Leaping lightly from his troublesome captive, Dick snatched up
a heavy club of firewood that lay nearby.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67