"Sure!" broke out Nappy. "I'll get the tickets," and he took several steps toward the ticket booth.

"Thank you, but I said I didn't want to go with you," said May, quite loudly and with flashing eyes.

"We pick our company when we go anywhere," added Ruth, giving Slugger Brown a look which would almost have annihilated any ordinary boy. But the bully was proof against anything of that sort.

"Oh, you needn't get on your high horse about it, Ruth Stevenson," he sneered. "Some day maybe you'll be glad to go to a show with me."

"If you won't go, I guess there are other girls just as good, and maybe better," added Nappy Martell, not knowing what else to say.

It was at this moment that the big box-sled containing the cadets hove into sight. With a flourish, the driver drew up to the curb with the boys tooting loudly on their tin horns, but this salute came to a sudden end when the lads caught sight of their former schoolmates.

"Look who's here, will you!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Randy.

"Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell," murmured Fred.

"Say, they are talking to Ruth and May!" broke in Andy.

To all this Jack said nothing. But he lost no time in leaping to the pavement and walking up to the girls, who came forward to greet him.

"Oh, I'm so glad you got here!" exclaimed Ruth in a low voice, and she looked at Jack appealingly and then let her eyes rove in the direction of the bully and his crony.

"Those boys are just too horrid for anything!" murmured May, by way of explanation.

"What did they do?" demanded Spouter of his cousin, he having quickly followed Jack from the sled.

"They almost insisted upon it that we accompany them into the movies!"

"Why, they hardly know you!"

"That's true, d.i.c.k. And I think it was awful of them, the way they came up."

"That Brown boy caught me by the arm, and he had no right to do that,"

said Ruth to Jack. "I don't want a thing to do with him."

"You get into the sled, girls, and we'll tend to Brown and Martell,"

announced Spouter, and the tone of his voice showed his anger.

The girls did as bidden, being a.s.sisted by the others; and, in the meantime the remaining girls came from the store and also got into the sled. Spouter and Jack strode across the pavement, and caught Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell just as they were on the point of dropping their tickets into the ticket box.

"Come here a minute. I want to talk to you," said Spouter, catching Martell by the arm.

"And I want to talk to you," added Jack, as he detained Slugger Brown.

"I won't talk to you," retorted Nappy Martell, and tried to pa.s.s.

"Yes, you will!" answered Spouter. "You listen to me, Nappy! After this you leave my cousin, May Powell, alone. If you don't, you'll have an account to settle with me."

"And you leave both of those girls alone!" said Jack to Slugger Brown.

"Miss Stevenson doesn't want anything to do with you. Now, you mind what I'm telling you, or you'll get into trouble the first thing you return to the Hall!"

"Oh, say, Rover, you make me tired!" sneered the bully, glaring at Jack.

"I'm not going to try to take your girl away from you. There are plenty of better girls around Haven Point. You go about your business and leave me alone;" and, thus speaking, Slugger Brown pa.s.sed into the moving-picture theater, followed a moment later by Nappy Martell. The two others watched them out of sight, and then looked at each other knowingly.

"One fine pair, believe me!" was Spouter's comment.

"I'm mighty sorry Colonel Colby allowed them to return to the Hall,"

answered Jack. "I'm afraid it spells just one thing--Trouble!"

CHAPTER VIII

THE SLEIGHING PARTY

"What did you say to those horrid young men?" asked May, after Jack and Spouter had returned to the box-sled and the driver had picked up the reins and started through the main street of Haven Point.

"Oh, we told them to mind their own business after this," answered Jack.

"And if they don't, you let me know, and we'll attend to them," said Spouter to his cousin.

"It's too bad, Jack, they came back to Colby Hall," remarked Ruth.

"Right you are! But Colonel Colby wanted to give them another chance. He asked us about it, and we didn't want to stand in the way of Slugger and Nappy turning over a new leaf."

"Hi there--somebody start a song!" cried Andy, who caught a few words of what was said, and thought the occasion was getting too serious.

"That's the talk!" exclaimed Alice Strobell.

"What shall we sing?" questioned Annie Larkins.

"Oh, sing something that we all know," came from Jennie Mason. She, too, had seen Slugger and Nappy, but had refused to recognize them, remembering well the trouble she and Ida Brierley had had with the pair when all had gone out on the lake in a motor-boat, the particulars of which were given in the volume preceding this.

Soon the happy young folks were singing one familiar song after another and shouting and tooting the tin horns in great glee. In the meanwhile the turnout had left the vicinity of Haven Point, and was moving swiftly along in the direction of one of the neighboring towns.

"Oh, isn't this too lovely for anything!" exclaimed May, as one of the songs came to an end. "I never felt better in my life."

"If I felt any better, I'd have to call in the doctor," announced Andy with a sudden sober look on his face, and at this little sally all the girls giggled.

They were soon pa.s.sing close to a stone wall, and from this some of the boys scooped handfuls of snow with which they began to pelt each other.

Then they attempted to wash the faces of some of the girls, and a great commotion ensued.

"Hi you! be careful back there!" cautioned the driver. "First thing you know, somebody will get pushed out."

"Oh, that will never happen!" cried Gif; but he had scarcely spoken when there came a wild yell from two of the cadets in the back of the box-sled, and the next moment Randy was seen to turn over and pitch out into the snow.

"Stop the sleigh! Stop the sleigh!" yelled Andy. "One man overboard, and no life-line handy!"