The High School Freshmen eBook

H. Irving Hancock
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 184 pages of information about The High School Freshmen.

The High School Freshmen eBook

H. Irving Hancock
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 184 pages of information about The High School Freshmen.

“I’m not through with you, yet, Prescott!” Fred Ripley called back over his shoulder.  “I’ll settle my score with you at my convenience!”

Then, as he put more distance between himself and the other Gridley High School boys, Ripley added to himself: 

“That settlement shall stop at nothing to put Dick Prescott in the dust—–­where he belongs.”

“Oh, freshie, but you’ve coolness and judgment,” cried Thompson, approvingly.  “And you’ve broken one cad’s heart today.”

“I’m sorry if I have,” declared Dick, frankly, generously.  “I wouldn’t have had any heart in the fight if he hadn’t started in to humiliate me.  I wouldn’t have cared so much for that, either.  But he started to say something nasty about my parents, and I have as good parents as ever a boy had.  Then I felt I simply had to fit a plug between Ripley’s teeth.”

Fred Ripley had pain in his eyes to help keep him awake that night.  Yet he would have been awake, anyway, for his wicked brain was seething with plans for the way to “get even” with Dick Prescott.

CHAPTER VI

FRED OFFERS TO SOLVE THE LOCKER MYSTERY

For a week Gridley High School managed to get along without the presence of Fred Ripley.  That haughty young man was at home, nursing a pair of black eyes and his wrath.

Yet, in a whole week, a mean fellow who is rather clever can hatch a whole lot of mischief.  This Dick & Co., and some others, were presently to discover.

All outer wraps were left in the basement in locker rooms on which barred iron doors were locked.  In the boys’ basement were lockers A and B. Each locker was in charge of a monitor who carried the key to his own particular locker room.

As it happened Dick Prescott was at present monitor of Locker A.

If during school hours, one of the boys wanted to get his hat out of a locker the monitor of that locker went to the basement with him, unlocking the door, and locking it again after the desired article of apparel had been obtained.

Thus, in a general way, each monitor was responsible for the safety of hats, coats, umbrellas, overshoes, etc., that might have been left in the locker that was in his charge.

Wednesday, just after one o’clock one of the sophomore boys went hurriedly up the stairs, a worried look on his face.  He went straight to the principal’s office, and was fortunate enough to find that gentleman still at his desk.

“What is it, Edwards?” asked the principal, looking up.

“Dr. Thornton, I’ve had something strange happen to me, or to my overcoat, if you prefer to put it that way,” replied Edwards.

“What has gone wrong?”

“Why, sir, relying on the safety of the looker, I left, at recess in one of my overcoat pockets, a package containing a jeweled pin that had been repaired for my mother.  Now, sir, on going down to my coat, I found the pin missing from the pocket.”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The High School Freshmen from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.