“I wonder what the head waiter said to the rah-rah boys?” asked Reade curiously.

“I don’t know, but I can guess the meaning of what he said,” laughed Darry.  “Did you ever see such an ill-bred lot of fellows before!”

“They’re not college boys,” Dick declared quietly.  “I don’t know where they came from, but certainly none of them have ever been through as much as a year in any real college.”

“They’re about as frisky as some college boys,” retorted Danny Grin.

“College boys may be full of mischief, at times,” Dick returned, “but at least they know how to behave well when they should do so.  College men never think it funny to be rude with women, for instance.  College men are usually the sons of well-bred parents, and they also acquire additional finish at college.  Moreover, the English language is one of the subjects taught in colleges.  These cheeky rah-rah boys were very slip-shod in their speech.  I don’t know who these fellows are, but they’re not real college men.”

“Say, it must be nice,” remarked Hazelton, “to be able to travel about the country, stopping at such nice hotels.  Laura and her friends manage to have pretty good times.”

“Their families are all better off than ours, in a worldly sense,” Dick replied.  “When you stop to think of it, there are far more girls than boys in our good old high school who come from comfortable homes.  Perhaps two dozen of our high school fellows come from homes of considerable wealth.  The rest of us don’t.  More than half of the Gridley High School girls come from families where servants are kept.  I wonder if it is that way, generally, in the United States?”

Prescott had unwittingly stumbled upon a fact often noted.  The homes of plain American wage earners send more boys than girls to high school.  The well-to-do families send more of their boys to private schools, while their girls are more likely to attend high school.

However, as the boys neared their camp, all other thoughts were driven from their minds.

Tom Reade, who was leading, stopped abruptly, holding up one hand.

“Now, what do you think of anyone who would do a trick like that?” he demanded with a sharp in-drawing of his breath.

“The sneaks!” breathed Darry fiercely.

“Who could have done it?” gasped Greg.

For the tent was down—–­flat.  The wagon lay on its side, nor was the horse anywhere in sight.

“Did those rascally tramps follow us and watch their chance?” demanded Dave Darrin hotly.

“I don’t believe the tramps did it,” spoke Prescott, in a very quiet voice, though an angry flush rose to his face.  “I believe that we must look in a different direction for the offenders.”

“The rah-rah hoodlums?” gasped Greg Holmes.

“Yes,” Dick nodded.

CHAPTER XIV

DICK & CO.  MAKE AN APPLE “PIE”