“It must be pitch,” replied Dick Prescott, also sniffing.  “Whew!  How sharp it is!”

Ted began to sneeze.  Dick followed suit.  Presently all of the boys who were standing at all near the blazing pile found themselves sneezing, coughing or sputtering at a great rate.  Some of the men, further away, caught the acrid fumes.

“This is a mean trick some one has played on us,” cried Dick, falling back before the stifling odors.

“I hope you don’t think I did a mean thing like that?” demanded Teall anxiously.

“I’m sure you didn’t,” Prescott answered.  “You’re full of tricks, Ted Teall, but you’re a real sportsman after you’ve been beaten.”

“Say, can this possibly be any of Hi Martin’s work?” demanded Tom Reade, as the boys fell back steadily from the bonfire.

“Only one objection to suspecting Hi,” retorted Teall.

“What’s that?” asked Greg.  “Too proud?”

“No,” snapped Teall.  “Hi hasn’t brains enough to think up anything.”

“This is just like boys.  It’s really what one gets for turning out to a boys’ bonfire!” growled one man between fits of coughing, as he rapidly got away from the fire.  It’s an abominably mean trick!”

“Who did it?” asked another man.

“Oh, you can’t find that out now,” replied still another.  “You all know the way that boys hang together in mischief.  No one would tell you, or dare to tell you, if he knew.”

“I’d like to know the boy, for about one minute!” snapped one stout, red-faced man, down whose cheeks the tears were trickling.  “It’s that loutish trick of putting red pepper on a fire.  No one but a feeble-minded boy would think of playing an old, moth-eaten trick like that!”

“It would pay us to get out of here quickly, if any one suspected us,” whispered Fred Ripley to his friend.

“Sh!  Shut up!” returned Dodge in a hoarse whisper.  “It isn’t best for us to be seen whispering.  Look innocent.”

From behind a heavy hand descended abruptly on either coat collar, taking firm hold.

“Here are the young apes who played the trick!” roared an angry voice.  “I just heard them whispering about it, and when I was finishing supper I remember that I looked out of the window and saw these boys fooling about the pile.”

“What did you put on the fire?” demanded a man, stepping in front of the now frightened youths, who were hemmed in so that they could not escape.

“Red pepper,” returned Ripley sullenly.  He spoke before he thought, thus admitting his guilt and Dodge’s.

“You idiot!” hissed Bert.

“You’re both of you idiots,” retorted the captor, who had now released both young men.  “Besides being a mean, detestable trick, it’s as old as the world.  That red-pepper trick was invented by some stupid lout who lived thousands of years before the Flood.”

“What shall we do with these imps?” demanded a voice.