"Looks like it." The leader turned up Brick's face to the electric
light. "Who 's been paintin' you up like that?" he demanded.
Brick pointed at Joe, who was forthwith dragged to the front.
"Wot was you scrappin' about?"
"Kites--my kites," Joe spoke up boldly. "That fellow tried to take them
away from me. He 's got them under his arm now."
"Oh, he has, has he? Look here, you Brick, we don't put up with stealin'
in this territory. See? You never rightly owned nothin'. Come, fork over
the kites. Last call."
The leader tightened his grasp threateningly, and Simpson, weeping tears
of rage, surrendered the plunder.
"Wot yer got under yer arm?" the leader demanded abruptly of Fred, at the
same time jerking out the bundle. "More kites, eh? Reg'lar kite-factory
gone and got itself lost," he remarked finally, when he had appropriated
Charley's bundle. "Now, wot I wants to know is wot we 're goin' to do to
you t'ree chaps?" he continued in a judicial tone.
"What for?" Joe demanded hotly. "For being robbed of our kites?"
"Not at all, not at all," the leader responded politely; "but for luggin'
kites round these quarters an' causin' all this unseemly disturbance.
It 's disgraceful; that 's wot it is--disgraceful."
At this juncture, when the Hill-dwellers were the center of attraction,
Brick suddenly wormed out of his jacket, squirmed away from his captors,
and dashed across the lot to the slip for which he had been originally
headed when overtaken by Joe.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41