“Yes; if you’ll leave the matter wholly in my hands, and agree not to interfere”

Theodore Dodge agreed to this, and Lawyer Ripley went ahead.  The legal gentleman, however had a more difficult time than he had expected.  It took a lot of argument, and more than one meeting, to make Dick & Co. agree to accept anything whatever.

It was at last settled, however, Mr. Ripley urging upon the young men that they had no right to slight their own future prospects or education by refusing to “lay by” money to which they were honestly entitled, when it cane in the form of an earned reward from a citizen amply able to pay the reward.

So Dick and Dave received that thousand dollars, which, of course, they divided evenly.

In addition, each member of Dick & Co. received one hundred dollars for his prompt and gallant work in rescuing Grace Dodge from death.

Of course Bert, away at private school with Bayliss, heard all about the rescue.  It is not a matter of record, however, that Bert ever wrote a letter thanking any member of Dick & Co. for saving his sister.

CHAPTER XXV

POSTSCRIPT

When the next commencement swung around Fred Ripley, who had managed to “go straight” all through his senior year, was among those graduated.  What became of him will yet be learned by our readers in another volume.

There are a host of other Gridley fellows also to be accounted for.

Their part in the subsequent history of Gridley, and of the world in general, will also yet be told, all in the proper place.

“Prin.,” too, may yet come in for some attention.

Dick & Co. did not take part in basket ball nor any of the organized winter athletics though they kept constantly in training.  But these young men realized that the High School is, first of all, a place for academic training; so, after the football season had ended so gloriously, they went back to their books with renewed vigor.

Laura and Belle, as they neared the end of their junior year, went almost from girlhood into womanhood, as is the way with girls.

Yet neither Miss Meade nor Miss Bentley found Dick or Dave “too young” for their frank, girlish admiration.

“You see, Dick, that we were quite right about you and Dave having all the grit that goes with the highest needs of the military profession,” Laura remarked.  “Your conduct at the fire shows the stuff that would be displayed by Dick & Co. in leading a charge in battle, if need be.”

“I guess a reasonable amount of courage, under stress, is the possession of nearly all members of the human race,” laughed young Prescott.

Here we shall leave our Gridley friends for a short time.  We shall meet them all again, however, in the forthcoming and final volume of this series, which will be published under the title: