Hi shook his head, then opened his mouth to utter an indignant denial.

“Don’t try to fool us,” advised Dick bitterly.  “Martin, you may have thought it funny, but it was a mean trick to serve us, and I am glad that Teall has shown you how little he likes you.”

Under ordinary circumstances Ted might have left Hi Martin’s clothes behind.  It had been Hi’s impolitic remark about “mucker schools” that had decided Ted to take away Hi’s belongings as well.

“That Teall is a dirty sneak,” cried Hi.

“He was simply a comical genius as long as he took only our clothes,” Dick retorted.  “But now that your things are gone as well, it’s a mean, low-down bit of business.”

“Martin,” observed Tom Reade dramatically, “thine own ox is gored.”

“Talking won’t bring back any duds,” grunted Harry Hazelton.  “Teall can’t have gotten very far with such a load.  Let’s rush after him.”

“You lead the way, then, son,” suggested Dick, “and instead of following you, we’ll wait here until you bring the things back.”

“I wonder which way he went?” puzzled Hazelton.

“Probably straight to the road,” smiled Dick grimly.  “That’s the shortest cut, and the road isn’t far from here.”

“But I can’t go near the road in this—–­this—–­fix,” sputtered Harry, looking down at his wet, glistening skin.

“Exactly,” nodded Prescott.  “Nor can any of us go.  That’s the joke.  Like it?  Ha, ha, ha!”

Dick’s laugh had anything but a merry sound.  None of the boys had a truly jovial look, nor was it to be expected of them.  Tom was solemn as an owl, Harry fussy; Dan was grinning in a sickly sort of way, as was Dave Darrin.  Greg Holmes, utterly silent, stood with his fists clenched, thinking how he would like to be able at this moment to pounce upon Ted Teall.

“It’s an outrage!” sputtered Hi Martin, white to the roots of his hair.  He was walking about, stamping with his bare feet on the ground, the fingers of both his hands working nervously.

“Oh, well, you won’t get any sympathy in this crowd,” Tom assured Hi glumly.  “You were party to this, and all that disturbs you is that any one should dare take the same kind of a liberty with you.  We don’t care what happens to you, now, Martin.”

“What shall we do with Martin, anyway?” demanded Dan Dalzell.

“Nothing,” returned Dick crisply.  “He isn’t worthy of having anything done to him.”

“Let’s call ‘Ted’ with all our might,” proposed Harry.

“You can, if you want to,” Dick rejoined.  “I doubt if he is now near enough to hear you.  Even if he did hear, he’d only snicker and run further away.”

After a few moments more Dick and his chums, as though by common consent, squatted on the sand near the edge of the pond.  It was warmer for them that way.  Martin edged over close to them.  Not one member of Dick & Co. did the captain of the North Grammar nine really like, but in his present woeful plight Hi wanted human company of some kind, and he could not very well go in search of people who wore all their clothing.