“Are you all here?  When did you and Bert come?  Is there any——­”

“Stop!” thundered Tom, catching up a heavy baseball glove.  “Halt in your tracks, or it will be the worse for you!  One more question, and—­”

“You wait until you hear this one,” said George calmly.  “Maybe you don’t want to, though,” he added mysteriously.

“What is it?” asked Jack, struck by something in the manner of the human question box, and Tom lowered the glove.

“I was going to ask if you’d heard the news,” went on George.  “But if you don’t want to——­”

“Go ahead, Why,” invited Bert.  “I’ll listen, anyhow.  What’s the news?”

“Sam Heller and Nick Johnson just arrived in a big touring car.  Sam says it’s his.”

“Sam Heller here?”

“And Nick Johnson?”

“In a touring car?”

Tom, Jack and Bert asked the questions in turn.  They fairly glared at George.  The latter, satisfied with the impression he had produced, sank into an easy chair.

“They’re here,” he went on.  “I just saw ’em come, and they’re headed this way.”

“Sam and Nick going to room in the same dormitory with us!” gasped Bert.

“After what they did?” asked Jack.

“Helping to capture and hold us fellows prisoners,” said Tom bitterly.

“We won’t stand for it!” declared Bert vigorously.

“I should say not!” came from Jack indignantly.  “We will have to do something—­protest—­make a class matter of it.  After what happened at the old mill, for those snobs to have the nerve to come back to Elmwood Hall.  Why—­”

“It is rather raw,” interrupted Tom.  “What shall we do?”

“Let’s go out and confront ’em,” suggested Bert.  “If they have the nerve to meet us face to face—­well, I don’t believe they will have—­that’s all.”

“Come on!” urged Jack, and he caught hold of Tom’s arm and led him forth to face their common enemies.  The meeting of the chums, that had started off so jollily, was now a session of indignation.

CHAPTER II

BRAZEN DEFIANCE

Talking over the unexpected news George Abbot had brought to them, and planning what they would say to the two lads who had done so much to injure them, our hero and his chums hurried out of the dormitory and across the school campus.

“Where did you see ’em, George?” asked Jack, looking at the small youth who had such fondness for asking questions.

“They just got in—­fine big auto—­they’re over at ‘Pop’ Swab’s soda emporium, filling up on ginger ale, and poking fun at some of the new fellows.”

“Just like ’em,” murmured Tom.  “We’ll do something more than poke fun at ’em when we see ’em.”

“That’s what,” added Jack.

“Maybe they aren’t going to stay—­they may have just come here for a bluff, and are going away again,” suggested Bert.