"An Encounter" Summary

The story begins with schoolboys reading westerns and detective novels that are disapproved by their parents and teachers. The boys play role-play games based on the characters in the stories and plan out their own adventures. Three boys, Dillon, Mahoney, and the narrator, make a plot to skip school and visit the Pigeon House. The next day only two boys show up at the appointed place. They go off and spend the day playing around without ever making it to the Pigeon House. On their way home, they stop to rest for a while and meet a strange man. This man has two conversations with the narrator. One of them is about how nice little girls are and how all boys should have sweethearts. The other is about how much he likes whipping little boys who are bad, including...