CHAPTER IV
THE BULLY APPEARS
Joe went to a window in the side of the attic and peered out. Then hegave a low whistle.
"What's the game?" inquired Bob curiously.
"It's Buck Looker and his gang," replied his chum. "How in the worlddid they happen to get here just at this minute? Five minutes more andwe'd have been gone."
"Now I suppose it will all come out about the bear," said Herbregretfully. "I was hoping we could keep that to ourselves."
"Perhaps it's just as well," said Bob thoughtfully. "We'd have toexplain anyhow how we came to fall through the roof, and of coursewe'd tell the truth about it. What we've done now is only a makeshiftjob, and we'll have to get some carpenter to make a perfect thing ofit at our expense. That's the only fair thing to do."
"Hello, up there!" came a voice from below, which they recognized asBuck Looker's. "Who's up there and what are you doing?"
Bob, who had come up to Joe's side, thrust his head out of the window.
"Some of my friends and myself are here," he answered. "We brokethrough the roof of the house and we've just been fixing it up."
"Broke through the roof!" came in a gasp from below. "What businessdid you have on the roof of my house? You're going to get into troublefor this."
"Oh, I don't know," replied Bob. "We're not worrying much about it."
"Well, you'd better worry," growled Buck truculently. "You come rightdown and get out of my house as fast as your legs can carry you orI'll--I'll----"
"Yes," said Bob quietly, "go right ahead with what you were going tosay, Buck Looker. You'll do what?"
Buck hesitated, for there was a note in Bob's voice that he did notlike.
"You'll see what I'll do," he blustered. "You get right out of myhouse."
"Now listen, Buck Looker," replied Bob. "We're going to get out ofthis house for just two reasons. The first is that there's nothingespecially attractive to keep us here, and the second is that we'vefinished our work and were just about to go anyway. But don't foolyourself into thinking that we're going because you tell us to. Ifyour father told us to, we'd have to, because it's his property. Butit isn't yours and what you say doesn't interest us a little bit. Getthat?"
There was a growling response, of which they did not catch the words,and Bob turned to his companions.
"Come along, fellows," he said. "Let's go down and see what thisterrible man-eater and his cronies are going to do to us."
"I only wish they'd give us an excuse for pitching into them," saidJoe. "I've been aching to give Buck Looker a licking ever since thattime Mr. Preston came along and stopped us."
"No chance," laughed Bob. "Buck is prudent enough when any one comesface to face with him. As a long distance fighter he's a wonder, buthe wilts fast enough when a scrap seems coming."
The radio boys brushed off their clothes, restored the tools to theirplaces, and went downstairs and out on the front porch, where theyfound the bully and his friends in close conversation.
"It's time you got out of here!" exclaimed Buck. "My father will havesomething to say about this, and maybe he'll have you all arrested forburglary."
At this the boys could not help laughing, and Buck's face grew redwith fury, while a venomous light glowed in his mean eyes.
"You'll laugh out of the other side of your mouths when you findyourselves in jail," he shouted.
"Now look here," burst out Joe, taking a step toward him, "you've gonequite far enough. You keep a civil tongue in your head, or I'll giveyou what I've owed you ever since Mr. Preston came between us. Andthere's no Mr. Preston here now."
Bob put a restraining hand on his friend's arm.
"Easy, Joe," he counseled.
Then he turned to the bully.
"We don't owe you any explanation, Buck Looker," he said, "but we doowe one to your father, and you can tell him what we say. We werechased by a bear who had wandered away from his master. We chose thishouse for safety because it was the only place at hand and we couldn'tdo anything else. First we got up on the roof of the porch, but thebear came after us there and we had to take to the roof of the houseitself. While we were going across it, part of it caved in and let usdown into the attic. Afterward we tried to repair the damage for thetime, and you can tell your father that we will pay whatever isnecessary to make the roof as good as it was before."
"Chased by a bear!" repeated Buck, with a sneer. "That's a likelystory. There hasn't been a bear around these parts for a hundredyears. Tell that to the marines."
"I suppose that means that I'm telling a falsehood," said Bob, hiseyes taking on a steely glint.
"I didn't say that," muttered Buck, as he stole a glance at Bob'sclenched fist. "But you can tell that to my father and see if hebelieves it."
"He can believe it or not as he sees fit," replied Bob. "Come along,fellows."
"Just notice that we're going of our own accord," put in Joe, as heprepared to follow his friend down the steps. "Don't you want to throwus off the porch or any little thing like that?" he inquired politely,pausing a moment for an answer.
But the only answer was a snarl, and the radio boys left the bullythere and went on to the place a little way off where they had droppedtheir bags when the bear came upon them.
Jimmy, who was in the van, suddenly gave a cry of dismay.
"The bags are gone!" he exclaimed. "I dropped mine right here, and nowthere are no signs of it."
"And mine was close by this tree," cried Herb. "That's gone too."
They hunted about for a few minutes, but the search was fruitless.
"Look here!" exclaimed Joe, at last. "Those bags didn't walk away oftheir own accord. Somebody's taken them."
"And after working all day to fill them!" groaned Jimmy.
"Say, fellows," said Bob. "The only ones that have been around herehave probably been Buck Looker and his gang. There's the answer."
"But they didn't have any bags with them," interposed Herb.
"They could have hidden them, intending to come back after dark andget them," replied Bob. "I'm going to question them anyway. BuckLooker isn't going to put anything like that over on us."
"They'll only lie out of it," prophesied Jimmy pessimistically.
"We can see from the way they talk and act whether they are lying ornot," returned Bob. "At any rate I'm going to take a chance."
They all went back rapidly toward the house, and reached there just intime to see Buck and his cronies vanishing around the back.
"They've seen us coming and tried to dodge," cried Joe.
"That won't do them any good," replied Bob, quickening his speed. "Wecan beat them running any day."
The truth of his words was quickly demonstrated when they drew upabreast of the three, who slowed to a walk when they saw it was no usetrying to evade their pursuers.
"What are you running away for?" queried Bob, as he stepped in frontof Buck.
"None of your business," answered Buck snapishly. "I might ask youwhat you are running for."
"And if you did, I'd tell you mighty quick," answered Bob. "I wasrunning after you to ask you what you did with the bags of nuts youfound under the trees."
Buck tried to put on a look of surprise, but the attempt was afailure.
"I--I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered.
Every tone and every look betrayed that he was not telling the truth,and Bob went straight to the point.
"Yes, you do," he retorted. "You know perfectly well what I'm talkingabout. You found those bags under the trees where we had dropped themwhen the bear chased us, and you've hidden them somewhere intending tocome back for them later. We've got you dead to rights, and you'dbetter come across and come across quick."
Buck hesitated a moment, but the look in Bob's eyes told him what wasin store for him if he refused, and again he concluded that discretionwas the better part of valor.
"Oh, were those yours?" he said, with an affectation of surprise. "Wedid find a few nuts and
laid them aside for the owners if they shouldcome back for them. I had forgotten all about it."
"It's too bad that your memory is so poor," remarked Bob grimly."Suppose you come along and show us where you laid them aside socarefully for their owners."
Again Buck hesitated and seemed inclined to refuse, but the menace inBob's eyes had not lessened, and he reluctantly shuffled back to thewoods in front of the house and pointed out a hollow tree.
"There you'll find your old nuts," he snarled viciously. "That is, ifthey are yours. Ten to one they belong to somebody else." And withthis Parthian shot, which the boys disregarded in their eagerness toregain their property, he slunk away, followed by Lutz and Mooney, thediscomfited faces of the three of them as black as thunder clouds.