impulsive youth. "They'll ring it pretty soon, Lem Hicks, and they
aren't afraid of your old king, not a bit of it!"

"What's thet! Don't ye dare speak disrespectfully uv the king!"
snarled Zeke Boggs, making a threatening motion with his fist. "Ef ye
do, why et'll be the worse fur ye, that's all."

Instantly Dick Dare, who was the elder of the brothers, a handsome,
manly youth of eighteen years, seized Zeke by the wrist, and pushed
him back, at the same time saying quietly, yet firmly:

"That will do, Zeke. Don't go making any threats. You and Lem go about
your business, and don't interfere with Tom and I."

"We'll go where we please," snarled Zeke, who was a vicious youth of
about Dick's age, as was Lem Hicks also. "An' we'll stay heer ef we
want to, too, Dick Dare, an' ye can't he'p yerself."

"That's all right," calmly; "you can stay here, I suppose, if you want
to, but you will have to behave yourselves and attend to your own
business. If you try to interfere with Tom and I, or to bully us, you
will wish you hadn't stayed."

"Is thet so?" sneeringly. "Whut'll ye do, Dick Dare, hey?"

"Yes, whut'll ye do?" cried Lem Hicks, pushing forward and facing
Dick.

Tom confronted him quickly, and met his angry glare unflinchingly. Tom
was only sixteen years of age, but he was well-built and athletic for