This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
A TUG OF WAR
175

treating each to a piece of apple pie and a glass of milk.

"What did I tell you about pie?" whispered Tom. "Say, but it's all right, isn't it?"

"Yes, indeed!" whispered Sam.

The girls had a set of croquet on the lawn and asked the boys to play, but they had to decline for want of time.

All had moved to the rear of the cottage, under a wide-spreading tree, when Dick chanced to look toward the roadway and uttered an exclamation:

"Here come the other fellows now!"

"Yes, and look at the packages they are carrying," added Sam.

"And the bottles," came from Tom significantly.

Dick was about to step forward when Tom caught him by the arm.

"Let us keep shady, Dick."

"All right, Tom, if you say so."

Sam noticed that the faces of the two girls fell when Flapp and his cronies went past.

"Those are some of your chums, I suppose?" Said Helen.

"They are some of the cadets, but no chums of ours," replied Dick.

"Oh!"

"They belong to a little crowd of their own,"