Part 4 (2/2)
”We are not afraid of you, Baxter, and you ought to know it by this time,” answered d.i.c.k. ”You may as well give in now as later on.”
”Give in! You must be crazy!”
”We are two to one, and you know what we have been able to do in the past.”
”Humph! I don't intend to go to jug again, and that is all there is to it.”
”Maybe you can't help yourself.”
”We'll see about that. Are you--going to keep off or not?
”Don't ask foolish a question.”
”You won't keep off?”
”No.”
”If you don't I--I'll shoot you.”
As Dan Baxter spoke he stopped rowing and brought from a hip pocket a highly polished nickel-plated revolver.
”Do you see this?” he demanded, as he pointed the weapon toward the Rover boys.
Both d.i.c.k and Tom were taken aback at the sight of the weapon.
But they had seen such arms before, and had faced them, consequently they were not as greatly alarmed as they right otherwise have been. They knew, too, that Dan Baxter was a notoriously bad shot.
”Put that up, Baxter,” said d.i.c.k calmly. ”It may only get you into deeper trouble.”
”I don't care!” said the bully recklessly. ”I'm not going back to jail and that is all there, is to it!”
”You won't dare to shoot at us, and you know it,” put in Tom, as the two boats drifted closer together.
”I will, and don't you fool yourself on it.”
”Drop those oars or I'll fire, as sure as my name is Dan Baxter,”
and the revolver, which had been partly lowered, was raised a second time.
It must be confessed that d.i.c.k and Tom were much disconcerted.
The two rowboats were now less than fifty feet apart, and any kind of a shot from the weapon was likely to prove more or less dangerous. Baxter's eyes gleamed with the hatred of an angry snake ready to strike.
”You think you are smart, you Rover boys,” said the bully, after an awkward pause all around. ”You think you did a big thing in rescuing Dom Stanhope and in putting me and my father and Buddy Girk in prison. But let me tell you that this game hasn't come to an end yet, and some day we intend to square accounts.”
”There is no use in wasting breath in this fas.h.i.+on, Baxter,”
returned d.i.c.k, as calmly as he could. ”We are two to one, and the best thing to do is for you to submit. If you fire on us, we may do a little shooting on our own account.”
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