Part 11 (1/2)

Silverton said this morning not to allow any Cubs ever to set foot on his land again!”

”Mr. Silverton gave such an order?” Brad gasped in disbelief.

”He sure did,” Dobbs retorted in great satisfaction. ”You broke the rules by going into the restricted area, so now you can take your medicine!”

”You won't listen to our explanation!” Dan broke in hotly. ”At least give us a chance to talk to Mr. Silverton.”

”I told you he won't see you and that's final!”

Angrily, Saul Dobbs grasped Dan by the shoulders and turned him squarely around in the path. ”Now git!”

”You're just making that up about Mr. Silverton not wanting to see us!”

Chips shouted, ready to do battle in Dan's defense. ”You mean you don't want us to talk to him.”

Brad placed a restraining hand on the excited boy's shoulder.

”Come on, Chips,” he advised. ”No sense making a fuss. We'll see Mr.

Silverton later on.”

”Like fun you will,” Saul Dobbs muttered as the four Cubs started away.

”I'm telling you, he's had his fill of young tereduns.”

Completely discouraged, the boys treked back to the village. By now they were firmly convinced that if Dobbs had not poisoned Mr. Silverton's mind against them, he would do so at the first opportunity.

”This is getting serious,” Brad said. ”We've got to see Silverton somehow, even if it means calling his office every day.”

Warm and out-of-sorts from the long hike, the four boys dropped in at a village drugstore for ice cream. The proprietor glanced rather sharply at them as they entered a booth at the rear of the store, or so it seemed to Brad.

”Anything wrong with us today?” he remarked to the Cubs. ”Everyone seems to give us the icy stare.”

”Hadn't noticed it,” Dan replied, reaching for the menu.

”Well, maybe I imagined it,” the Den Chief shrugged.

But later, after the four had finished their ice cream, Chips paused at the counter rack a moment to flip the pages of a comic magazine.

”No loitering,” the drugstore owner reprimanded him. ”If you've finished eating, go on outside. I can't have you cluttering up the place.”

”Well, for crying out loud!” Chips remonstrated. ”We'll be glad to leave, and we won't come back either!”

Indignant over the rebuff, the four boys paid their bill and left the drugstore. However, Brad was deeply disturbed by what had occurred.

”We weren't doing anything,” he said. ”Chips barely had glanced at the magazine when the proprietor jumped him.”

”Just another old crab!” declared Red. ”This town's full of 'em.”

”I'm afraid there's more to it than that,” Brad said uneasily. ”When we first went into the drugstore, the proprietor glanced at our uniforms in a rather odd-almost contemptuous way.”

”Our uniforms?” Dan repeated, puzzled. ”What's wrong with the Cub uniform?”