"Well, what of it?" Sandy laughed and snapped his fingers flippantly. "Do you think I'm afraid of him?" "You bet your life you are!" Garry whirled on him so swiftly that Sandy, though much the bigger of the two, shrank back in alarm. "You stow that kind of talk, Sandy Podder, if you know what's good for you." Sandy recovered himself enough to bluster: "Who's going to make me, I'd like to know?" Garry took a step forward, his eyes blazing. But here the storekeeper intervened. "Easy, boys, easy," he admonished. "Don't let's have any trouble in here." Garry drew back at the words and Sandy sneered openly, thinking that he had an ally, if only a negative one. "You think you're going to make the team at Lenox High, I suppose," continued the trouble-maker. "Well, let me tell you that you haven't the ghost of a chance with Allison and Maddern in the field against you." Garry was holding himself in with a great effort. When he spoke it was in a deceptively quiet voice. "You seem to forget that as captain of the Hill Street team I've met both Pete Maddern and Tom Allison--" "And licked them too," interposed the storekeeper, rubbing his hands with enjoyment. "My boy was there at both those games, and he said they were the prettiest he ever saw." "Just luck!" sneered Sandy again with that offensive snap of his fingers. "I was there--and I know." "Oh, you know, do you?" Garry's voice was still calm, but there was something in it that warned Sandy Podder he had gone too far. "Since you know so much, perhaps you can tell me what became of that money that Mr. Long gave you for your father and that your father never got?" CHAPTER V CONSTERNATION At the words that fell from Garry Grayson's lips Sandy Podder's face became as white as ashes. "Now, now--" he stammered, all his aggressiveness gone. "Just let that drop. I don't want to talk about that." "I thought not," replied Garry, with a touch of sarcasm. "Then if you don't want me to spill the whole story, beat it out of here and keep going. And more than that," he added, as Sandy turned hurriedly toward the door, "if you try giving anybody else the same line of chatter you've just handed me, I'll make Lenox a mighty uncomfortable place for you. Just get that." The door slammed after Sandy Podder, and Garry turned toward the grinning storekeeper. "I'll have that package now," he said, with an answering smile. "You sure handed that young whippersnapper a hot one that time," said the man, as he pushed Garry's package across to him and received his money in exchange. "I must say, I was glad to see you do it. That fellow needs taking down a peg or two. But say," he lowered his voice to a confidential murmur and leaned eagerly across the counter, "what did you mean about that money and Sandy Podder's old man? You let out just enough to make me interested." Garry shook his head, gathered the package under one arm, and turned to go.