Dan Carter and the Cub Honor Part 18

"Pat's team is short a good subst.i.tute too," Dan declared. "No use borrowing trouble."

He was bouncing the ball lazily down the floor, when the gymnasium door burst open. Midge and Red rushed breathlessly in, fairly bursting with news.

"Come on outside, quick!" Red commanded. "Want to show you something!"

Dan, Brad and Chips quickly joined the other two Cubs at the rear church steps. There stood the two ice cream freezers, the lid missing from one of the cans!

"Gos.h.!.+" Chips exclaimed, staring. "Where'd they come from?"

"Midge and I just brought 'em from the river."

"The river?" echoed Dan. "I don't get it."

"Midge and I were hiking out that way," Red explained. "All at once, we came upon these two cans."

"How did they get there?"

"Someone carried 'em, that's what," Red went on grimly. "Pat and his gang, I'll bet. The kids from Bay Sh.o.r.e play along the river a lot.

They've made a stick and gra.s.s hut down by the Hi-Level Bridge."

"It was near the hut that we found the freezers," Midge added.

The Cubs were relieved to recover the missing containers, but uncertain what to do with them. One of the freezers seemed as good as new after they had washed out the metal cylinder which bore traces of melted ice cream. The other can was bent and the lid missing.

"We looked everywhere in the brush for it," Midge reported. "Couldn't find it anywhere."

Brad told the Cubs that not a moment must be lost in returning the stolen property to Terry Treuhaft.

"All we can do is try to explain to him again what happened, and offer to pay for the damaged freezer," he advised.

"We'll have to return 'em," Dan agreed uneasily. "I hate to do it though.

This will give him another chance to accuse us."

No one wanted to be a.s.signed the job of returning the recovered property to Mr. Treuhaft. Because the other Cubs were so reluctant, Dan and Brad volunteered.

Both freezers were loaded into Dan's little red wagon, and made a tight fit. As the two boys hauled the containers down the street, they imagined that everyone was staring at them.

"I think half the town heard that untrue story about us taking these freezers," Dan said uncomfortably. "Now folks will think the worst, seeing us haul them."

"We've done nothing dishonorable, Dan."

"I know that, Brad. All the same, I feel sort of funny. Everyone stares so."

"We could go down this alley," Brad suggested, halting the wagon at the entranceway.

"Let's," agreed Dan.

They turned into the narrow alley, pulling the creaking wagon down the uneven bricks, past high fences and garbage cans.

Unaccountably, Brad halted so suddenly that the freezers nearly tumbled off the wagon.

"See what I see, Dan?"

Near the exit to the alley, a group of boys were practicing basketball.

A make-s.h.i.+ft netting had been attached to the wall, serving as a basket.

"Why, it's Pat Oswald!" Dan recognized one of the players. "No wonder he has a sure eye for a basket."

"I'm not blaming him for practicing," Brad commented in a low tone. "More power to him! But it's tough to have to do it in an alley."

"Pat didn't tell us about not having a practice court." Dan now felt ashamed of himself for having resented, even secretly, the Purple Five's use of the church gymnasium.

Not wis.h.i.+ng to appear to spy upon the Bay Sh.o.r.e boys, Brad and Dan would have retreated. But as they started to turn the wagon, its squeaking wheels betrayed them.

"Hey, you!" Pat shouted, recognizing them.

Brad and Dan then went on, well aware that the freezers they hauled would create a sensation.

"Where'd you get those?" Pat demanded suspiciously.

Dan brought the wagon to a stop by the high fence.

"Down by the river," he replied briefly. "Some of the Cubs found them near your hut."

"Our hut? That's a laugh! You tryin' to say we took your old ice cream last Friday night?"

"I'm not making any accusations."

"Well, you'd better not, that's all I got to say!" Pat retorted. He glared at Dan, and then turned to his cronies. "Come on, guys! Let's scram! You can't have any privacy these days, not even in an alley."

Dan and Brad watched in amus.e.m.e.nt as the Bay Sh.o.r.e boys clattered noisily off over the uneven bricks. The thrust about finding the freezers near the gang's hut had found its mark, they felt.

"Pat looked guilty when he saw these cans," Brad remarked. "It burns me he'd engineer such a mean trick, especially after the Cubs have been mighty nice about the gymnasium."

Dan had been studying the make-s.h.i.+ft basket netting fastened to the wall.

A white chalk line, evidently a foul line marker had been drawn on the alley floor.

"Pat and his boys must practice here often," he remarked.

"I'd judge so, by the looks of the wall!" In annoyance, Brad pointed to a phrase which had been chalked on the boards.

The wording read: "The Cubs Are Sissies!" And higher up appeared the insult: "Cubs are Crooks!"

Dan dropped the wagon tongue and rushed over to wipe the offending words from the wall.

"This is the limit!" he fumed. "Brad, let's call off that Friday game!

Why should we play with such wretched sports?"