See! Here's where he went off through the woods.
Come on! We'll trail him!" "And, if we find him ?" asked Greg.
"We'll try to reason with the fellow," responded Prescott rather grimly.
Just as the boys started off on the trail that Prescott had discovered, other figures appeared on the scene.
"Now, may I ask what you girls are doing here ?" asked Tom, his tone more agreeable than his words.
"We want to see the fun, whatever is going to happen," declared Susie Sharp.
"Oh, there will be plenty of that, I promise you, if we can find the fellow," asserted Darry bluntly.
"Come along, girls!" cried Belle Meade gleefully.
"But there may be something disagreeable happen, you know, girls," Dick warned them.

"If we overtake this fellow there may be a fight." "If you could call it a fight, when six Gridley high school boys attack one man, then I shall have to change my mind about our high school boys," hinted Laura Bentley teasingly.
It was plain enough that the girls were bent on following them, so no more objections were raised.
"We'll travel so fast that the girls won't be able to keep up," whispered Tom Reade to Dick.

"We'll lose 'em, and they'll be glad to hike back to the table." This, however, proved to be not quite as easy as had been expected.
The trail into the woods was rather a plain one, though it could not be followed at a run.
"Keep behind me, fellows," urged Dick.

"If you keep up with me you may blot out the trail." So his five chums came after him, with the girls in the rear, in a straggling line.
Into the deepest woods the trail led.

"The girls will soon tire of this chase, and face about," Tom told Darry.
Which was precisely what happened.
In the deepest part of the woods Dick parted a tangle of bushes through which the trail led.