"After them!"
"Wait!" shouted Fenn. "Maybe it's only a trick to get us away from the
barn, so they can steal the dinner!"
"That's so!" agreed Bart, much excited. "Are you sure they have
Ned, Frank?"
"Sure! We both came in together, and they grabbed us. But it was Ned they
wanted, because he was to be toastmaster. They must have gagged him, as I
didn't hear him yell."
"What had we better do?" asked Bart.
"Some of us stay here to look after things and the rest try to get Ned,"
suggested Fenn.
"They're five to our one," objected Frank.
"That's nothing! We've got to get Ned! They'll have the laugh on us if
we don't," said Bart.
There was a hasty consultation and the dinner party was divided into two
forces. Some were left on guard, while the others set off on a run after
the Upside Down boys.
But the delay had given the assailants the very chance they needed to get
a good start. When the pursuers set off across the fields the captors of
Ned were out of sight. There was a hasty search for them, but the first
year boys had apparently hidden in some place that defied the efforts of
the ball crowd to locate it.
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