Mark Mason's Victory: The Trials and Triumphs of a Telegraph Boy

"Say, Joe, are we going to stand this?" asked Bill.

"Not by a long shot! Follow me, pard."

Mr. Sprague's back was turned to the street, and he did not see the quick approach of the two miners. He was just about to bring down the whip again upon poor defenseless Philip when he thought he was struck by a cyclone.

Bill seized him by the collar, while Joe snatched the whip from his hand.

"Why, why, what's all this?" asked the astonished man in dismay.

"Two can play at your little game," answered Joe. "You can stand it better than the kid," and he lashed the unfortunate Nahum across the legs just as Philip had suffered a short time before.

"Stop, stop!" yelled Nahum, who was a coward at heart. "What do you mean? I'll have the law of you."

"That's what you were doing to the kid. I'll give you a dose of your own medicine," and Mr. Sprague received a second stroke.

"Give me the whip, Joe!" cried Bill. "Give me a chance at him! Don't keep all the fun to yourself."

"All right! Here it is."

Bill used the whip quite as effectively as his friend Joe.

"You stop licking my pa!" exclaimed Oscar, not daring, however, to approach the scene of conflict.

"I say, kid, what was he licking you for?" asked Bill after the first blow.

"He said I broke the bottle and spilled the whisky."

"And did you?"

"Yes, but Oscar pushed me and made me do it."

"Who's Oscar?"

"That boy there."

"Oho! so he's to blame for it."

"It's a lie!" retorted Oscar.

"It isn't. I know the kid's telling the truth. He deserves a dose, too. Bring him here, Joe."

Joe advanced upon Oscar, and after a short chase seized him by the collar, and brought him up to the self-appointed dispenser of justice.

"Hold him tight, Joe!"

Then Oscar felt the whip lash coiling around his legs.

"You quit that!" he howled in anger and dismay.

"One more will do you good. You're bigger than the kid and you can stand it better."

A second time the lash descended with even greater force, and Oscar jumped and danced as Philip had done before him, but somehow it didn't seem to impress him as so funny.

"You'd better give the old man more and then we'll let him go," said Joe.

"I'll have you arrested!" shrieked Nahum Sprague, but in spite of his threat he received another dose of the same medicine.

"When you want some more call on us!" said Bill.

As he spoke he flung the whip out into the street, and the two ministers of justice went off laughing.

"If they try to lick you again, kid, come and tell us," Joe called back.

CHAPTER XXXI

PHILIP FINDS A FRIEND

When the two unauthorized ministers of justice had departed Oscar and his father looked at each other in anger and stupefaction.

"It's an outrage!" exclaimed Nahum Sprague.

"I'd like to shoot them!" returned Oscar. "I'd like to see them flayed within an inch of their lives."

"So would I. They are the most audacious desperadoes I ever encountered."

"Do you know them, dad?"

"Yes; they are Bill Murphy and Joe Hastings. They are always hanging round the drinking saloon."

"We can lick Philip at any rate!" said Oscar, with a furious look at poor Phil. "He brought it on us."

But Nahum Sprague was more prudent. He had heard the threat of Bill and Joe to repeat the punishment if Philip were attacked, and he thought it best to wait.

"Leave it to me," he said. "I'll flog him in due time."

"Ain't you going to do anything to him, dad?" asked Oscar in disappointment.

"Yes. Come here, you, sir!"

Phil approached his stern guardian with an uncomfortable sense of something unpleasant awaiting him.

Nahum Sprague seized him by the collar and said, "Follow me."

He pushed the boy before him and walked him into the house, then up the stairs into an attic room, where he locked him in. Just then the bell rang for dinner.

Poor Phil was hungry, but nothing was said about dinner for him. A dread suspicion came to him that he was to be starved. But half an hour later the door opened, and Oscar appeared with two thin slices of bread without butter.

"Here's your dinner," he said.