Yank Brown Cross Country Runner Author:David Stone Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE WAY OF ALL TRAITORS YANK BROWN and Peanut Putnam joined the clamorous crowd which surged around the unfortunate Klein- wold. They had no sy... more »mpathy for the captured youth; and while they were unaware of the fate that lay in store for him, they wanted to see everything that was going to happen. So they edged their way through the throng until they stood in the first circle of interested spectators. At the word of the leader, whom Yank afterwards found to be Jim Manley, someone produced a large black strip of cloth, with which Kleinwold was blindfolded. And then, after a group of volunteers had widened the circle considerably, the real work of the evening started. But first, a stream of light emerged suddenly from the darkness, making the field almost as bright as day, showing up the dark black forms of hundreds of students in grotesque relief. "What in the world is it?" Peanut demanded. "Where did the sunbeam come from?" "It's only the headlight of an automobile that has been run up to the field," Doug Fletcher answered quietly. "Let's see what's going on." In the very center of the circle, Kleinwold, his eyes covered with the black bandage, was standing defiantly, his arms folded across his chest. He made no attempt at resistance, simply stood silent, waiting for what might happen. There seemed to be no hurry on the part of his captors. But there was a business-like precision about their method of procedure which did not bode well for the ill-fated boy. For perhaps five minutes they permtited him to stand without speaking, while Jim Man- ley called his lieutenants around him and gave brisk orders in crisp, husky whispers.Finally, however, Kleinwold could bear it no longer. "Would you mind telling me what you are about to do?" he asked, with...« less