“How’s your shadow?” asked Gus, as he seated himself in an easy-chair and looked at Dan.
“My shadow?” inquired Dan. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, that little white-livered milksop that tags you most of the time. For my part, I think he needs a nurse-maid.”
“You mean that little fellow in the fourth form—Carlton Hall?”
“I guess that’s his name,” laughed Gus. “It rhymes with bawl. He ought never to have left his mother. He’s a mamma’s darling all right, though he seems to have taken you up in her place. What do you get for looking after his nursing-bottle?”
For several weeks, indeed ever since the time when Dan had interfered with the school bully in his tormenting little Carlton Hall, Gus to all appearances had ignored or forgotten the ill will which he had manifested for the new member of his own class. He had been indifferent rather than openly unfriendly, and Dan had been well content to be left alone. His dislike for his rough and brutal classmate had become stronger as he noticed his growing intimacy with Walter, who was quickly and easily influenced by his surroundings. Dan now understood a part of the reason why Mr. Borden had offered to send him to the Tait School though he grimly resolved never to betray his knowledge to anyone, least of all to Walter.
The present visit and sneering words of Gus were somewhat unexpected and Dan suspected that there was more behind them than he was able to see at the present time. His voice did not betray his anger at the contemptuous question of his visitor and without further conversation he quietly prepared to leave the room.
“Where you going, Dan?” said Walter.
“Don’t hinder little Carlton’s nurse,” laughed Gus. “The poor child may need his bottle. He wants somebody to play with him. Don’t you know that good little boys die young?”
“What’s the matter with you, Gus?” demanded Walter, nevertheless laughing at the taunting words of his classmate.
“Nothing the matter with me!” declared Gus. “I’m fit. I was never in better form in my life. I wish the game with the Military Academy was to-morrow instead of a week from Saturday. I want a chance to line up against Hackett. Last year he served me a trick that I haven’t forgotten. No one ever does that to me and lives to tell the tale.” As he spoke, the bully looked brutally at Dan, as if there was some vague and implied threat in his words.
“You’re enough for any fellow in the school,” laughed Walter.
“Am I? Well, you tell your rube roommate that if he can keep his little friend’s mouth shut he’ll be doing him a mighty friendly turn. It will be better for everybody concerned.”
“What has he been doing now?”
“Setting Mr. Hale after me,” said Gus angrily. “What do you think is the latest?”
“I haven’t any idea,” replied Walter. “What is it?”
“Hale told me that if any more trouble was made in pretty little Carlton’s room one or two members of the team would be shut out from the games.”
“Did he mean you?”
“I guess so. If he didn’t, why did he speak to me in that way?”
“You know better than I do,” laughed Walter, as Dan looked steadily at their visitor, though he did not speak.
“Don’t let me keep you,” continued Gus, looking again at Dan. “Why do you linger so long? If you want to go and play horse or Injun with your little pal, don’t let me prevent you. My only suggestion is that you tell the nice little boy that if he ‘blabs’ on me again he will want to arrange for the coroner. And so will anyone who tries to set him up to such tricks.”
Gus’s face flushed an angry red as he spoke directly to Dan, while Walter was looking in wonder first at one boy and then at the other.
“The little fellow has a right to protect himself,” said Dan quietly.
“‘Protect himself’!” said Gus scornfully. “There isn’t any place in the Tait School for a telltale.”
“How much of a place is there for a coward who picks out some little chap who can’t defend himself and spends his time picking on him?”
“Do you say I am a coward?” shouted Gus, drawing back his fist threateningly.
“You know better than I do,” retorted Dan quietly. “I’m sorry if Carlton has been telling Mr. Hale about your dirty tricks. I don’t believe he has, but even if he did, he wasn’t going beyond his rights. His mother pays a lot of money to send him here and she has a right to expect that her boy shall get her money’s worth. If any fellow tries to——”
“Do you say I am a coward?” Gus again broke in loudly.
“I haven’t said so.”
“Yes, you have! You feel mighty safe to talk that way here in the dormitory where the teachers can hear everything. Come on down to the field! I’ll show you whether I’m a coward or not! I’ll meet you any time you say!” Gus raised his voice and fairly shouted his defiance.
“You talk like a brave man,” said Dan in a low voice.
“I’m no mucker anyway!”
“Aren’t you? You might ask some of the boys what they think.”
“Come on!”
“With you? You get out of this room!”
“Perhaps you’ll put me out,” sneered Gus. “Or no, perhaps you’ll run and cry. Go tell Mr. Sharp, he’s in charge of this hall. Tell him to come and help you. That’s what you’ve been setting up your baby to do. I know you! You’ve set him up to tell tales of me, so that you could get me in trouble and you wouldn’t have to do any work to get a place on the nine this spring——”
“Will you leave the room?” broke in Dan.
“When I get ready. Want me to go before?”
Dan waited to hear no more. He turned suddenly and seized the bully by the back and before Gus was able to realize the situation he was out of the room. But the school bully was a powerful boy, and was twisting and turning in his efforts to break the hold of Dan. As the two struggling boys came into the hall they found themselves face to face with Mr. Sharp. Instantly they released their grasp and, with an air of apparent indifference, Gus said, “All right, Richards, I’ll see you again.” The boy tried to speak indifferently, although his breathing was labored and his face betrayed his anger.
“What is the meaning of this, young gentlemen?” demanded Mr. Sharp, as he looked at the boys. The teacher was a mild-mannered, inoffensive man, whose dealings with the boys lacked many of the qualities that had made Mr. Hale respected as well as beloved by all the students in the school. “Don’t you know that scuffling in the rooms and in the halls is forbidden?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Dan.
“I am surprised at you, Richards,” continued Mr. Sharp, his face betraying an increasing annoyance. “This is the first time I have known of your breaking the school rules.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What have you to say for yourself?”
“I’m afraid there isn’t anything to be said, Mr. Sharp.”
“What have you to say, Kiggins?” demanded the teacher irritably.
“We were only fooling,” muttered Gus.
“That’s the way it was, Mr. Sharp!” spoke up Walter. “They didn’t mean to break the rules. It isn’t study-hour——”
“That makes no difference,” interrupted Mr. Sharp. “I shall give you each ten marks and place you both on the ‘limits’ for a week.”
“But I’m on the eleven, Mr. Sharp,” protested Gus. “That will keep me from practising with the team and we’re to play the Military Academy next week.” Twenty-five marks caused a boy to be suspended, and to be given “the limits” was to prevent him from leaving the school grounds, even to go to the athletic field during the days for which the sentence was declared.
“You should have thought of that,” said Mr. Sharp.
“But I must go. There isn’t any other way. I’ll appeal to the doctor.”
“A repetition of such a threat will bring you ten marks more,” said Mr. Sharp pettishly. “Go to your room and remain there until the bell rings for supper! I am deeply chagrined to find you, Richards, in such a scrape as this,” the teacher again said as he turned to Dan. “I expected better things of you.”
Dan did not reply and in a brief time he and Walter entered their room and closed the door.
“That’s a smart trick you’ve played this time, Dan Richards,” said Walter fiercely when the two boys were by themselves.
“I haven’t played any trick.”
“What did you order Gus to leave the room for?”
“I wanted him to get out.”
“But you didn’t have any business to tell him that. Remember, this is my room. When I want a fellow to leave I’ll tell him to go. I sha’n’t ask you.”
“I don’t remember that I asked you.”
“You didn’t. That’s half the trouble.”
“Well, Gus Kiggins went, didn’t he?” asked Dan grimly.
“You caught him when he wasn’t looking. You’ve got yourself in a mess now. A week’s ‘limits’ and ten marks! You’ll think that’s a picnic though compared with what Gus will do to you. He’s the best boxer in the school.”
“So I have heard.”
“Look here, Dan; we might as well have this out now as any time. If you think you’re going to order my friends out of my room any time you take a notion you’re mistaken, that’s all! I won’t stand for it.”
“Walter, you’d better draw a line through the room then; if you want to you can have such fellows as Gus Kiggins on your side. I simply don’t want him on my side of the line.”
“Who pays for this room?”
“Your father, as I have frequently heard you say.”
“Well, he pays for the whole room, doesn’t he?”
“Yes—half of it for you and half for me. If I had known what I had to put up with, you might have had a roommate like Gus Kiggins.”
“He isn’t the only fellow in school that has ten marks and the ‘limits’ for a week.”
“That’s right,” assented Dan quietly.
“I guess my father will think it’s a toss up.”
“He’ll soon know.”
“How? Are you going to tell my father about him?” asked Walter, his alarm betraying itself in his manner.
“I sha’n’t mention the name of Gus Kiggins. I shall write your father about my part.”
“But you might as well tell him about Gus. He’ll know just as soon as he hears from you.”
“Very well. Will you write him then?”
“I? Why should I write him?”
“I thought you thought it was better for you to write than for me.”
“Will you write if I don’t?”
“I shall.”
“I’d like to know why?”
“Because I want him to have the facts—that’s all.”
“Then I’ll write him,” said Walter hastily.
“All right.”
“And look here, Dan. I didn’t just mean what I said. I don’t want to be a cad. I didn’t—I wish I hadn’t said what I did.”
“About what?”
“You know,” said Walter foolishly. “I mean about the room.”
“I understand,” said Dan in a low voice.
“I was just a little worried, Dan. Gus Kiggins has his faults, but then he isn’t the worst fellow in school. But I don’t want you to have any trouble——”
“Why not?”
“He’s the best fighter in school.”
“You mean best or worst?”
“Either,” replied Walter, with an uneasy laugh. “I don’t want you to queer yourself.”
“I don’t want to myself,” said Dan good-naturedly.