That is good," he said to himself, "for I should not be at all
surprised if Mrs. Daly ran down to see the lad tonight." With that he
went over to the Club, wrote a few letters, and then returned to the
rectory for the night.

(VIII)

The boys were late leaving the Club after the excitement of the fire.
They spoke in suppressed tones. Admiration and regret prevailed--admiration
for Bill's daring deed--regret for their conduct to him just before.

"Gee!" said Tommy, "I'm sorry I sailed into him the way I did."

"And who would have thought he was such a daring chap!" exclaimed Dick.

"It only shows," added Ned, "that you never can tell what's in a
fellow."

"We called him the 'Bull'," said Frank, "and in one way we were right,
for that was the bulliest thing I ever saw. My hat is off to Bill Daly."

After a while, they turned to speculating on his condition.

"I hope it's nothing serious," remarked Dick.

"Suppose we wait until Father Boone comes back," added Tommy. "He'll
tell us exactly what's the matter."

After it had got to be late, Frank observed, "I'll bet he's waiting for
Bill to regain consciousness, and there's no telling when he'll be back.
Let's wait a quarter of an hour more, and then if he's not here, we'd
better go."

They all assented to this and when the time was up, they started to
leave. Frank, however, signalled to Dick and Ned and Tommy, and they
loitered about until the rest had gone.

"Fellows," began Frank, "I had a letter all written to Father Boone
about the scrape we're in, but I tore it up, I'm surer than ever that
something worse has happened than that fight. I don't even believe that
Father Boone knows who was in it. But that scrap was the basis of
something else, something really serious. Bill Daly knows what it was,
believe me. He came here tonight to straighten things out. Did you see
how he came in, and how he stood the 'gaff'? Would he have taken all
that from kids like you unless he had something big troubling him? And
that's not all. He got me aside and began to talk confidentially,
hinting at something dark, you know. He was just getting ready to accuse
himself when the fire engine came along, and you know the rest."

The three others nodded in agreement with Frank and awaited further
light on the matter.

"That's all," he continued, "except that I never saw such an exalted
look on any boy's face as when he leaped for that ladder. It just seemed
to say 'I know you've