to when we--when it got adrift?"

"The pawnbroker, I suppose," said Heathcote. "Most likely Nash."

"No wonder Tom White didn't seem much cut up about losing her."

"No; he made a good thing by it. It's a comfort to think he'll get
nabbed at last."

"Of course, we've nothing to do with his row," said Dick.

"Of course not. We had nothing to do with pawning the boat."

And yet, they concluded, if the _Martha_ had never gone adrift, no one
would have known of Tom White's fraud, and he might have been able to
make money enough with her to clear himself.

It seemed unfair to rake up an old sore like this at the very beginning
of the term, especially when, as they persuaded themselves, over and
over again, the whole affair had very little to do with them.

"I vote we don't look at this wretched paper any more," said Heathcote,
crumpling up the offending _Observer_ into a ball, and giving it a punt
across the path.

"Why not? We may as well see what becomes of Tom White," said Dick.
"Young Aspinall can fetch us up a copy once a week."

And so one of the events of the new term was that the _Templeton
Observer_ had a new subscriber, and increased its circulation by two new
and very diligent readers.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

THE NEW CAPTAIN DRAWS A STRAIGHT LINE.

Mansfield returned to Templeton like a man who knows that his work is
cut out for him, and who means to do it, _coute qui coute_, as the
French say.

Any one else might have been afraid of the task before him, and doubtful
of success. Mansfield was neither; at any rate, as far as any one else
could see. He set himself up neither for a Hercules nor a Galahad. It
never occurred to him what he was. But it did occur to him that
Templeton wanted reform, and that the Captain of Templeton ought to
reform it. And with that one clear purpose before him, Mansfield was
the sort of fellow to go straight through thick and thin to reach it, or
perish in the attempt.

They say that when a certain Russian Emperor wanted a railway made
between the two chief cities of his dominion, and was asked what route
it should take, so as to benefit the largest number of intervening towns
and villages, he called for a map and ruler, and drawing a straight line
between the two places, said, "Let it go that way."

That was pretty much the style of Mansfield. He didn't understand
turning to right or left to give anybody a lift on the way. All he knew
was that Templeton