down this way somewhere. I wonder what all this gab is
about."

"It seems to me that Andy's father has thrown him out to face life on
his own hook," conjectured Fred.

"And he doesn't seem to be making a success of it," judged Bill.

Just then the two debaters emerged from behind the fence and came face
to face with their former schoolmates.

The former bully of Rally Hall and his crony started back, and for a
moment were so nonplussed that they could do nothing but stare.

"How are you, Sid?" said Fred, breaking a silence that was beginning to
be awkward.

Sid made a stammering reply.

Andy had flushed angrily at the sight of the boys and seemed about to
indulge in his usual bluster, but a thought appeared to come to him
suddenly that made him change his mind.

"How are you, fellows?" he asked, in a way that was meant to be
ingratiating, and holding out his hand.

The movement was so wholly unexpected that for an instant the boys
hardly knew what to do. They all disliked him heartily, and the Rushton
boys in particular had been bitterly wronged by him during their first
year at Rally Hall. Still, it would have seemed ungracious to reject the
proffered hand, so they took it under protest, mentally resolved to get
away from him as soon as possible.

It was a different Andy from the one to whom they had been accustomed.
He had formerly been expensively dressed, and had borne himself with the
arrogance of the snob and the brutality of the bully. Now he was
beginning to look shabby and his eyes had a furtive look very different
from the insolent assurance that the boys remembered.

They exchanged a few commonplace remarks, and then, as Andy made no move
toward following Sid, who had excused himself and gone on, Bill finally
gave him a gentle hint.

"Well, so long, Andy," he said. "We'll have to be going."

Then the motive for Andy's sudden change of front became apparent.

"Wait just a minute," he said rather sheepishly. "Will you fellows do me
a favor and lend me a five spot? I'm stony broke--not a dime to bless
myself with. You know the governor has gone back on me. Says he won't
give me a red cent, and that I'll have to learn to hoe my own row. I'm
up against it for fair, and I know you fellows won't mind lending me a
little something. I'll pay it back as soon as the old man comes across,
which he's bound to do sooner or later. What do you say?"

Fred, who remembered how the bully had tried to put on h