ndian Reserve, of late; I was born in Cincinnati."

"I didn't ask you where you were born. When I ask you a question, answer
that and no more."

"Yes, sir." There was a touch of something in the tone of this reply
that amused the school, and that made the master look up quickly and
suspiciously at Jack Dudley, but the expression on Jack's face was as
innocent as that of a cat who has just lapped the cream off the milk.

CHAPTER II

KING MILKMAID

Pewee Rose, whose proper name was Peter Rose, had also the nickname of
King Pewee. He was about fourteen years old, square built and active, of
great strength for his size, and very proud of the fact that no boy in
town cared to attack him. He was not bad-tempered, but he loved to be
master, and there were a set of flatterers who followed him, like
jackals about a lion.

As often happens, Nature had built for King Pewee a very fine body, but
had forgotten to give him any mind to speak of. In any kind of chaff or
banter, at any sort of talk or play where a good head was worth more
than a strong arm and a broad back, King Pewee was sure to have the
worst of it. A very convenient partnership had therefore grown up
between him and Will Riley. Riley had muscle enough, but Nature had made
him mean-spirited. He had--not exactly wit--but a facility for using his
tongue, which he found some difficulty in displaying, through fear of
other boys' fists. By forming a friendship with Pewee Rose, the two
managed to keep in fear the greater part of the school. Will's rough
tongue, together with Pewee's rude fists, were enough to bully almost
any boy. They let Harvey Collins alone, because he was older, and,
keeping to himself, awed them by his dignity; good-natured Bob Holliday,
also, was big enough to take care of himself. But the rest were all as
much afraid of Pewee as they were of the master, and as Riley managed
Pewee, it behooved them to be afraid of the prime minister, Riley, as
well as of King Pewee.

From the first day that Jack Dudley entered the school, dressed in brown
jeans, Will Riley marked him for a victim. The air of refinement about
his face showed him to be a suitable person for teasing.

Riley called him "milksop," and "sap-head"; words which seemed to the
dull intellect of King Pewee exceedingly witty. And as Pewee was Riley's
defender, he felt as proud of these rude nicknames as he would had he
invented them and taken out a patent.

But Riley's greatest