back to our school."

"Do you suppose he'll take the same train we take?"

"Perhaps, although I hope not."

On the day before departing for Oak Hall, Dave and Ben went down to the
railroad station to purchase their tickets. There they saw Nat, with a
new dress-suit case and a new fall overcoat, talking to his father.

"He must be going to take the train this afternoon," said Dave, and he
was right. When the train came in Nat got aboard, along with a number of
other passengers. As he did this, he espied the others, and spoke a few
words to his father in a whisper. Then the train rolled away, and Aaron
Poole strode over to where Dave and Ben were standing.

"See here, young man, I want to talk to you!" cried the money-lender,
gazing sourly at Dave.

"What do you want, Mr. Poole?" asked Dave, as calmly as he could.

"You tried your best to get my son into trouble the other day."

"No, I didn't--Nat got himself into trouble."

"Bah! You needn't try to tell me! I know all about it."

"I don't care to discuss the question," went on Dave, a trifle sharply.

"Nat was to blame--if you don't believe it, ask Mr. Sully, the
roadmaster," put in Ben.

"Don't you try to tell me!" fumed Aaron Poole. "I know both of you boys
only too well! You did your best to get my son and his friends into
trouble. Now, I want to warn you about something. I understand both of
you are going back to Oak Hall. Nat is going there, too, and I give you
fair warning that you must treat him fairly. If you don't I'll come to
the school and have it out with Doctor Clay, understand that?" And the
money-lender shook his long finger into the faces of the boys.

"Mr. Poole, just let me tell you something," answered Dave. "It is
something you ought to know, and I feel it is my duty to tell you, even
though you are not treating us as you should. Come out of the crowd,
please."

"I don't want to listen to your talk."

"Well, you had better,--unless you want a lot of trouble later on."

"What do you want?" And rather unwillingly the money-lender followed
Dave and Ben to a secluded corner of the railroad station.

"I want to warn you about the company Nat is keeping. The two boys he is
going with, Nick Jasniff and Link Merwell, are bad characters. You
don't have to take my word for it--write to Doctor Clay and see what he
says. Nick Jasniff ran away from school and he got hold of some money
that didn't belong to him and used it. Link Merwell got mixe