"So I understand." Doctor Clay paused for a moment. "I believe you met
Lincoln Merwell out West." He eyed Dave curiously as he mentioned the
fact.

"Yes, I met him--and we had some trouble--but it is all over now. But,
Doctor Clay----" Dave motioned the master of the school to one side and
lowered his voice. "Do you know that Merwell and Nick Jasniff are going
to Rockville Military Academy?"

"Is it possible!"

"That is what they say. It seems to me that the authorities of Rockville
ought to know what sort they are."

"That is true, Porter, but--ahem!--I don't know what I can do. You see,
to tell you the truth, the management of the military academy has
changed hands, and the new master and I are not on speaking terms. He
wished to obtain certain pupils, and they came to this school instead,
and that made him very angry. He claimed that I treated him unfairly,
but I did not. Even if I were to warn him against Jasniff and Merwell it
is not likely that he would take the warning in good part. Besides, the
military academy is not in a prosperous condition financially, and I
rather think the owners will take almost any pupils they can get."

"I see, sir. Well, if that's the case, why we might as well drop the
matter," answered Dave.

"I will think it over, and perhaps I'll send a letter to the master of
Rockville," returned Doctor Clay, seriously. "I don't want even an enemy
to harbor such lads as Jasniff and Merwell without knowing what they
are, although it would be to Rockville's credit if it took those boys
and made real men out of them."

As my old readers know, Oak Hall was a large building of brick and
stone, shaped in the form of a cross, with the classrooms, the private
office, the dining-room, and the kitchen on the ground floor. On the
second floor were the majority of the school dormitories, furnished to
accommodate from four to eight pupils each. The school was surrounded by
a broad campus, sloping in the rear to the Leming River, on the bank of
which was located the school boathouse. At one side of the campus was a
neat gymnasium, and at the other were some stables and sheds, and also a
newly-built garage for automobiles and motor-cycles.

Dave and his chums had their quarters in dormitories Nos. 11 and 12, two
large and well-lighted apartments, having a connecting door between. Not
far away was dormitory No. 13, occupied by Nat Poole and his cronies.
Merwell and Jasniff had had beds in that room, but