eight; then stop. Someone said:
"What's the matter with him, boys?" They had not seen a fellow lie so
still and show not even the flicker of an eyelid. One boy stooped down
and lifted Siebold's arm, calling to him: "Wake up! Are you hurt?" A
doctor's son got down and put his ear to Siebold's heart. "Gosh,
fellows! It's stopped! He's--he's dead!"

Gus pushed the boys aside. He had hit Siebold over the heart harder than
he had intended. What if the blow had proved fatal? Most unlikely; more
than once he himself had been struck that way. It had hurt him, and once
it brought him to his knees, but it had never made him unconscious. He,
in turn, got down and put his ear to Siebold's side. In the excitement
both the doctor's son and Gus had listened at the right side and no one
had observed the mistake. They were all looking on with horrified faces.
Gus could hear nothing; he touched the prostrate youth's cheek; it was
cold. He rose with something like a sob.

"Fellows, I didn't mean to do it. I didn't know he couldn't stand it.
But he can't really be much hurt, can he? Why, I--he----"

Again Gus knelt and listened for heart beats. He slumped down, feeling
as though his own heart would stop, too. In his daze he heard someone
talking on the telephone at the far end of the gym and dimly
distinguished the word "doctor." He got to his feet then. No one opposed
him. He must get Bill, good old Bill, to speak for him and tell them
that he had not meant to hurt Siebold. They must know he was not
murderously inclined, and that he hated to hurt anyone, anything, an
animal, a bug even; also that he would not run away if they wanted to
arrest him.

In a sort of trance he reached his room, where he found Bill and Tony.
Gus fell into a chair, almost sobbing.

"Bill, old fellow,--we boxed,--Siebold! And I--I've--I guess I've killed
him! I didn't mean to, Bill, you know that. Tell them I didn't; that
I'll be here and go to prison without a word. And write home, Bill, and
tell them----"

"Oh, stuff!" said Bill. "I don't believe it! Tony will go see about it.
At the gym, Gus? Yes, at the gym," nodding to the Italian.

Tony was gone. Bill stood by Gus, his hand on his chum's head. Seldom
was there any real show at tenderness between these lads, but there was
a loyalty there that made such a demonstration unnecessary.

"It isn't so, Gus--and even if it should be--anybody knows it was an
accident, and you won't be arrested. At least not