sses the fourth and most of his clothes the
fifth. His dad has a lot of dough, so he needn't have minded, but that
won't be the case with us. I guess it's me for carrying a gun."

"If they're mean enough to pick on you, old scout, I'll carry one, too,
but I think you'll be exempt. If I'm to be a victim, I reckon I'll have
to grin and take----"

"No; you won't, either. We've come here to study--not to fool--and we
haven't got money to spend on ruined duds just to gratify a lot of
chumps. There are better things, too, than a gun; not so crude and not
illegal."

"I can imagine," laughed Gus, and turned again to watch the fleeting
landscape.

The chums journeyed in silence then, their minds busy conjecturing what
their experiences and adventures were to be, after they became students
of the Marshallton Technical School, which they were rapidly approaching
and from which they held high hopes of gaining much knowledge. The
institution, despite its modest name, was nothing less than a university
of broad constructive teaching, with departments of engineering,
electricity, chemistry, manual training and biology.

It was within the first two of these departments that William Brown and
Augustus Grier were to concentrate their mental efforts. They had, as
already related, earned this long-hoped-for opportunity to gain
technical knowledge and training by showing what they could do along
these lines. They had installed a small water-power plant and an
electric lighting system for the Hooper estate, and had also won greater
credit for constructing high-class radio receivers through which they
had heard a no less personage than Thomas A. Edison speak. The boys had
been saving their earnings to meet tech school expenses for at least a
year. Their high school records, good common sense and scientific
inclinations had been such as to receive the plaudits of their teacher,
Professor Gray, and the members of their class.

Intense application and mental force characterized William Brown, who
was called "Billy" by the high school girls--fine, bright-minded young
women--and "Bill" by the boys. He was just Bill to nearly everyone. His
friends referred to him as the school genius; and such he had proved to
be on more than one occasion. Though compelled by a twisted leg to use a
crutch and to abstain from strenuous physical participation in sports,
he was a favorite. All saw his worth, and Professor Gray said of him
that he possessed the