cker. In two seconds the fellow was staring
into the muzzle of a revolver.

"Put it up if you don't want to look like a sieve. Now, then, shoes.
Coat. And put down that knife. That's right. Now move!"

Malatesta was not equal to any further braggadocio. Intuition goes far
at such times, and there seemed to be something about this holder of the
more powerful weapon that demanded respect. The fellow hardly gave a
second glance at the gun, but stepped into his shoes. Without stopping
to lace them, he grabbed his coat and got into it as he headed for the
door. The march to the school office, single file, Luigi, Gus and
Lambert in the order named, was as silent as it was hasty, Gus thrusting
the pistol, a real one this time and loaded, into his pocket as they
went. Nor did he need to draw it again.

"Luigi Malatesta, I am sorry to have been compelled to bring you here at
this hour," said the president, "but you are suspected of----"

"Oh, I know! But me it was not! Yet I know who, though to tell I shall
never do."

"How do you know? Were you present, then, when the injury was done?"

"No, not present, but I know."

"You must tell us----"

"Never!"

"Why not?"

"It is not the way of the school to blow----"

"Pardon me, please, Doctor, but we won't get anywhere this way,"
interposed Bill when Gus nudged him. "If I may suggest----"

The president had come to regard this boy as possessing ideas and he
hesitated. Bill turned to Gus who stood with the hammer and a magnifying
glass held behind him.

"Please have this man," said Bill, indicating the Italian, "make a print
of his thumb--this way." Bill smeared some ink on a blotter and took up
a bit of white paper. Malatesta frowned, then smirked, then laughed.

"And why not may I?" he questioned. "This will make of these villains
fools!"

The animal-like snarl that the Sicilian put into this last sentence did
not gain him any sympathy, but there was only confidence in his quick
motions and ready compliance. He stepped to the desk, pressed his thumb
on the wet ink spot, then on the white paper, fell back a few steps and
glared defiantly. Gus brought forth the hammer and the expression on
Malatesta's face changed somewhat.

Silence followed as the Doctor took up the hammer handle and went over
it with the magnifying-glass, paused at a spot where the handle would be
most commonly held and examined the surface long and carefully. He
turned to the thumb-print on the