t,"
warned the head of the school. "We have to guard against the students
doing that."

"I'll be careful," promised Tom grimly. "Ten dollars! Whew!" he
exclaimed, as he took the bill and went out. "If he got a dollar he'd
be getting more than the corn we trampled was worth. But I'll not
dispute it. Only I'll get square with him," he boasted to his chums.

On going to pay the amount assessed against him, Tom found that the
possessions of Mr. Appleby extended to within a short distance of the
school grounds. At least one of the farmer's hay fields did, being
connected to a main road by a long lane.

"And if he'd been decent," mused Tom, on his way back, after settling
the score, "he could have shown us the way through his hay field, and
we might have gotten into the Hall on time. The old grouch!"

He cut through the lot, passing a big pile of hay that was stacked and
thatched for winter.

"Well, did you fix him up?" asked Jack, as his chum entered the room on
his return.

"I did--worse luck to him. Some day we'll have to have the white-caps
visit him, or treat him to a coat of tar and feathers. It isn't the
ten dollars that I mind so much as it is being gouged by a farmer.
I'll get square though!"

It was several nights after this that Tom, gathering up some packages
from his dresser, slipped on his coat and cap.

"Where you going?" asked Jack, yawning and tossing aside a book he had
been pretending to study.

"Oh, just out for a walk," replied Tom, evasively.

"Want any company?"

"I'll be right back," was the remark, which would seem to indicate that
company was not desired.

"All right. Bring me back some peanuts if you go past Pop's place,"
and Jack tossed over a dime.

Tom's chums were in bed when he returned, and without awakening them,
as he supposed, he undressed in the dark and tumbled into his cot.

"That you, Tom?" murmured Jack sleepily.

"Yes."

"What smells so queer? Have you been smoking?"

"No, but I came home in a trolley and there were some fellows in it
hitting the pipe."

"Oh, I thought it couldn't be you," for neither Tom nor his chums used
the weed.

Jack turned over, and was soon breathing heavily, and Tom, too, was not
long in getting to sleep.

It was Bert who awakened them some hours later.

"Hello fellows!" he called. "There's a fire somewhere. I can see the
reflection of it on the windows."

They all jumped up, and Jack, going to the casement, exclai