ered him for a moment, then walked over, to place a hand on
his shoulder.

"Hey, hold up a minute, Chum," he said. "I'm not trying to give you a
bad time. Now suppose you calm down a little. Doesn't do you a bit of
good to tear yourself apart. You're not responsible for whatever your
uncle got into, you know."

Pete faced him, his back braced against the lockers.

"That's what you say here," he said bitterly. "Sure, we've been in the
same classes. You know me, so you try to be decent. But what do you
really think? And how about everyone else? You think they're being all
nice and understanding about this?" He snorted.

"Know why I'm not in class now? Got no class to go to. I was in Civics
Four this period. They threw me out. Faculty advisor said I'd do better
in ... in some Shop Study."

Don frowned. "Funny," he said. "You always got good grades. No trouble
that way?"

"Of course not." Pete spread his hands. "I----"

A low snicker interrupted the words and Don looked around, to see Gerry
Kelton close by. Behind him were his brother and Maurie. Gerry laughed
derisively.

"Go ahead," he commented, "let him talk. You might learn something from
the little----"

Don motioned impatiently with his head.

"Get going, you three," he said sharply. "You've got less than a minute
before late bell."

"Sure we have," Gerry told him. "We might even be late to class. Now
wouldn't that be awful? Some jerk wants to write up a bunch of lousy
report slips, make him look good, we're----"

"Move!" Michaels' voice rose sharply. "Don't try that one on me. It's
been tried before. Doesn't work."

Gerry paused in mid-stride, then seemed to deflate. He turned away.

"Come on, guys," he said. "Let's get out of here. We'll take care of
this later."

* * * * *

As the three disappeared down the hall, Don turned back. Pete was
staring at him curiously.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Oh, you know what I mean." Pete shook his head impatiently. "Make
people do things. There's only one of you and three of them. And
they're all bigger than you are. Why did they just do what you told
them without making a lot of trouble?"

Don shrugged, then touched the button in his lapel.

"They were in the wrong and they knew it. They've got enough trouble
now. Why should they look for more?"

Pete shook his head again. "They didn't have to give their names," he
said. "All you did was tell them t