the dormitories when all the
rest of the school was absent at a mass meeting. For the life of him
Teeny-bits could think of nothing to say--he had made up his mind
instantly not to tell what he had seen--and there did not seem to be
anything else left. For seconds that seemed like hours he did not answer
Mr. Stevens' question and then he managed to get a few words across his
benumbed lips.

"It's nothing," he said. "I just--I'm--I was coming back from the mass
meeting."

Mr. Stevens looked at him keenly and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"What's the matter, Teeny-bits?" he asked, and the newcomer at Ridgley
knew from the very fact that the master addressed him by his nickname
that he expected a straightforward answer.

Teeny-bits looked at Mr. Stevens in dumb misery and said nothing.

"Can I help you?" asked Mr. Stevens.

"No," said Teeny-bits. "Thanks, but I'm just going up to my room; that's
all."

They walked round to the front of the hall together; Mr. Stevens said
nothing more, and Teeny-bits ran up to his room and sat down to think. A
few minutes before the impending struggle with Jefferson had filled his
mind so completely that there seemed to be room for nothing else; now
suddenly this other thing had come upon him and in an instant had
engulfed his mind. Circumstances had involved him in a situation from
which he would have given a year of his life to escape. He suddenly
realized that he valued his good name above everything else.

Doctor Wells had been away from Ridgley over the week-end, to make an
address in Philadelphia. He came back to the school Monday afternoon and
did not get an opportunity to attend to his mail until evening. One
letter that came to him contained a brief but surprising message. He
read it once and then again, and forgot the rest of his mail. He got up
from his desk chair and walking over to the window looked out into the
night. Voices came to him faintly,--the eager, confident, carefree
voices of youth. He knew that the boys were returning from the mass
meeting. He turned away from the window, drew down the shade and read
again the brief message.

It never took Doctor Wells long to make a decision; the course of action
he determined on now he quickly put into execution. He reached for the
telephone and in a moment was talking with Mr. Stevens, whose room was
situated in Gannett Hall.

"Mr. Stevens," he said, "I want you to go up to Holbrook's room and ask
him to come over he