a thing I can put my hand on. Father Boone's treated me
like a dog. I don't deserve that from him. He's done a lot for me, of
course, but that doesn't give him the right to jump on me." Springing
up, he brought his fist down on the table with a bang, and said aloud,
"I'll not stand for it--from Father Boone or anybody else."

He looked up in defiance only to see his mother standing before him.
Good mother that she was, she took in the situation at once. She did not
say anything, but sat down alongside him, and took his hand in her own.
When he had calmed down a bit, she said, "Won't you let mother help you,
dear? You know we always make a good team."

Frank did not reply. He turned his face away. He was deeply agitated.
His mother knew his tenderness and his strong will. She knew there was a
tempest raging in his soul, and her heart ached for him. She put her arm
about him and pressed him a little closer.

Presently he gasped in choked and vehement words: "I have . . . always
. . . tried to do . . . my best . . . and this . . . is . . . the
result." Again his mother felt the convulsive trembling through his
body. But under her tactful sympathy this paroxysm soon passed off and
with considerable calm he gave her the outlines of his trouble.

Mrs. Mulvy not only knew her boy, but she knew Father Boone as well. Her
heart told her there was a misunderstanding, and a big one at that.

"Now, my dear," she began, "you have suffered a lot but you have not
done anything you should be sorry for."

Here Frank interrupted her with a kiss.

"But I am sure," she continued, "that Father Boone has suffered a lot
too; maybe more than you. I know how much he thinks of you, and if he
has taken this stand you can be sure he has a strong reason for it and
that it has caused him pain. We don't know his reason but we do know
that he is good and just and very kind, and that he never would be so
indignant without cause. My boy, there is a third factor somewhere in
this matter, and both you and Father Boone are suffering for it."

"That's what Dick and Ned said, mother," replied Frank, "but for the
life of me I can't figure it out."

"It may be," she answered, "he takes the fight so seriously because
you're an officer of the Club--and the highest one."

"But, mother, he doesn't know yet who was in the fight. No one has told
him, and he never pumps the fellows. All he knows is that there was a
fight, and I don't know how he got that. M