you send that girl up
there for, I want to know?'

"'What girl?' asks Old Gordon.

"'Nancy Nelson,' says the gray man

"'Sh!' sputters Gordon. 'Shut the door, Jim, if you're here to talk
about _her_.'

"But before the other feller shut the door I heard him say:

"'Wouldn't no other school but Pinewood Hall do for _her_?' and Old
Gordon snaps right back at him:

"'Nothing's too good for her, Jim, and you know it.'

"Well!" continued Scorch. "I could have bit off the doorknob; I was so
mad when they shut the door on me. I couldn't hear another thing.

"The gray man was in there a long time. When he come out he looked mad,
too. I didn't hear Old Gordon's buzzer for a long time, and so I slipped
down to his door and tried it.

"When I peeked in, what do you think?" asked Scorch, mysteriously.

"What was it?" gasped Nancy.

"I never could guess!" exclaimed the eager Jennie.

"The old man had his head down on the desk, and his shoulders was
heavin' like he was cryin'. Now, what do you know about _that_?"
demanded the boy, with the air of one throwing a bomb.

The girls were speechless with surprise.

CHAPTER XXIII

BACK TO SCHOOL AGAIN

"That's the strangest thing I ever heard," Jennie Bruce said, the first
to break the silence. "Do you really suppose he was crying, Scorch--or
was he laughing?"

"Say!" returned the red-haired youth, "Old Gordon never laughed in his
life!"

"But why should he cry?" asked Nancy, much disturbed.

"Ask me an easier one," answered Scorch. "It struck me all of a heap. I
backed out and waited for him to show up. When he went out to lunch he
looked no different from other times."

"And I don't see that what you've told us is a bit of good!" exclaimed
Jennie, suddenly. "We don't know who the gray man is."

"You ain't never seen him, Miss Nancy?" asked the boy, anxiously.

"Not that I know of," replied the girl.

"Well! I tried to find out who he was, and nobody around the office
seemed to know. He'd never been there before. But if he comes again I'm
goin' to get on his trail," declared Scorch, nodding emphatically.

"How'll you do that?" asked Jennie, quickly.

"I don't know. But I'll follow him out if I have to," said Scorch. "And
he'll have to be pretty smart to lose _me_."

"Don't you do anything, Scorch, to get yourself into trouble,"
admonished Nancy.

"Shucks!" ejaculated Scorch. "I won't get into trouble. Don't you fear.
But that gray man won't get aw