e day this
fellow, who was exceedingly hot-tempered, attempted to strike Dave down
with a heavy Indian club. It was a most foul attack and justly condemned
by nearly all who saw it, and thoroughly scared over what he had
attempted to do, Nick Jasniff ran away from school and could not be
found.

There had been a number of robberies around Oakdale, where the academy
was located, and one day when Dave and his chums were out ice-boating
they had come on the track of two of the robbers. Then to his surprise
Dave learned that Nick Jasniff was also implicated in the thefts. He
knew that Jasniff and Gus Plum were very intimate, and wondered if the
bully of the school could be one of the criminals also. At length, one
snowy day, he saw Plum leave the Hall and followed the fellow. Plum made
for the railroad, where there was a deep cut, and into this cut he fell,
just as a train was approaching. At the peril of his life Dave scrambled
to the bottom of the opening and drew the bully from the tracks just as
the train rolled by.

If ever a boy was conquered, it was Gus Plum at that time. At first he
could not realize that Dave had saved him. "To think you would do this
for me--you!" he sobbed. "And I thought you hated me!" And then he broke
down completely. He confessed how he had tried to injure Dave and his
chums, but said he had had nothing to do with the robberies. Nick
Jasniff had wanted him to go in with the robbers, but he had declined.

"I am going to cut Jasniff after this," said Gus Plum, "and I am going
to cut Nat Poole, too. I want to make a man of myself--if I can."

But it was hard work. A short time after the railroad incident the two
robbers were caught and sent to prison, to await trial, and Plum had to
appear as a witness for the state and tell how he had been implicated.
In the meantime Nick Jasniff ran away to Europe, taking several hundred
dollars of the stolen funds with him. Dave thought he had seen the last
of the young rascal, but in this he was mistaken, as the events which
followed proved.

CHAPTER II

A ROW IN A RESTAURANT

The majority of the boys had been home only for the Thanksgiving
holidays. The exception was poor Phil Lawrence, who had been laid up for
a number of weeks as the result of a blow on the head while playing a
game of football. Phil said he felt as well as ever, but he was somewhat
pale and in no humor for anything in the way of roughness.

As the train stopped at one s