ice seemed harsh and grating.

"You have not? Pray, then, what------"

"I come t' tell you, Doctor Meredith, that perhaps if it hadn't been fer
some of your boys maybe there wouldn't have been any fire!"

"What's that?" exclaimed the doctor, drawing himself up sharply and
looking at the farmer intently. "Just what do you mean, Mr. Appleby?"

"Jest what I said. I'm not satisfied as t' how that fire started, and I
suspect that some of your students set it."

"Preposterous! Why should they do such a thing as that?"

"Because some of them have a grudge against me. It ain't th' fust time
the school boys has played tricks on me. Two years ago they burned up an
old shed."

"So you said at the time, but you could never prove it, I believe. You
should be careful how you make accusations, sir."

"I am careful, Doctor Meredith, an' that's why I didn't come sooner.
I've got evidence now."

"Evidence? What kind?"

"Well, one of my hired men saw a fellow, who looked like a school lad,
sneaking around the hay stacks a leetle while afore they begun to blaze."

"Is that all? If it is, I call that very flimsy evidence; and I again
warn you to be careful how you make accusations."

"It ain't all, Doctor Meredith. Th' same hired man picked up this pin
near the stacks," and the farmer held out a pin such as was worn by
nearly every Elmwood Hall student.

"Picked up the pin near the stacks; did he?" asked the head master
coolly, as he looked at the ornament. "Well, seeing that a number of my
students were helping put out the fire, it is but natural that one might
lose a pin there. I see no evidence in that, and again----"

"This here pin were picked up at the stacks just _afore_ th' fire was
discovered--not _afterward_," said the farmer in a harsh voice, as his
gaze swept the faces of Tom and his chums.

CHAPTER XIII

THE POISONED HORSES

For the space of several seconds there was silence--a portentous
silence--and then the head of the school, looking from the pin in his
hand at the accusing farmer, and thence to the three lads said:

"Do you know, Mr. Appleby, to whom this pin belongs?"

"No, sir, I don't. But I thought maybe you could tell. That's why I
come t' see you. If anybody set my stacks afire I want t' know it, an'
I want damages, same as I had when some fellers tromped through my
corn," and Mr. Appleby looked straight at Tom, who returned the gaze
fearlessly.

"Again I warn you to be c