garment. As he went down the aisle toward the rostrum there
were one or two faint hisses, that seemed to come from the section
where Sam Heller and his cronies sat.

"Silence!" cried Doctor Meredith, in a ringing voice.

The noise subsided. Tom took his garment, and turned back to his seat.
As he passed Sam he looked him full in the face, and there was that in
the glance which boded no good to that sneaking coward when the tables
should be turned.

Had it not been in chapel, and had Tom not held himself well in hand,
there might have been a session then and there that Sam Heller would
not have liked. His gaze quailed before the steady look of Tom, and as
the latter sat down he heard Nick Johnson whisper to Sam:

"Are you sure of what you saw, old man? He might make trouble for you."

"Of course I'm sure. I saw him as plainly as I see you now. He can't
bluff out of it. I've got him just where I want him!"

"You think so, do you," murmured Tom to himself. "Well, we'll see, Sam
Heller! I've got pluck enough to stand out against you, I think. You
can't drive me from Elmwood Hall."

"Young gentlemen, you are dismissed," said the voice of Doctor
Meredith, and the students filed from chapel to their various
classrooms.

Jack and Bert made a rush for their chum as soon as they were outside
the building. Each grabbed an arm, while several of Tom's other
friends grouped about him. But it was noticed that some, with whom he
had been quite intimate, held aloof, and hurried away. Tom was, but he
only smiled.

Another group surrounded Sam Heller, some of whom had never troubled to
make his acquaintance before. But they were either curious to hear
more of that of which he had spoken, or else were ready to enlist under
his banner, as it were.

"By Jove this is bad!" half groaned Bruce Bennington, as he noticed the
school split, in the ranks of Sophomores, more especially. "There'll
be two factions among the second-year men now if something isn't done
to head it off."

"That's right," agreed Reddy Burke. "Confound Tom's stubbornness,
anyhow! Why doesn't he say if it was someone else who wore his
thunder-and-lightning sweater?"

"Did someone?" asked Bruce, significantly.

"Of course he must have, and Tom is shielding him, I'll wager. You
don't s'pose he poisoned those horses; do you?"

"Well--er--Oh, of course not!"

"Then forget it. Things'll come out right sooner or later."

"Later, I'm afraid.