haven't seen him in some years, for he went West,
where his parents died. How he managed to come to work as a hired man
for Appleby I don't know, but he did----"

"It was just chance," cut in Ray. "Suppose you let me explain, Tom."

"All right, go ahead. I'm going to rub some liniment on my ankle.
It's got to be treated, if I'm to play football again."

"I might as well own up to it first as last," went on Ray, "that I
haven't been altogether what I should be. When my mother died--I--I
sort of went to the bad." He choked up for a moment and then resumed.

"I got in with a lot of tough characters in the West and I lived a fast
life. Then I drifted East, lost what money I had and went to work for
Mr. Appleby. I didn't know Tom was going to school here or I wouldn't
have run the chance of disgracing him."

"If you had only let me know earlier that you were here," said Tom,
"everything might have been all right."

"Well, I didn't," said Ray, with a smile at his cousin. "Things went
from bad to worse. Appleby wasn't the best man in the world to work
for. Then Jake Crouse happened along. I had known him out West. He
came of a good family, but he went to the bad and became a common
tramp, though he had a good education. Crouse isn't his right name, I
guess.

"Appleby treated us very mean--he does that way to all his hired men, I
guess, and he used to fine us if we accidentally broke any tools, or
made mistakes. In fact about all our money was eaten up in fines, so
we had very little coming to us.

"Finally Jake Crouse got mad when he was heavily fined, and he said he
was going to get even. He wanted me to go in with him, but I wouldn't,
and I decided to skip out, and look for another place. I had no money,
and then, accidentally, I learned that Tom was a student at Elmwood
Hall. I heard Appleby mention his name as having gotten ten dollars
from him for about a dollar's worth of trampled-down corn. Then I
decided to appeal to Tom to help me get away.

"I sent him a note, and he came to see me. It was in a pool room in
town--a place where I used to go for amusement, but I've dropped all
that sort of thing now. There Tom gave me money enough to straighten
up and begin life over again."

"Say!" interrupted Jack, "was that where you got so all smelled up with
smoke, Tom?"

"I guess it was. I know everybody in the place seemed to be smoking,"
answered our hero.

"That was the night Jake Crouse set