l give you a chance to escape."

"I don't ask any chance to escape."

"Grant, you talk like a fool."

"Better be a fool than a knave and a coward."

"We don't want to hurt you. There are fellows enough in our crowd to
make Tunbrook Institute too hot to hold you. We advise you to write to
your father, advising him to send you to some other school. Will you do
so?"

"I will not," replied Richard, promptly.

"Then you must take the consequences. We are organized, and we are
determined that you shall leave. If you ask your father, and insist
upon it, no doubt he will take you away."

"Very likely he would," added Richard, "but I shall not ask him to do
so."

"You plainly don't understand what is in store for you. Our plans are
well laid, and we have been through the same mill once before. A fellow
about your size, and one who could fight as well as you do, had to
leave about a year ago. He undertook to be a leader before his time
came. We hunted him out, as we shall you."

"When you hunt me out, I will go, but not till then."

"Grant, this is all idle talk on your part. You don't understand your
situation. We can count up fifty fellows belonging to our association.
We can drive out any fellow who makes himself obnoxious. We mean to be
fair, and we are willing that any fellow who works his way up should
have all the honors he wins. But do you suppose we fellows, who have
been here two or three years, and who have worked ourselves up, are
going to step one side for a fellow who has been here only a week or
two?"

"Who asks you to step aside?" demanded Richard, indignantly, for this
show of fair play had touched him in a tender spot, and in spite of
himself he began to be interested in the argument.

"You do; you have licked the best fellow in the school, and then you
begin to play saint, and curry favor with the colonel. You mean to
lead, and not follow."

"I mean to be and do just what circumstances require."

"Grant, there is no such thing as misunderstanding your position. What
your looks indicate is more than all you may say with your mouth, or do
with your hands. You are a dangerous fellow, and you must leave, or
compromise."

"What do you mean by compromise?"

"We'll let you stay if you will keep in your proper position."

"What is my proper position?"

"At the foot of the ladder, of course, till the fellows above you have
got out of the way."

"You mean Nevers?"

"Nevers and others."

"I w