PHIL SHOWS HIS STUBBORNNESS
Not one of the boys knew how to act or what to say. All wondered if
Job Haskers had heard his name mentioned.
If the ill-natured instructor had heard, he made no mention of it. He
looked sharply about the apartment and waved his hand to Luke.
"Watson, how many times have I told you that you make too much noise
with your musical instruments?" he said, harshly. "You disturb the
students who wish to study."
"I thought this was the recreation hour, Mr. Haskers," answered the
lad, who loved to play the guitar and banjo.
"True, but I think we get altogether too much of your music," growled
the instructor. He turned to Dave, Roger, and Phil. "So you are back
at last. It is high time, if you wish to go on with your regular
classes."
"We told Doctor Clay that we would make up what we have missed, Mr.
Haskers," answered Dave, in a gentle tone, for he knew how easy it
was to start a quarrel with the man before him. As Phil had once said,
Job Haskers was always walking around "with a chip on his shoulder."
"And how soon will you make up the lessons in my class?" demanded the
instructor.
"I think I can do it inside of ten days or two weeks."
"That won't suit me, Porter. You'll have to do better. I'll give each
of you just a week--one week, understand? If you can't make the
lessons up in that time I'll have to drop you to the next lower
class."
"Oh, Mr. Haskers!" burst out Roger. He knew what that meant only too
well. They would not have a chance to graduate that coming June.
"I'll not argue the point, Morr. I'll give you a week, starting
to-morrow. When you come to the classroom I will show you just what
you have to make up." Job Haskers looked around the room. "Now, then,
remember, I want less noise here." And so speaking, he turned on his
heel and walked away.
For a moment there was silence, as the boys looked at each other and
listened to the sounds of Mr. Haskers's retreating footsteps. Then
Phil made a face and punched one of the bed pillows, savagely.
"Now, wouldn't that make a saint turn in his grave?" he remarked.
"Isn't he the real, kind, generous soul!"
"He ought to be ducked in the river!" was Buster's comment. "Why, how
can anybody make up the lessons you've missed in a week? It's absurd!
Say, do you know what I'd do if I were you? I'd complain to the
doctor."
"So would I," added Sam Day. "Two weeks would be short enough."
"I'll not complain to the doctor," returned Phil. "But I know what I
will do," he added, quickly, as though struck by a sudden idea.
"What?" came from several.
"Never mind what. But I'll wager he'll give us more time."
"I guess I know what you think of doing," said Dave. "But take my
advice and don't, Phil."
"Humph! I'll see about it, Dave. He isn't going to run such a thing as
this up my back without a kick," grumbled the shipowner's son.
"Well, wait first and see if he doesn't change his mind, or if we
can't get through in the week," cautioned Dave.
"What was Phil going to do?" questioned Luke, strumming lowly over the
strings of his guitar.
"Oh, don't let's talk about it," cried Dave, before Roger could speak.
He did not wish the Mrs. Breen affair to become public property.
"Tell us about the wild man, and all the other things that have
happened here since we went away."
"And you tell us all about Cave Island and those stolen jewels," said
Buster.
Thereafter the conversation became general, Dave and his chums telling
of their quest of the Carwith diamonds, and the other students
relating the particulars of a feast they had had in one of the
dormitories, and of various efforts made to catch the so-called wild
man.
"I don't believe he is what one would call a wild man," said Ben
Basswood, Dave's old chum from home, who had just come in from some
experiments in the school laboratory. "He is simple-minded and very
shy. He gets excited once in a while, like when he threw those
mud-balls."
"Well, you ought to know," remarked Buster. "Ben is the only fellow
here who has talked to the man," he explained.
"When was that, Ben?" questioned Dave.
"That was when the man first appeared," answered the Crumville lad. "I
didn't find out until yesterday that he was the wild man, and then it
was because of that blue chalk he uses. I met him in the woods when I
was out during that last snow, looking for rabbits with my shotgun. I
came across him, sitting on a rock, looking at an old newspaper. He
had some of the blue chalk in his hand and had marked a circle with a
cross on the rock. He asked me where I was going, and told me to look
out and not shoot a star, and then he asked me if I used chalk for
powder, and said he could supply a superior brand of chalk cheap. I
thought at first that he was merely joking, but I didn't like the look
in his eyes, and then I made up my mind he was not right in his head,
and I left him. When I came back that way, an hour later, he was gone,
and I have never seen him since."
"Where was this, Ben?"
"Up in the woods, where the brook branches off by the two big rocks."
"I know the spot!" cried Roger. "Say, maybe he hangs out around
there."
"No, we hunted around there yesterday, but he wasn't to be seen. I
don't believe he has any settled place of abode, but just roams
through the woods."
"Poor fellow! Somebody ought to catch him and place him in a
sanitarium," was Dave's comment.
Various matters were talked over until the supper hour, and then the
boys filed down to the dining-hall. Here our hero met more of his
school chums, including Gus Plum, who had once been his enemy but who
was now quite friendly, and little Chip Macklin, who in days gone by
had been Plum's toady.
"Very glad to see you back, Dave!" cried Gus. "And, say, you've
certainly made a hero of yourself," he added, warmly.
"It was great, what you and Roger and Phil did," added Chip, in deep
admiration.
Everybody was glad to see Dave back, and after supper it was all he
could do to get away from many of his friends. But he managed it at
last, and he, Roger, and Phil went upstairs, to put away their things
and get out their schoolbooks.
"We have got to study and that is all there is to it," said Dave,
firmly. "Fun is one thing and getting ready to graduate is another. We
have got to get down to the grind, boys."
"That's right," answered the senator's son.
"But don't forget what old Haskers said," grumbled Phil. "He'll make
us sweat, just you wait and see!"
"'Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,'" quoted Dave. "I think
we can get through if we buckle down hard."
"Supposing Mr. Dale and the other teachers pin us down as old Haskers
did?" demanded Phil.
"They won't do it," declared our hero. "Take my word for it, Mr. Dale
will give us a month, if we want it. I know him. And the others will
do the same."
"Well, maybe we can get through, if that's the case," said the
shipowner's son, slowly. "Just the same, I think old Haskers the
meanest man alive."
The following morning, after a good night's rest, the boys went to
their various classes. As Dave had predicted, Mr. Dale, the head
teacher, treated them with all possible consideration, for he loved
boys and understood them thoroughly. The other teachers were likewise
very lenient.
"Old Haskers is the one stumbling-block," said Roger. "Dave, maybe we
had better see Doctor Clay about him."
"Not much!" cried Phil. "We've got a club we can use on Haskers. Why
not use it?"
"You mean, go to him and tell him we know about that Mrs. Breen
affair, and that we will expose him if he doesn't let up on us, Phil?"
said Dave.
"Yes."
"Do you think that is a--well, a gentlemanly thing to do?"
"It's what old Haskers would do, if he was in our place."
"Perhaps. But I'd rather not do it. Let my uncle's lawyer try to
collect that money without our appearing in the case. We have had
trouble enough in the past with Haskers. Let us buckle in and study
up. I am sure we can get through," added Dave, earnestly.
"All right," growled Phil; but his manner showed that he was not
satisfied.
Two days went by, and the boys settled down to the regular routine of
the school. The lessons to be made up were exceedingly hard, and Dave
found he had to study almost constantly to do what was required of
him.
"But I am going to make it!" he murmured, setting his teeth hard. "I
am not going to disappoint the folks at home."
One afternoon the three chums had a very hard lesson in Latin to do.
It was a clear, sunshiny day and they had one of the windows wide open
to let in the fresh air. Dave and Roger were bending over their books
when they heard a sudden exclamation from Phil.
"I'll be hanged if I'm going to do it!"
And then of a sudden a Latin book was hurled across the room, to land
on a bureau, just missing the glass.
"Hello!" cried Dave, raising his head. "What's wrong now?"
"I'm not going to do it!" cried Phil, stretching himself. "It's an
outrage and I won't submit to it."
"You mean this boning away for Haskers?" queried Roger.
"Just that," answered the shipowner's son. "Why can't he treat us as
fairly as the other teachers did? It wouldn't hurt him a bit to give
us more time."
"Phil, what's the use of talking it over again?" asked Dave. "I
thought we had settled it once for all."
"No, I won't stand it, I tell you," cried Phil, stubbornly. "He can't
make a pack-mule of me."
"Well, then, speak to the doctor about it," advised Roger.
"I don't have to speak to the doctor," stormed Phil; and walking over
to a rack, he caught up his cap and marched from the room.
"He is certainly in a bad humor," was Dave's comment. "I am afraid
he'll put his foot into it, Roger."
"So am I. He's been aching to get back at old Haskers ever since he
put all this studying up to us."
"Do you know, Ben is just as angry at Haskers as Phil is?" went on our
hero, after a pause, during which both had hoped that their close chum
would return. But Phil had stalked down the stairs and out of the
building.
"Ben?"
"Yes, so he told me this noon."
"What about?"
"Oh, Ben talked in class and old Haskers penalized him heavily--gave
him a lot of extra Latin to do. It nearly broke Ben up."
"You told Ben about that Breen affair, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Maybe he and Phil will both go to Haskers about it."
"I hope not, Roger. I don't think it is just the right thing to do--to
use that as a club over Haskers to get him to let us off. I don't like
that kind of dealing."
"Neither do I. But it's just what such a mean-spirited fellow as
Haskers deserves. He has never treated us squarely since we came here.
I think this school would be a good deal better off without him, even
if he is well educated."
Dave heaved a deep sigh. He was on the point of replying, but changed
his mind. He took up his book again, and soon was trying his best to
study. Roger followed his example.
But both boys made slow progress. Each was thinking about Phil. What
would be the outcome of their headstrong chum's actions?