DICK MAKES ANOTHER ENEMY.
Professor Gunn had invited Dick to call at his room. The head professor
was very friendly toward Frank, whom he greatly admired, and he had
taken the first opportunity to have a talk with Frank’s brother.
It happened that Professor Gooch had called while Dick was in the room,
but the screen had prevented him from becoming aware of the presence of
the boy until Dick stepped out.
Professor Gooch was somewhat staggered by the appearance of the lad, but
he quickly recovered, his wrinkled old face twisting into hard knots.
"Yah!" he exclaimed. "So you were listening behind there! Yah!
Listening!"
"I was here when you came," returned Dick. "I did not come here to
listen to anybody, sir."
"Insolence!" grated the professor. "It’s plain there are good grounds
for the charges."
"I beg your pardon," said Dick, restraining himself with not a little
difficulty. "I have no intention of being insolent. I simply demand my
right. False charges have been made against me, and I ask to know the
names of those who have made them."
"What would you do if you knew?"
"I’d make the chaps who said such things retract, or I’d——"
"You’d what?"
"Thrash every one of them!" exclaimed the boy hotly.
"Ah-ha!" exclaimed Professor Gooch, with satisfaction. "That’s the kind
of spirit football breeds! It makes fighters, Professor Gunn—brutal
fighters!"
"Unless a man is ready to fight for his rights, he stands little show of
amounting to much in this world," said the head professor. "I don’t
blame the boy for wishing to fight."
"I’m astonished at you—astonished, sir!" cried Professor Gooch, with a
pretension of being aghast.
"At the same time," said Professor Gunn, "I do not believe in giving
him, at present, the names on this paper."
"At least, you show judgment in that," said Professor Gooch, with
sarcasm.
"Why am I not to know the names of those who have made these lying
charges against me?" demanded Dick. "I have never been overbearing or
insolent toward any one, I have never made sport of my superiors, I have
not mocked or derided the faculty, and I have circulated no false
reports against anybody."
"In short," said Professor Gunn, "you deny the entire list of charges?"
"I do."
"And I believe your denial," said the head professor.
"It’s simply one against five," said Professor Gooch. "I choose to
believe the five."
"Have they offered you any proof of the truth of their charges?" asked
Dick.
"It makes no difference. You have not proven the charges are not true."
"Until there is some evidence against the boy he is supposed to be
innocent."
"By you, sir, perhaps; but me——"
"You have no right to believe me guilty!" flashed Dick, his indignation
breaking all bonds.
"Don’t talk to me that way!" flared the professor—"don’t dare! I will
not have it! You must keep your place, sir!"
"You are not my master!" he cried. "You cannot tell me what I shall do!"
Gooch flourished his cane, with the intention of shaking it at the lad,
but, quick as a flash, Dick snatched it from his hand.
"Don’t you dare!" he blazed. "Why, if you do——"
He took a step toward Professor Gooch, who fell back, uttering a little
squawk of alarm. His appearance was so comical that a sudden and
surprising change came over the lad. The look of anger was chased from
his face by one of merriment, and he cried:
"Oh, dear! Don’t be frightened! Ha! ha! ha! Oh, ha! ha! ha! I won’t hurt
you, sir!"
"Professor Gunn!" gasped Professor Gooch, "will you stand here and see
me insulted and threatened like this? Isn’t this just cause to have this
boy expelled? I demand that he be brought to book for this conduct! I
demand it, sir! He shall be turned out of this school! I will see that
it is done!"
Dick tossed the cane at the feet of the excited professor.
"Turn me out!" he said. "What do I care for your old school? I didn’t
wish to come here, in the first place. I’ll go back to my home—back to
Felicia! Old Joe will go with me, and I’ll be free again. Then I can do
as I like, and I’ll have plenty of friends in the birds and the wild
creatures that know me. There I’ll have no mean and lying enemies who
are trying to hurt me! You may believe the lies about me! I don’t care!"
He turned as if to leave the room, but suddenly whirled toward Professor
Gunn, whose hand he quickly grasped.
"You have been kind to me," he said, his voice soft and musical. "I’ll
never forget it, sir—never!"
Then, before Zenas Gunn could stop him, he had dashed from the room.
"Why, he’s a perfect young wildcat!" gasped Professor Gooch. "He is not
safe to have round! It will be a good thing for the school if he should
go!"
Zenas Gunn gave Professor Gooch a look that contained a meaning that was
far from complimentary.
"What you need, professor," he said, "is something for your liver. I
don’t blame the boy."
"You—you don’t? Why, he snatched the cane from my hand!"
"When you shook it at him."
"But I didn’t mean to strike him."
"How did he know? I have talked with his brother, and he has asked me to
bear with any peculiarities of the lad, who was raised alone and without
playmates, save one little girl. He is not like other boys. You do not
understand him at all."
"I don’t want to; the young wildcat! I think it a shame to have such a
boy in the school!"
"And I think it a shame there are not more like him. He is honest and
open, and he——"
"But these charges against him, professor?"
"I take no stock in them. I understand that the boy has made enemies
because he has been successful in doing remarkable things since entering
Fardale. His success has made others envious and jealous. They are
trying to down him. Are you going to help them, professor? Are you going
to become the instrument of these enemies?"
"Oh, you have a slick way of putting things, Professor Gunn; but you
know the boy insulted me in this very room and before your eyes. You
know it, sir!"
"He dared stand up manfully and defend himself, for which I confess my
admiration."
"Your admiration?"
"Exactly."
"Yah! His actions were admirable! Oh, yes! The young spitfire! I’d like
to have the handling of him! He’d play no more football for one while!
I’d put him in the guard-house, and he’d live on bread and water for a
week, a month, a year, if necessary! I’d break his spirit! I’d show him
I was his master!"
"Professor Gooch, you are so angry that you talk childish. When you have
cooled down, you may regard this matter in a different light."
"No, sir—no! I have placed in your hands the charges against that boy! I
demand that they be investigated!"
"Very well," said the head professor. "They shall be, and if I find they
are not true, the ones whose names are signed here must suffer for it.
That is all, professor."
"All right, all right! I’m willing to have it stand that way. But that
boy must apologize to me, whatever the result of the investigation. I
demand it!"
"Very well."
"I demand it!" repeated Professor Gooch. "He must apologize! He must say
he is sorry!"
"Very well. I have other matters that require my attention now,
professor. You will excuse me."
Zenas Gunn accompanied the visitor to the door, which he held open for
the angry professor to pass out.
The result of this affair was that Dick Merriwell had made an enemy in
Barnaby Gooch, and one who might cause him serious trouble at Fardale.