The girls were speechless with surprise.


CHAPTER XXIII

BACK TO SCHOOL AGAIN

“That’s the strangest thing I ever heard,” Jennie Bruce said, the first to break the silence. “Do you really suppose he was crying, Scorch—or was he laughing?”

“Say!” returned the red-haired youth, “Old Gordon never laughed in his life!”

“But why should he cry?” asked Nancy, much disturbed.

“Ask me an easier one,” answered Scorch. “It struck me all of a heap. I backed out and waited for him to show up. When he went out to lunch he looked no different from other times.”

“And I don’t see that what you’ve told us is a bit of good!” exclaimed Jennie, suddenly. “We don’t know who the gray man is.”