"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.