"I don't think so, although I remember being taken to somewhere in a carriage and seeing the lights of the station. After that, I had some hot words with Jasniff and came back to the Hall. Then Jasniff sent a letter, stating he would surely expose me if I opened my mouth to anybody. Then came your news to the doctor. If those men are captured, and Jasniff with them, they will surely drag me into the affair! How am I going to face it—especially after what happened last summer? Oh, I wish I was dead!"
Gus Plum's lips began to tremble and the tears stood in his eyes. His better nature was struggling to the surface, and he was a most miserable object to behold. Dave pitied the lad from the bottom of his heart.
"It certainly does look black, Gus," he said. "But if you are not guilty I'd face the music if I were you. If those men are brought into court you can turn witness against them, and against Jasniff too. I know it will hurt you in school—but if you don't want to stay here you can go to some other academy."
After this Dave talked to Gus Plum for a full half-hour, giving the other boy his best advice. Both lads were so excited that neither minded the snow and the cold. Plum was in a deeply penitent mood and during the course of the conversation told how he and Jasniff and Poole had cut down the tree and let it fall on the roadway, so that Dave and Babcock had been pitched off their wheels, and he also told of how Henshaw had been drugged previous to the football game, and of several other mean things that had been accomplished.
"And then to think that on top of it all you saved my life," Plum went on. "Oh, Dave, I can't understand it! You're the best boy alive!"
"Oh, no, I am not," answered Dave. "I've got lots of faults of my own, Gus, lots of them!"
"But you're not mean like me—and not dishonest. I don't wonder the fellows like you."
At last they started back for the school, the snow pelting them in the face as they journeyed along. Each boy was busy with his thoughts and but little was said. When they came in sight of the Hall Gus Plum halted.