“It ain’t so,” muttered Dan Baxter. “He started the quarrel.”
“No! no!” came from several.
“It started just as Pepper says,” put in Harry. “It was a mean thing for Baxter to attack Pepper without warning.”
“That’s what it was,” said another student standing by.
“You fellows shut up!” roared Dan Baxter. “If you don’t I’ll——” He stopped short in confusion.
“Why did you attack him, Baxter?” asked the master of the school.
“Oh, he’s getting too airish,” said the bully, not stopping to think twice.
“Then you admit that you did attack him first?”
At this the bully grew red in the face.
“Well—er—I had good cause.”