“He sure looked cut up this morning. I had a good look at him,” said Rabbit Warren, slapping Jeff on the shoulder.
To all this Jeff smiled ruefully. It was on his tongue to tell them too that in reality he had got the worst of it, but he glanced up in time to see Dr. Livingston coming down the hall. The principal caught his eye and motioned to him to follow, and Jeff broke away from his admirers and hurried to the Doctor’s office.
Gould and Pell were already there, and Jeff was surprised to see how many scars of battle the former bore. His nose was in an unpleasant state of redness and abnormally swollen and there was just the suggestion of blackness about his right eye. There was a slight cut on his right cheek, too.
Dr. Livingston sat down in his chair and swung around to look at all three. They were silent for several minutes while he looked at them frowningly. Finally he spoke in a sharp, crisp voice.
“You three boys know the rules of the school as well as I do. I am very much put out with you. Gould, you and Pell stay in bounds for a month. No privileges whatever, and report to Professor Battel for an extra hour’s Latin every day during the period. And mind you, if there is one complaint against you from any quarter out you go, dismissed from the school. I’ll not have boys of your stamp around here. You are both on probation, so mind your conduct. Go to your class. Thatcher, I want to see you alone a moment.”
Jeff’s heart seemed to drop into his shoes as Gould and Pell departed. “Why does he want to see me alone?” he asked himself.
Dr. Livingston looked at him in silence for some time after the two boys had gone. Finally he spoke, and to Jeff it seemed as if his tone was a little more fatherly than it had been to Gould or Pell.
“Thatcher,” he said, “this is the most unpleasant task I have had in all my career with boys. I have laid awake most of the night thinking of just what this was going to mean to you but I can see no way out. Rules are rules, and you know it as well as I do. That holds not only in school but in life generally, and the quicker you find it out the better off you’ll be. Rules are rules, laws are laws, and when you break either of them you must be punished. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot make an exception even of you, and I realize in making this decision just how disastrous it is going to be for you. My only hope is that somehow you will find a way out of the difficulty. I will have to suspend all your privileges for the rest of the term, and you will have to remain in bounds for two weeks at least. That is the minimum penalty, as you know. I’m very, very sorry.”
In spite of his best efforts at self-control tears welled up in Jeff Thatcher’s eyes and a great lump gathered in his throat as Dr. Livingston talked. It was several seconds before he could speak without breaking down completely.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he finally gulped, “but I guess it means the end of my career at Pennington. I can’t stay if my privileges are taken away. I—I—” Jeff gulped and turned away, starting tear-blind for the door.