“Why not?”
“He’s the best fighter in school.”
“You mean best or worst?”
“Either,” replied Walter, with an uneasy laugh. “I don’t want you to queer yourself.”
“I don’t want to myself,” said Dan good-naturedly.
CHAPTER XXII
CHANGED RELATIONS
The relations between Dan and Walter were daily becoming more strained. Gus Kiggins was a less frequent visitor than he had been formerly, but Dan was convinced that this simply meant that Walter was spending more time in the room or company of the boy for whom Dan had formed an intense dislike. The threatened trouble between himself and Gus apparently had vanished and even little Carlton Hall was not troubled as he formerly had been. The lad was a bright little fellow and in the classroom was already making a reputation for his quickness. Now that his first feeling of homesickness was gone and there had come a comparative freedom from his tormentors, Carlton was entering more fully into the spirit of the life of the school.
For Dan the little fellow’s admiration, as well as his devotion, steadily increased. More and more Carlton sought Dan’s room and company. If Walter objected, he did not say so, though his unconcealed contempt was not lacking. But Dan and Walter, though they occupied the same rooms, were no longer such warm friends as once they had been. There were not many times when the boys quarreled. It was rather an absence of all friendly relations that marked their daily lives.