"Please," pleaded Louise, "don't mind them! You've time yet to come under the flag."
But Rudolph stood indignant, immovable.
"Get to your lines, children," and the principal's call-bell was heard tapping above on the porch.
A group of boys came suddenly together into a tight bunch.
"We'll fix him after school," Louise heard them threaten. And she knew that Rudolph heard it, too—knew by the sudden whiteness which swept over his face.
The next minute the boys and girls were drawn up in parallel lines ready to march into the schoolhouse. Louise was at the end of her line and Rudolph Kreisler was the last on the boys' row. They were opposite each other.
"Eyes front—march!" came the command, and the lines moved forward with one impulse.
"Eyes front!" But to save her life Louise could not help stealing a sidelong glance at Rudolph.
To her horror she saw the little alien slip quietly behind a rose-bush and drop out of sight into the bricked-up area which furnished window-space for the basement.
With a flash Louise remembered that those windows communicated directly with the engine-room, and that the engine-room was directly under the third grade.