"Oh, Mr. Leith!" cried Bobby, brokenly. "I am not trying to get out of anything. Truly I'm not! Punish me all you want to, sir, but don't ask me to tell on the other boys. I can't do that."
"We shall see, Robert," said the teacher, grimly. "Return to your class-room."
Now began a very terrible time for Bobby Blake—or so it seemed to the heartsick boy. He held a secret that he could not speak of, and his refusal to reveal it broke down his chances of gaining that Honor Medal on which he had set his hopes.
Of course, it never entered his mind for a moment that he could tell—even though the other boys did not realize what he had been through with Mr. Leith, and what his punishment was.
Fred and Sparrow, made friends by the emergency, with Jimmy Ailshine, waited for Bobby in a secure hiding place known to all four; but Bobby did not come. When they got back to the classroom at half past one, Bobby was there ahead of them.
His face was very red; he may have been crying, but Fred could not tell. The latter slipped a brief note to him:
"Did he catch you?"
Bobby nodded, but did not write back. Fred, after a while, slipped over another written question:
"Where's my cap?"
This time Bobby replied: "At the foot of the cliff. He doesn't know any of you. Keep still."