Again clearing his throat, Mr. Larmore started to speak, when a boy rose from the seats occupied by the seniors.
“My name is Thomas Dawson. You know me, Mr. Larmore. So do the other people of Rivertown and the scholars of the high school.
“I had the honor to be elected a member of the Pi Eta during my freshman year, and, in the memory of what the society stands for in scholarship and in manliness, in high ideals of school life, I resent most emphatically the imputations in your remarks cast upon the initiation into the Pi Eta society last night!”
Never before had such a defiance to the principal of the school been made, and as the boys and girls who pursued their studies within its brick walls heard it, they were seized with an amazement even greater than at the words of the principal.
But the cup of their surprise was not yet filled.
Pausing a moment after his statement, that the dramatic effect of his utterance might be the greater, Dawson exclaimed:
“In the name of the members of the Pi Eta society of Rivertown High School, I demand to know the authority for your statement that it was any of our members who caused the breaking of the apparatus?”
CHAPTER XIV—THE BOYS APPOINT A COMMITTEE
Never before in the annals of Rivertown High had such a scene been witnessed in the chapel, and as the scholars realized that one of their number was openly defying the man who, for years had guided the destinies of those studying under him, they were dumfounded.
Mr. Larmore, himself, evidently shared the general astonishment for, as he heard Dawson’s demand, his eyes flashed, he opened his mouth as though to speak, and then, evidently thinking better of it, closed it again.