In ignorance of what had been decided upon, when some of them beheld the five who had been chosen to wait upon Mr. Larmore, they instantly concluded that they must be the boys who had taken part in the smashing of the instruments, and quickly they passed the word along to the other students who were unable to look out of the window.
As some of the boys who had advised against sending the delegation had argued, when the knock sounded on the door of the principal’s office and the order to enter had been given, Mr. Larmore believed that the five students who filed in, had come to confess.
Accordingly, assuming a stern but injured manner, he rose and bowed to each of them.
“There is no need for me to say that I am shocked when I see who of my students took part in the mischief, but I am glad that you are men enough to come to me and tell——”
“Pardon me, Mr. Larmore, but you are mistaken,” interrupted Dawson. “We have not come to confess anything.”
“Eh? What?” exclaimed the principal, looking over his glasses at the speaker.
“I said that we have not come to confess,” repeated Dawson.
“Then to what do I owe the honor of this call?” Mr. Larmore asked, dropping back into his chair and assuming his most sarcastic tone and manner.
“In the first place, we want to tell you that no member of the Pi Eta society had a hand in the doings in the physical laboratory; and in the second, we wish to know who it was that charged us with the work.”
As he heard the statement, the principal’s face grew even more stern, and for several minutes he thrummed his desk without making any reply.