Unknown to the boys, Mr. Vining had come up behind them, and, as he heard the bully's unkind words, he said:
"Fred, you may forget what I told you this morning."
CHAPTER IV
BRONSON'S CREDENTIALS
To Fred the lifting of the ban against his defending his father's name seemed the solution of all his troubles. In his joy he forgot to thank Mr. Vining, and when his remissness occurred to him he saw the form of the headmaster just entering his office.
"That sure was white of him," the boy muttered to himself. "I don't believe he realized what his threat of suspension meant to me."
Several of the boys had noticed Mr. Vining speaking to Fred, and as soon as the former had passed them, turned back, eager to learn what he had said.
Fred, however, was not disposed to gratify their curiosity, and vouchsafed them only a smile, tantalizing in its mystery.
"It must be good news," asserted Buttons, when his most diplomatic attempts to obtain the desired information had failed. "A few minutes ago your face was as long as a yardstick, and now you're grinning like a cat full of chicken."
"It is good news," laughed Fred, and then the sight of the boy for whom he had sacrificed his desk suggesting an avenue of escape from his too solicitous friends, he called: "Oh, you Bronson. Come and I'll show you where you will sit. Sandow Hill had seventeen last year, so you'll probably have a lot of cleaning out to do."