"Oh, he'll not be back," sneered Bart Montgomery.
"Why?" chorused several of the boys, while all the others gathered closer.
"You know his father failed, don't you?" demanded Bart.
"Sure," said Buttons, "but how does that affect Fred?"
"He can win the Second Form Scholarship in Science—that'll give him cash enough, if he's short of money," protested another.
"Oh, it isn't lack of rocks that will keep him away," asserted Bart contemptuously.
"Then what will?" persisted Buttons.
All the former students who had returned to Baxter were aware that a rivalry had sprung up the previous year between Fred Markham and Bart Montgomery, due to the former's increasing ability, both in his studies and in athletics, which threatened to wrest the Form leadership from Bart. But they had supposed it to be an honest, schoolboy rivalry, and the tone in which Bart spoke of Fred surprised them.
As both boys were popular, they had many followers among their own and the Third Form students, and unconsciously these divided, Fred's supporters gathering about Buttons, who was championing their absent leader, the others about Bart.
Noticing that he had by far the most numerous following, Bart's pride got the better of his discretion and he retorted: