He looked around at the other boys, some of whom were writing away bravely, while others were hopelessly, or helplessly, biting the ends of their pencils, or else staring up at the ceiling as if to draw inspiration from that.
Clarence Hawkesbury was seated in front of Tom, and in the next aisle. As our hero was on his last question, having temporarily passed the one about which he was in doubt, Tom saw Clarence working with his right hand partly up the left sleeve of his coat. It was as if the captain’s nephew was trying to pull down a wrinkled part of his shirt that annoyed him.
Tom watched, rather idly, and saw Clarence glance quickly around the room. What he saw, or, rather, what he did not see, appeared to be satisfactory, for the lad took from the sleeve of his coat a small folded paper. He glanced at it quickly and then let go of it.
To Tom’s surprise the paper quickly disappeared up the sleeve again, with a snapping motion that could leave but one inference.
“He’s got some answers written down on a paper, and it’s fastened to a rubber band up his sleeve,” decided Tom. “He can pull it down, and, when he lets go of it, the paper snaps back up his sleeve again. It’s a sharp trick all right.”
It was evident that Clarence had received from his concealed paper the information he lacked, for he at once began writing rapidly.
“The sneak!” mused Tom. “I can’t tell on him, of course, but if he passes this exam, and I don’t—!”
Tom shrugged his shoulders. There was nothing he could do.
Tom turned in his paper, and, a little later, Clarence did the same. The arrogant youth wore a confident air, and winked his eye at Tom.
The arithmetic and algebra tests were more difficult, but Tom was pretty sure he had passed, especially in the former. There was one problem in the binomial theorem that appalled him for a time. But he set his mind to it, and worked it out in a manner he felt sure was right.