“But how can I prove it?” demanded Lester, who was pleased to know that Cony looked upon him as a leader among his fellows. “There never were such precautions taken against guard-running before; all the old students say so. The officer of the guard hardly ever sits down for more than five minutes at a time; Don and Mack make it a point to go the rounds when you are least expecting to see them; and never a night passes that they don’t look into every dormitory in the building.”
“In other words, being full of tricks himself, Don knows just how to go to work to head off every other trick that can be conjured up,” Jones remarked. “I tell you, Cony, they have drawn the reins tight so far this term, and all the signs seem to indicate that they will not be slackened an inch.”
“No matter for that,” was Cony’s response. “I know an army of boys who were graduated at this school, and who, if they were here now, would laugh at Don Gordon and his new regulations. If Gordon was the same fellow he was when he first came here, he too would laugh at all such rules, and run the guard as often as he felt like it. What you boys want is a leader in fact as well as in name—somebody who has brains enough to think up plans for your amusement, and courage and skill enough to carry them out. I thought—I really thought that Brigham was that sort, but I have been disappointed in him.”
“He isn’t any more disappointed in him than we are,” whispered Enoch, as he and the rest bent their steps toward the academy, the time for which their passes were granted having nearly expired. “We found out long ago that he is all talk and no do.”
“And Cony knows it,” replied Jones. “He was only trying to put a little life into Lester, because he wants to see the color of some more of his money. That was what he was up to, and you may depend upon it.”
“That is a very nice place to get away to,” observed Morris, who had never visited Cony Ryan’s hotel before; “but what a cross old chap the landlord is!”
“That’s only his way of talking,” Enoch hastened to explain. “He isn’t cross at all. He likes to see fun—nothing suits him better than to have that little parlor crowded so full of boys that another one could not be pushed in edgewise—and he hoped that by giving Brigham a good overhauling he could hurt his pride, put some ambition into him and set guard-running to going again; but I am afraid he is destined to be disappointed in that. Lester’s will is good enough, but he lacks the ability.”
“Then kick him out and put some one else in as leader.”
“Leader!” sneered Enoch. “Lester never has been acknowledged as such since we found him out, which we did in less than an hour after we got possession of Mr. Packard’s schooner. But it is policy to make him think he holds that position. If one of our fellows gets hard up for a dollar, we flatter him about something until we get him in the right humor, and then we strike him for a donation. It is very comforting to know where you can get a loan when you want it. I suppose he is going home with me next vacation, but I can’t say that I expect any pleasure from his visit; still I shall do the very best I can for him, because when Jones and I were stopping at his father’s house, nothing was too good for us.”
While the two boys talked in this way they were trudging through the snow toward the academy, Lester Brigham lagging behind alone, so that he could commune undisturbed with his own thoughts. Cony Ryan still looked upon him as the leader and hope of his party! If there were any boy in the academy who could head off Don Gordon, he was the one! There was a good deal of consolation in that reflection, but what business had Cony to say that if Don were the same boy he was when he first came to Bridgeport, and the existing rules were in force, he would laugh at them and run the guard as often as he felt like it? When the fact that he (Lester) had been one of Cony’s very best customers was taken into consideration, the comparison that had been drawn between his courage and skill and Don Gordon’s, was unkind, to say the least. He wished he could think up some way to make Cony sorry for what he had said.