Suddenly he sprang up and held the book open before Hamlin’s eyes, while he pointed excitedly to a name in the list of senior pupils. Hamlin looked at it in a perplexed way for an instant, then he cried out, “I say, fellows,” but stopping suddenly, he looked keenly around the room, and then ran and shut the door into the hall.
“Well, what’s the matter with Hamlin? Evidently he’s not all right,” cried one wonderingly, as Hamlin began:—
“There’s not one of Coyle’s crowd here, so I’ll tell you what’s the matter with Hamlin. I believe we’ve got hold of Coyle’s scheme, thanks to Freeman. Look here!”
He held up the catalogue and pointed to one of the names. It was Thomas Graham Griffin.
“Don’t you see?” he went on. “Coyle and his crowd are going to vote for Graham, as he said, but it’s Graham Griffin, not Alec Graham. He counted on our not remembering that Griffin’s middle name is Graham.”
“That’s it, sure as sneezing!” exclaimed Reed, “and Coyle said it to keep us from trying to get votes for Graham. Well, I call that a right down mean trick.”
“Here comes Gordon,” cried Freeman, as the door opened, and at once Gordon was surrounded by the excited group, all trying to tell him the story at once. He listened with a troubled face.
“Oh, it’s too bad,” he said, when the clamor subsided a little. “If this is so, Graham won’t be elected at all, and Griffin is no kind of a fellow to be captain of Company C.”
But now the boys came trooping in, as it was approaching nine o’clock, and with a hasty word of caution to let no hint get to Coyle of their understanding of the real state of things, Gordon took his seat.
It was not easy for him and some others, however, to give their usual attention to their studies, and they were glad when recess set them free to think and speak of all that was in their thoughts.