Clark did not appear until the last moment—just in time to avoid the tardy mark. His face was very grave, and he looked neither to right nor left as he took his seat, so he did not see Hamlin watching eagerly for a chance to give him a friendly smile, and Hamlin had to content himself with the thought, “I’ll have a talk with him at recess.”
But at recess the principal, Prof. Keene, sent for him and kept him so long in his office that the recess was over before he was at liberty, and half an hour before school was dismissed Clark, after a word with Mr. Horton, left the room and did not return.
So Hamlin, breaking away from half a dozen boys who surrounded him when school was out, hurried after Freeman who was walking off alone.
“What’s the matter with Clark? Why did he leave so early?” he asked, as he overtook the little fellow.
“I don’t know,” answered Freeman; then he added, speaking earnestly and quickly, “You don’t believe that it was because he was afraid that he didn’t fight Crawford, do you, Hamlin?”
“Of course not,” was the quick reply. “I don’t believe in fighting any more than Clark does, though I doubt if I should have had the moral courage to do as he did and risk being called a coward.”
“I’m to blame for it all. It was his standing up for me in class that began it,” said Freeman, with a troubled face.
“Don’t worry over that,” said Hamlin kindly. “I’ll stand by him, and I know some of the other fellows will too.”
“If you do, he won’t care much about the rest, I guess,” said Freeman, who, like most of the younger boys, looked up to David Hamlin as a model. He turned off presently at his own corner, and Hamlin walked on alone, saying to himself, “I’ll run around and see Clark after supper.”
But his kindly purpose was not destined to be carried out. When he reached home he was met by his little brother with the announcement, “Papa’s going to London to-morrow, and you’re going with him.”