“Ruined, utterly ruined!” murmured the teacher. “My best hat!”
“We—I—that is I—didn’t know it was your hat,” stammered Tom. “I threw the ball through it.”
“You didn’t know it was my hat?” asked Professor Tines, as if such ignorance was inexcusable. “Whose did you suppose it was, pray?”
“Some galoot’s—I mean some freshman’s,” stammered Phil. “You see, it was hanging from a window in the freshmen’s dormitory, and——”
“It was not hanging from the window of any student in the first year class,” declared the instructor pompously. “I had sent my silk hat to one of the janitors, who makes a practice of ironing them. He had finished it, and hung it out to air, when you—you vandals came along. I distinctly saw you throw at my hat, sir,” and Professor Tines shook his finger at Tom.
“I—I know it, sir. I admit it,” confessed the captain. “Only—only——”
“We didn’t know it was your hat, sir,” went on Sid. “I’m afraid it’s quite—quite unfit to wear, sir,” and Sid tried to put the flapping piece back into place, for the professor had dropped the tile, and Sid had picked it up.
“Unfit to wear! I should say it was. Fit to wear! Why I intend delivering a lecture on ‘The Art of Repose as an Aid to High Thinking’ and now, sir—now, you young vandals have ruined the hat I was going to wear! It’s infamous—infamous! I shall have you expelled! I shall let your parents know of your shameless conduct! I shall have you dismissed at once!” and the irate professor shook his fist first at Tom, then at Sid and then at Phil. “Your conduct is a disgrace to the school!” he went on. “Here, give me my hat!” and he fairly snatched it from Sid. “Come with me at once to Dr. Churchill. He shall know about this outrage!”
“If you please, Professor Tines, we didn’t know it was your hat,” was about all Phil could think of to say.
“So much the worse. You thought it belonged to some defenseless student, and that you could ruin it with impunity. But I shall soon show you how mistaken you were. Come with me at once!” and Professor Tines, holding his hat in one hand, seized Tom’s coat sleeve in the other, and led him toward the president’s office, followed by Phil and Sid.