"Paradyne, no! What could Paradyne have had to do with it? I mean the new master; that German fellow with an English name."
"Nonsense, Lamb!"
Lamb nodded his head oracularly. "It might have been."
It was a new phase of the question, and the boys looked up. Lamb continued. "Trace says he thinks he's a regular spy."
"By the way, where is Trace?" asked Gall, who had suddenly noticed that Trace, usually so punctual at studies, was not present.
"It couldn't have been him," said Leek, regardless of the question as to Trace. "He saw the fellow making off; he said he wore the college cap."
"Your tongue is ever ready, Onions," was the rebuke of the senior boy. "It's not at all likely to have been Mr. Henry; but neither is it obliged to have been the fellow he saw making off. And if it was, the fellow might not have come out of the college; he may be an outsider. Get on with your work; there's really no cause to be worrying over it and suspecting each other."
The words acted as oil on the troubled waters, and they began to settle down to their books and exercises. But it's pleasanter to gossip than to learn.
"Why does Trace think the German's a spy?" asked Loftus minor.
"He's not German; he's English. A German would have his face covered with hair; this fellow shaves."