Joe Chester was not ready to discuss the question, and was not intending to join the crowd of talkers; but as he passed there was a cry: "Chester! Ho there, Chester!"
He waved his hand towards them, and was passing on, when one of the older boys seized him roughly by the collar, and straightway pulled him into one of the groups.
Joe struggled bravely to release himself; but being one of the smallest boys in the class, he stood small chance of escaping his assailant; so laughing good-naturedly, he allowed himself to be drawn into the centre of the crowd of eager talkers.
"That's right! Don't let him off till he gives a guess as to the scamp!" shouted several boys.
"Perhaps he did it himself," said the tall youth who had appointed himself policeman to collar Joe and bring him to the conclave.
"See here, Ralph Drayton, if I had been mean enough to play such a miserable trick with the books, I wouldn't be mean enough to deny it," said Joe stoutly, throwing his head back proudly, and looking the other straight in the eye.
Drayton laughed derisively, and said with a sneer, "Oh, I forgot; he is 'Saint Bernard's' pet billy-goat. He never would do anything bad, would he? Oh no." Then in a change of tone, he added in a conciliatory way, "Never mind me, Chester; of course I am funning. No one suspects you."
"No, I suppose not," said Joe coolly.
This he said with his honest blue eyes fastened searchingly on Ralph Drayton's small black ones.
The black eyes fell beneath the glance, but Drayton quickly recovered himself, and loosing his grasp on Joe's collar, said with a laugh, "I'll bet anything that the janitor did it!"