"And where are Tom Topover and his gang?"
"We left them on the other side of the lake." Dory proceeded, without any further questions, to make his report of the taking of the barges, and the means by which he had recovered possession of them. He stated the facts just as they were, without flourish or ornament, even to the intention they had of smashing the Racer by running into her.
"I am heartily rejoiced that you did not do anything of that kind!" exclaimed Captain Gildrock, with a considerable show of emotion for him. "Nothing could have justified you in resorting to such a desperate measure, unless it was to save life or honor. If one of those boys had lost his life, it would have been the ruin of the Beech Hill Industrial School; for popular opinion would have set against us, and we could not have stemmed the tide."
"I was terribly excited when I thought of doing it," pleaded Dory.
"You have done well, my lad; you have behaved splendidly; but the biggest and best thing you have done was to renounce a bad intention," added the principal, earnestly. "I cannot look upon this affair as anything more than a boys' racket, and I am exceedingly thankful that no catastrophe has come out of it."
"Should you excuse the Topovers for stealing the boat on the ground that it was nothing but a racket, a frolic, something done for the fun of it?" asked Matt Randolph very seriously.
"By no means; I would prosecute them for stealing the boats if it were likely to result in anything but a fine which their poor parents would have to pay," replied the captain. "No one should do wrong for the fun of it; but there is such a thing as exaggerating a serious matter beyond its proper proportions."
The arrival of the boats ended the conversation. Dinner was ready, and everything proceeded at the institution in its usual order. The rebels each dined alone in his room.