“All of that,” agreed Le Gette cheerfully. “But I wouldn’t bother with him, Harven. I told him I’d break his neck if he ever did anything like that again. He won’t. Funny thing about it is he’s taken rather a shine to me since then!”
Later, back in Number 12, Stuart asked: “Neil, what did you ever do to Austin Lantwood?”
Neil marked a place in his book with a finger and shook his head as he looked up. “Lantwood? Why, nothing! That is—— Why do you ask?”
“Well, Le Gette’s just told me that it was Lantwood who blackballed you for Lyceum.”
“Lantwood! Funny I didn’t think of him,” mused Neil. “Well, I’m glad it wasn’t Le Gette, anyway. You know, I didn’t think it was, Stuart.”
“Lantwood told Le Gette that you’d done something to him some time or other. What was it?”
Neil laughed. “Well, last spring I told him he was a disgrace to the school, and a few things like that, and I dare say he didn’t like it.”
“What for?”
“Why, I found him twisting a kid’s arm one afternoon in the lower corridor in Manning. The kid was a junior, about thirteen, I guess, and hardly up to the other chap’s shoulder. He was crying and I butted in. Lantwood said the kid had called him names and I said I guessed he deserved it. He wanted to scrap, and I couldn’t oblige him very well, so I hauled off with one crutch and he beat it. That’s all there was to it, except that I told him a few things to think over!”