“N-no, I don’t think so, but it’s hard to tell,” Carter replied. “But he looked pretty serious. He’s sent for Bob and Dan, too.”
The latter were coming up the hill into the clearing as Nelson and Tom appeared from above. They exchanged sympathetic grins and shakes of the head, and then composed their features and filed into Poplar Hall. Mr. Clinton was at his desk behind the railing.
“Bring some chairs over here, boys, and sit down so that I may talk to you. That’s it. Now, how about this blue-paint episode?”
His glance encountered four rather sheepish faces, but every eye met his fairly. It was Bob who spoke first.
“We all had a hand in it, sir.”
“That’s so, sir,” Tom supplemented. And Nelson nodded. Dan alone gave no sign. Mr. Clinton observed the fact and looked surprised.
“You didn’t have a hand in it, then Speede?” he asked.
Dan’s face suddenly wreathed itself in a broad smile and his blue eyes twinkled.
“I was pretty near all in it, Mr. Clint,” he answered. “You see, sir, they emptied the pot of paint over me!”