“Tucker, Frick says that he recognized you perfectly the night before last. That is so, Frick?”
Frick nodded, glancing at Toby from discolored and still swollen eyes. “Yes, sir. I saw him plainly twice. I couldn’t see the other fellow very well, because he got me from behind. I just know that he was tall and kind of slim. But I saw him all right.” Frick nodded toward Toby.
“What do you say, Tucker?”
“Why, I can’t say anything, sir,” answered Toby helplessly, “except that he’s wrong. I wasn’t outside Whitson once that evening.”
The Doctor looked thoughtfully from one to the other. At last: “You say, Frick, that there has been some sort of quarrel between you and Tucker?”
“Yes, sir, sort of. He—he knocked me down one day when I hadn’t done anything——”
“Nothing but bounce a football off my be—off my head! And I didn’t knock you down, and you know it. You tried to hit me and I gave you the shoulder and you upset. Besides, I didn’t think any more about that.”
“Is there any one else who holds a grudge against you, Frick?” asked the Principal.
“No, sir, not that I know of.” Then, catching Toby’s look and mistaking its warning for an accusation, he qualified the statement. “Maybe Tubb has it in for me a bit, but I know it wasn’t he.”
“Tubb?” asked the Doctor. “Who is Tubb?”