"I would if you'd promise never to tell anyone, cross your heart and hope to die."
Everyone promised instantly and fervidly.
"Supposing, then," resumed Sid, "that a whole raft of us were caught fishing on old Mercer's place. What would happen?"
"We'd all get suspended," piped up the youngest boy promptly.
"Inner bounds," suggested someone else.
"Huh! I guess not! It isn't likely Emmy would suspend half the school," replied Sid scornfully. "He'd see the injustice of it, of course, and give us all a good blowing up and let us go. And if he let us go he'd have to let Roy off too. It would be a—a—" Sid paused for a word—"it would be in the nature of a popular protest!"
"That's so," said one of the number. "He couldn't punish all of us very well."
"He might, though," muttered the youngest uneasily.
"Oh, we don't want you in it," answered Sid contemptuously.
"I'm going if the rest do," was the dogged answer.