“Gee!” Redtop whispered to Sis Jones; “I wish Hec Price was here to see that! Billy’s called the Kid’s bluff.”
“As to the last proposition,” Billy continued, “who does pay for the schools? Do we kids put up the money or the brains or the anxiety, or—the any other things it takes to put through a system? Did we build this great institution of the city schools? It is mighty easy to knock it, but I don’t see any school kids offering anything better. Do you? I think as long as the State,—but it’s the fathers and mothers really,—as long as they hand us a chance to get an education it’s up to us to accept it decently or—” he glared at Jim defiantly; “or quit!”
A burst of noisy applause warned Barney that his leadership was imperilled. He looked angrily around and was about to speak, when Billy, with a power new to his mates and startling to the bully, launched a threat that electrified them all. “Kid Barney, your man for president is a rowdy, and you know it. We are going to expose him and defeat him.”
“Not on your life, you won’t!” Barney hurled back with a wicked gesture; and his followers broke out noisily.
But Billy’s voice rose above the din, the more impressive for dominating it. “We’re going to have a man in this new office that represents the whole school,—a man that’s honest and capable, and a gentleman besides.”
“A kid-glove sneak—”
“And if by any chance your man gets in, Jim Barney, all of us who stand for the decent thing will cut the student body as an organization.”
This threat met an instant’s silence. It was Billy’s own idea, born that moment; but when its great import filtered through those surprised brains, a storm broke that neither Billy nor Jim could master.
“Rats! What good would that do?” Jim at last made himself heard.
“It will be blazoned in every paper in the State,” Billy replied quickly. “The names of the students that follow your man will be published, as well as the names of those standing with the teachers for decency. And you’ll find, Jim Barney, when it comes to a show-down, there won’t be many fathers and mothers patting you on the back, even among those who don’t wear kid gloves.”