“No, sir! You don’t walk off with that air of injured innocence. Right here and now I brand you as a thief, Max Ball!”
Max would have replied but a great hubbub rose. He had won friends among pupils and teachers; and those who best knew Walter were sure there was some malevolence back of this attack, and they stood for fair play. Walter’s father, however, was a wealthy business man of large power in the city and this had weight with the truculent ones, making a following for the son as well as the father.
But Billy Bennett cared nothing at all for Buckman, senior or junior, when fair play was at stake; nor even for the much admired magnate, Mr. Smith, May Nell’s father. “I protest,” he cried. “This accusation is unworthy a student. No matter how incriminating circumstances may appear, there is always a chance that they may not be true. Walter Buckman, I want you to retract that statement.” All knew Billy was recalling his own bitter experience of the year before when Jim Barney trapped him into appearing as a thief.
“I retract nothing!” Walter shouted vindictively. “I say that last winter he robbed our ice box; and I dare him to deny it.”
Pale as ever he would be in his coffin, Max stepped to the center of the room, looked about him, and said in a low, steady voice, “Gentlemen, it is true. I only hope that if such a great temptation—such a great need should come to any one here he will have more strength than I had to resist it.”
He bowed comprehensively, and before any of them could recover from amazement, was gone.
It took minutes for even quick-witted Billy to comprehend what had really happened; and still more time to think what to do next. He voiced the opinion of all the more thoughtful ones there when he said, “Fellows, I believe we’ve made the mistake of our lives.”
“We?” Sis Jones called out. “It’s only Buckman here. He’s the spot-light kicker. We had a chance to help a good man to success, and Buckman’s kicked him out of the procession.”
“So? You stand for approving thieves, I suppose,” Walter sneered.
“Whatever he’s done must have been because of some terrible reason,” Billy averred. “Looking into his face when he said those last words, one must believe in him.”