“What?” he shouted. “You did that?”
“It was a dirty trick, I know,” went on the younger boy, not venturing to meet the eyes of the youth he had wronged, “and I’d give anything I’ve got in the world if I hadn’t done it. But Andy—”
“Wait,” cried Fred, jumping up, “wait till I can get Professor Raymond over here, so that he can hear what you’ve got to say.”
“No need of that,” said a deep voice, and Professor Raymond advanced from the door towards the bed. “I was coming in to see how Wilton was getting along, and, as the door was ajar, I heard what he was saying.”
He looked sadly and sternly at Sid, who cowered down on his pillow.
“You have done a terrible thing, Wilton,” he said; “but you’re weak and sick now, and what I have to say and do will be postponed to a later time. Now, go ahead and tell us all about it from beginning to end.”
With trembling voice Sid went on:
“Andy was down in the gymnasium one day, and he heard Rushton say that he had seen you put a package in your desk, and one of the other fellows said that they were probably the examination slips. He was sore at Rushton because of something that had happened on the train coming here, and because, later on, Rushton had faced him down on the campus. So he went off to another town, after I had got a wax impression from the lock of your desk, and had a key made to fit. Then I opened your desk one night and got the package. I watched my chance till there was no one in Number Three Dormitory, and hid the papers in Rushton’s locker. Then Andy printed a letter to you, telling you where to look.”
“We didn’t know for sure what happened after that, but Rushton has been so down in the mouth, that we felt sure the plan worked. Andy expected him every day to be sent away from the school, and he didn’t know why he was allowed to hang on. I felt awfully mean about it, because Rushton had never done anything to me. But Andy was my friend and it seemed that I had to do anything he asked me, no matter what.”
“But after what Rushton did for me to-day, I simply had to tell him about it. He saved my life—”