“It is not the way of the school to blow——”
“Pardon me, please, Doctor, but we won’t get anywhere this way,” interposed Bill when Gus nudged him. “If I may suggest——”
The president had come to regard this boy as possessing ideas and he hesitated. Bill turned to Gus who stood with the hammer and a magnifying glass held behind him.
“Please have this man,” said Bill, indicating the Italian, “make a print of his thumb—this way.” Bill smeared some ink on a blotter and took up a bit of white paper. Malatesta frowned, then smirked, then laughed.
“And why not may I?” he questioned. “This will make of these villains fools!”
The animal-like snarl that the Sicilian put into this last sentence did not gain him any sympathy, but there was only confidence in his quick motions and ready compliance. He stepped to the desk, pressed his thumb on the wet ink spot, then on the white paper, fell back a few steps and glared defiantly. Gus brought forth the hammer and the expression on Malatesta’s face changed somewhat.
Silence followed as the Doctor took up the hammer handle and went over it with the magnifying-glass, paused at a spot where the handle would be most commonly held and examined the surface long and carefully. He turned to the thumb-print on the paper, then back again to the handle, comparing the two impressions. Presently he glanced at Bill and then at Gus, nodding; he turned to Malatesta.
“We do not wish to let such an unfortunate circumstance as this become hurtful to the school by making it public. The janitor will be here in a moment. He will accompany you to your room and you will obtain your property and leave at once. When you return this way I shall give you the sum paid us for your tuition. The school will make good the damage you caused. Ah, here is Royce now.” The president proceeded to instruct the janitor.
Lambert, followed by Bill and Gus, returned at once to the dormitory, after a word of caution from Doctor Field, and, aside from the fact that Malatesta left before the school was fully awake, the students knew nothing.
The injury to the shop was kept as secret as possible. In a few days the work went on as before, only one other fellow besides Lambert knowing there had been a smash-up. So that incident was closed, but out of it, or as a part of it, more serious circumstances showed that Malatesta, wherever he may have gone, had by no means forgotten the feud that now included Bill and Gus as well as Tony.