“Hard as iron. How came he ever to get into such training as that at his age? Something very unusual,” and then he added aloud: “I think I’ll get you to help me keep the peace this term. Hy Allen won’t want to try that again very soon, and I think the rest will agree with him.”
If Brayton had but known it, Zeb Fuller and his friends were “agreeing” to that very thing at that moment, as they gathered in council around the log at the mill-dam. Their coming determination was expressed in the words of Bill Jones.
“Tell ye what, fellers, we shan’t feel sure about them city chaps till we’ve had ’em down here for a swim. We didn’t let ’em come last term, you know.”
“That’s true,” replied Zeb Fuller. “It’s our duty to see they keep themselves clean. Oh, if I could but persuade Solomon to soak in the pond for a while at the bottom of it!”
CHAPTER XXII
GHOSTS IN THE ACADEMY BELFRY
There was one man who had never been able to get Bar Vernon fairly out of his head since the first day he saw him, and that man was old Judge Danvers.
Not but that the busy lawyer had plenty of other things to occupy him, but there was something in Bar and his mysterious “old time” which was well calculated to excite the curiosity of one whose whole life had been spent in solving “riddles” of one kind or another.
“That black valise,” he said to himself. “I admire Bar’s honesty about it, and of course he must keep his word, but I’m under no such bond. I think I must manage to get hold of that Major Montague. He’ll be a hard one to find, if he chooses to keep out of the way. Sorry Dr. Manning didn’t temporize with him a little. I doubt if he will come near my office again. There’s something about the premises that doesn’t suit his fancy.”