“Mr. Brayton, may I see you after school? This matter seems to need looking into.”
“Certainly,” said George, as he prepared to go on with his classes, but Zebedee’s face fell.
“Short words, all of ’em,” he soliloquized. “Must have learned them of Dorothy.”
At another time George Brayton might have showed signs of rebellion, but he saw nothing very dreadful in the idea of going over to Dr. Dryer’s house after school. It may, indeed, have been the very thing he would have asked for.
Bar Vernon attended rigidly to his duties that afternoon, but there was nothing to prevent him from using slate and pencil, and, before school was out, Val Manning had a very fair outline of all Bar had to tell him.
Then, indeed, the latter suddenly discovered what a lion he had become.
As Zeb announced to “the boys,” not only had Bar returned safe and well, but “he has also distinguished himself by bringing back Mr. George Brayton with him. I could have done but little more myself.”
At that very moment, however, the proposed “looking into” George Brayton’s absence was beginning at the house of Dr. Dryer, and never before had the principal tried to look so large, or felt so really insecure about his actual size.
“Mr. Brayton,” he began, “may I ask where your journey conveyed you?”
“City and back,” said George, curtly. “Business errand, that’s all.”