“Guess, can’t you?” Poke queried.
“Yes, but I want the facts.”
There was a murmur of agreement. “Go to it!” Step urged.
“Well, I met a fellow and he said something——” Poke began.
“Who was he, and what did he say?” Herman Boyd interposed.
Poke hesitated, then reached decision. “He—it was ‘Scrub’ Payne. He got to roughing me about—well, about things—our putting on side but not hanging together in a pinch—rot like that, you know!”
“Just what did he say?” Sam asked sharply.
Poke straightened his shoulders. “Well—if you must have it—he said that the Trojan tried to lie out of taking a book into examination, and that he might have got away with it, if Sam hadn’t thrown him down. Then I called him a liar, of course. And—and that’s about all.”
There was a very brief silence. Tom Orkney ended it.
“Scrub Payne, eh?” He repeated the name softly, lingeringly. “Scrub Payne? Twice your height, almost—’bout weigh in in my class, Poke—yes, yes. And spreading that story, was he?”