Sam turned again to consideration of the English paragraph. He tried to concentrate his attention upon the printed page before him, and so was not aware that the principal and the sub-master had entered the hall and were talking earnestly with the teacher on duty. The conference at the desk went on for several minutes. The sub-master appeared to be excited. His voice rose a trifle, and Sam looked up. By this time all the pupils were eyeing the group on the platform with varying degrees of interest.
Suddenly the sub-master turned to his chief and put a question. What it was nobody in the body of the hall heard, but everybody saw the principal nod agreement. To Sam at least the agreement did not seem to be at all eager.
“Walker!” the sub-master called out sharply.
The Trojan gave a start of surprise at the summons; rose; went forward. The principal put a query, his tone so low that the words were inaudible a dozen feet from the platform.
“Why—why, I don’t know, sir.”
Sam, straining his ears, barely caught the Trojan’s answer. He quite missed both the next question and the reply. Then the sub-master put in a suggestion:
“Suppose we excuse Walker for a moment. We can—er—er—we can recall him later.”
Again the principal nodded. Sam, closely attentive, was more strongly impressed than before that the head of the school was not enjoying the moment.
The Trojan walked back to his desk. His expression was puzzled. Sam’s guess was that he was racking his memory and failing to recall distinctly something about which he ought not to have been uncertain.
“Hagle!” said the sub-master.