Dick's glance, as he halted before the platform and turned to look at Mr.Cantwell, was one of simple inquiry.
"Mr.Prescott, you are fully informed as to the hoax that was perpetrated on me yesterday morning ?" "You mean the incident of the pennies, I think, sir ?" returned the boy, inquiringly.
"You know very well that I do, young man," retorted Mr.Cantwell, rapping his desk with one hand.
"Yes, sir; I am fully informed about it." "And you know who was at the bottom of it, too, Mr.Prescott ?" The principal bent upon the boy a look that was meant to make him quail, but Dick didn't quail.
"Yes, sir," he admitted, promptly.

"I know at least several that had a hand in the affair." "And you were one of them ?" "Yes, sir," admitted the young soph, frankly.

"I think I had as much to do with what you term the hoax, sir, as anyone else had." "Who were the others ?" fired the principal, quickly and sharply.
"I---I beg your pardon, sir.

I cannot answer that." "You can't?
Why not, Mr.Prescott ?" demanded the principal.
Again the principal launched his most compelling look.
"Because, sir," answered Dick, quietly, and in a tone in which no sign of disrespect could be detected, "it would strike me as being dishonorable to drag others into this affair." "You would consider it dishonorable ?" cried Mr.Cantwell, his face again turning deathly white with inward rage.

"_You_, who admit having had a big hand in what was really an outrage ?" But Dick met and returned the other's gaze composedly.
"The Board of Education, Mr.Cantwell, has several times decided that one pupil in the public schools cannot be compelled by a teacher to bear tales that implicate another student.