CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
I AM ADVISED TO LIE LOW.
My first impulse on reading Crofter's letter was to jump for joy.

It meant that Tempest would stay at Low Heath, and that I was to be allowed to assist in keeping him there.
But my second thoughts were more of a surprise than pleasure.

Crofter was a mystery to me.

His fellow-seniors disliked him, and warned me against him.

But, as far as I could see, he was not as bad as they made him out, and certainly never said anything as bad about them as they said about him.
What could be his object now if it was not a disinterested one?
He would be permanent captain of the house if Tempest left, and yet he was doing the very thing that would keep Tempest at school.