"O, but say, it's the real thing."

"That's Father Boone's handwriting. What does it mean?"

Then they fell to asking questions all together.

Finally, it settled down to what had happened, and when it happened, and how it happened. Everybody asked everybody else what it was all about, and everybody told everybody he did not know. Some boys got around Frank and began to quiz him.

"Did you see any damage done, Mulvy?"

"No."

"Let's form a committee and send our regrets to Father Boone, and also say there must be a mistake."

They all agreed.

"Name Mulvy spokesman of the committee," shouted McHugh.

Frank protested, but they paid no attention to him. Soon the committee was formed, and was ready to go upstairs. They waited for Frank. As he did not move they said, "Step along, Mulvy, we are all ready."

"I said no. Count me out."

"Count you out, nothing," yelled several. "You're elected, now go."

Frank did not move. Sunney Galvin, one of the biggest boys in the Club, and a good fellow, walked up to him and said, "No nonsense, Frank, face the music; you owe it to Father Boone and the Club to help set matters right."

"Sunney, I said no, and that settles it."

"It settles nothing," said Sunney. "Unless you are in the sc.r.a.pe yourself, you'll go like a man and do your part. You have been chosen."

"Chosen or not, I don't go. That's final," he said with vigor.

"O ho, Mulvy, so there's somebody involved after all! You wouldn't play safe if you were not concerned."

"See here, Galvin," said Frank, "you know me well enough to know that I am square. Give a fellow credit for knowing his own business."

"O that's very well, and all that, Mulvy. But your business here and now is to do the duty you've been elected to. And if you don't, you're yellow."

"Yes, and something worse," cried another.

"Do you know too much for your own reputation?" shouted another. For although Frank was the best liked and most admired boy in the Club, boys are boys, and they talk right out. Frank knew they had a certain amount of right on their side and that was what helped him to swallow the insults, which otherwise he would have resented vigorously.

The crowd was rather amazed itself that he did not resent their insinuations more than he did. Gradually the word pa.s.sed that he was in the thing himself, and did not dare face Father Boone. d.i.c.k resented that intensely.

"He is not, and you all know it."

"Hank, old man," he said, "clear yourself, come along with us."

"I can't, d.i.c.k."

"O nonsense," replied d.i.c.k, "you've got some honor bug in your bonnet and you're making a fool of yourself. Come along now, and give the crowd a solar plexus."

"d.i.c.k, please don't urge. I tell you I can't go."

The crowd stood around, listening to the dialogue, giving d.i.c.k every encouragement and signalling to Frank to give in. When the fellows saw his stubborn stand, they resented it. It was not fair. It looked compromising.

While they stood, thus-minded, d.i.c.k said rather timidly, "May I ask you a question, Hank?" There were only a few boys in the Club who could call Frank by that name. d.i.c.k was one of them.

"Certainly, kid, fire away."

"Did you have anything to do with this racket?"

"No."

"I knew it," said d.i.c.k. "That's why I asked you. Now another question.

Do you know anything about it?"

"That's another matter," said Frank.

"We know it's another matter," shouted several, "and we've got a right to know. It concerns the bunch."

"The bunch doesn't make wrong right," fairly yelled Frank. "The bunch doesn't make a mean thing honorable. Yes, I know about it, and that's why I can't go. I can't say more because I have said all I can say, in honor."

"Honor!" hissed one of the boys, "it's queer honor that will distress Father Boone and queer a whole crowd."

By this time the racket had grown into a half riot. The voices were loud and raucous. Their echoes reached Father Boone above. He closed his door as he did not want to hear what was not intended for his ears. But he had caught enough to let him know that there was a deepening mystery about the affair, and that most of the boys were not a party to it.

Things were gradually shaping for a fight. It was clear that Frank had taken a firm stand. It was equally clear that the crowd was not satisfied or in sympathy with it.

Some of the larger boys did not relish his excusing himself on the ground of honor. Fred Gibney bawled out, "You're prating a lot about honor, Mulvy. What about the Club's honor?"

"Look here, Gibney," snapped Frank, "I have the Club's honor as much at heart as any of you, and you know it. But just now--" his voice quivered, "I know how you regard the matter. I suppose I'd feel the same if I were in your place. All I can say is that I know what I know in confidence, and I'm in honor bound. Will that satisfy you? I have said more than I intended to, but it's because I want to go the limit to satisfy the crowd on my stand."

"That sounds like a book speech," retorted Gibney, "and it's all very well for you to hide behind honor. Any of us could get out of a bad hole that way."

"That means that you think I am lying?" questioned Frank, his eyes fairly aglow.

"It means what you want to make of it," snapped Gibney.

Frank jumped from his place to get at Gibney. d.i.c.k got in between the two, but found it more than he could do to restrain Frank. As blows were on the point of being exchanged, steps were heard on the stairs, and the boys signalled that Father Boone was on the way down. At his approach, the boys a.s.sumed a more or less quiet posture. Not so Frank. He stood just where he was and as he was. His fists were clenched, his whole frame was trembling with excitement, and his face was determined and pale.

Father Boone took in the situation at a glance. He appeared, however, not to see the impending fight. Beckoning to Ned, he said, "I want you and four or five boys to help me unpack something upstairs." He knew that this interruption would give all a breathing spell, and stop further animosity. Then like a flash, it occurred to him to settle the whole thing then and there.

"Boys," said he, "your shouts and some of your talk have reached me upstairs. I am very much hurt over this affair, and I know, from what has happened, that most of you feel as I do. I caught some of the words between Gibney and Mulvy. They reveal a lot to me. First of all, apparently, what has happened was not the work of the crowd, but of a few only and you are as much mystified as I am. I am glad to know that the Club as a whole is not implicated. But a bad report has gone through the parish in regard to that occurrence, and I am bound, in duty to the parish and in devotion to you, to clear up the matter.

"And so I say now to you all, what I have already said by that notice, I ask the boys who perpetrated that rowdyism or who know anything about it, to stand out and declare themselves!"

Not a boy moved. After a moment's silence, Frank came forward and stood before the priest. "Well, Frank, have you anything to say?"

"Only what I said to you upstairs, Father."