"What has he got to do with it?" asked Percival, hotly, having just arrived on the scene.

"What has he got to do with it?" sneered Herring. "Oh, nothing very much. He signaled to the robbers to keep away from the bank last night, that's all. He must have some interest in them to do that."

Jack said nothing, although he was clearly agitated and Percival turned to him and asked kindly:

"It is not so, is it, Jack? Say that it is not so."

"No, it is not so. I signaled to Brooke and told him to warn the bank officials that there was to be another attempt to rob it."

"You knew this, Jack?" asked d.i.c.k.

"Yes, I knew it," quietly.

"Of course he knew it," said Herring, with a disagreeable laugh. "Why wouldn't he know it when he had a meeting with the chief robber yesterday afternoon and told him that he would keep him and his pal posted as to a good time to rob the bank?"

"Peter Herring," said Jack, turning white but retaining full command of himself, "you are a miserable liar!"

"Oh, am I?" and Herring began to bl.u.s.ter, feeling sure of his ground.

"You won't deny that you had a meeting with a disguised man yesterday afternoon in the woods near the foot of the Academy hill, will you? Will you deny that you telegraphed with your pocket flashlight, 'Keep away from the bank on account of danger?' You did not do that?"

"That was only a part of my message. It was sent to Mr. Brooke, the editor of the _News_ at Riverton and not to the robbers."

"Why should he send warning to the robbers, you toad?" demanded d.i.c.k, angrily.

"Stop, d.i.c.k, never mind," said Jack, putting a hand on his friend's arm.

"The fellow is lying and he knows it."

"Oh, I do, hey?" and Herring turned purple with rage. "Maybe I am lying when I tell the boys that you had a secret interview with your father yesterday afternoon and that he is the chief robber, the one with the white mustache, the one that Jones shot at. Maybe you will deny that you have a father?"

"I do deny it," said Jack, quietly. "My father is dead, as I told you once before."

"You are a liar!" roared Herring, "and I'll bet that you are just as bad as this----"

That was as far as he got for in an instant Jack had knocked him down.

CHAPTER XII

THE TROUBLES OF AN EDITOR

There was great excitement among the boys in an instant and while the greater part of them sympathized with Jack, there were some who took sides with Herring and one of these now e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed:

"Ha! if he wants to fight let him go at it fair. Get a ring and----"

"Young ge'men," said the negro coachman, pushing forward and throwing aside the boys who were rushing at Jack, "Ah beg of yo' to remembah dat dis am against de rules and dat you will be severely chastised if not punished for dis."

Herring picked himself up, brushed his clothes hastily and cried in angry tones:

"You will have to give me satisfaction for that, Sheldon. You called me a liar and you struck me without provocation. I don't stand for anything like that I can tell you and----"

"What is this?" a newcomer said and the boys suddenly found the drill master among them. "A fight? I shall have something to say about that.

Disperse at once and proceed to the drill ground."

"Sheldon called me a liar and struck me!" bl.u.s.tered Herring. "I am not going to have----"

"We will hear this case later," said Colonel Bull, severely. "Do as I command or I shall put you all under arrest."

Some of the boys smiled at the idea of putting the whole school under arrest but they all moved away and were shortly in regular formation going through their customary morning exercises.

After drill Percival went to Jack and said:

"There is some mystery here, old chap. Won't you tell me what it is?"

"Not now, d.i.c.k," answered Jack. "Some other time, perhaps, but not now.

I have no father as I told you once before."

"But you know this man that claimed----"

"Yes, but I would rather not say any more about it."

"All right, Jack, I won't urge you," and the two went together into the main building and took their seats in the great schoolroom.

The boys had been at their tasks for some little time when the doctor sent in for Jack to come and see him in his study.

Jack left the room and was gone some little time, returning at length with the doctor who said:

"There is no blame attaching to this young gentleman for what has lately happened in the neighboring town and his rank is as high now as it ever was. I wish you to treat him with the same respect that you have always shown him and which he richly deserves."

"H'm! that does not tell us very much," muttered Harry to Arthur who sat next to him. "We always did like Jack but the mystery is no more clear than it was before."

"I trust that there will be no repet.i.tion of the scene of this morning,"

the doctor went on. "There may have been provocation on both sides but we will not allude further to this and the rest of you will forget it or at any rate not speak of it."

"That is not so easy," murmured Arthur to Harry. "It clears Jack in a way, at any rate, and that is enough for me."

Jack went to his place and the doctor took his seat at his desk and matters went on as usual.

Herring gave Jack the blackest of black looks when next they met but Jack paid no more attention to this than if he had not seen it and Herring muttered something under his breath which Jack did not hear.

"It seems rather strange," said Percival to some of the boys at recess, "that Wise did not more thoroughly disapprove of the squabble of this morning, but the reason I suppose is that he respected the mystery surrounding Jack and did not care to clear it up by making too great an investigation. Jack says his father is dead and I shall believe him and that liar Herring had better keep his lips closed tight on the subject."

"You are breaking the doctor's injunction that we were to say nothing about it, d.i.c.k," laughed Billy Manners, "but I suppose you couldn't just help it. I know I couldn't."

"Well, that is all I am going to say about it," replied Percival and the matter was not mentioned although, none of the boys could help thinking of it at odd times.