There was a moment of silence, broken at length by Gil.

“Going to leave!” he exclaimed. “You’re not fooling, Hope?”

“No. I took his tray up and he was writing at his desk. I told him he just must eat some supper and he said we were very kind and he would drink some tea. And then—then he was afraid he’d been a great deal of trouble to us and that he wouldn’t be that much longer as he was going to leave the school. And I said, ‘Oh, Mr. Hanks!’—just like that—and he said he was sorry to leave and—and he thanked me for bringing the tray and—and I ran out of the room because—because—” Hope’s eyes were “because” enough. The boys looked away while she dashed a wisp of a handkerchief across them. Poke whistled between his teeth, much out of tune. “I—I think it’s just—just too horrid for anything!” ended Hope tremulously.

Jim stirred his feet uneasily and Gil cleared his throat as if to speak and then evidently thought better of it. Hope subsided on the arm of a porch rocker. It was Jeffrey who spoke first.

“I’m awfully sorry,” he said. “I suppose we’re all to blame to some extent.”

“If he had any grit—” began Poke.

“I’d like to punch that fellow’s head,” Jim growled.

“What fellow? Bull Gary?” asked Gil.

Jim nodded.

“What are we going to do?” demanded Hope anxiously.

“I don’t see that there’s anything we can do,” answered Gil. “I’m sorry he’s going, for he really isn’t a bad sort. But he’d never get on here because the fellows have found out that they can do just as they please with him. If he’d put his foot down hard the first day and made Bull and a few of the others walk the plank he wouldn’t have had any trouble. As it is now I guess he’s wise to quit.”

“That’s all well enough for you,” demurred Jim, “but we can’t afford to lose a lodger. So, by hooky, something’s just got to be done!”

“If we went up and asked him to stay don’t you think perhaps he would?” asked Hope.

“Sure! He’d do anything to oblige us,” replied Poke ironically.

“You needn’t be sarcastic,” murmured Hope aggrievedly. “I don’t think you’ve been very nice about it anyway, Poke.”

There was a silence after this that lasted until Jeffrey, who had been staring thoughtfully into the dusk, said:

“Look here, if some one can induce Nancy to turn over a new leaf now and—er—buck up, you know, he won’t have much trouble, will he? It isn’t too late, is it?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Gil.

“I’m not,” said Poke. “But he wouldn’t do it; he doesn’t know how.”

“Do you think he’d mind if we suggested something of the sort to him?” pursued Jeffrey. The rest looked doubtful, but Hope broke out eagerly with:

“Of course he wouldn’t! He’s just as nice and—and good-natured as he can be. Let’s do it!”

But Poke hung back. “He’d probably tell us to mind our own miserable business,” he objected.

“There’d be no harm in trying it,” said Jim. “Let’s all go up and tell him we’ve heard that he’s going to leave and that we’re sorry and—and—”

“And then what?” asked Poke. “Tell him he doesn’t know his business and that he’s made a mess of things?”

“Why not?” asked Jeffrey quietly. “It’s so, isn’t it?”

“If you’ll do the talking,” suggested Jim, “it’ll be all right, Jeff. What do you say, Gil?”

“Oh, I’ll go.”

“Will you, Poke?”

“Not by a long shot!”

“Oh, Poke, I think you might!” wailed Hope. “It’s partly your fault, and you know it is, and I think you might do what you can to—to help.”

“Gee, you talk as though I was to blame for everything,” Poke growled. “Anybody would think—”

“Oh, cut out the grouch,” said Gil. “Nobody’s asking you to do anything except go up there and hear Jeff talk.”

“I think you’d better do the talking,” objected Jeffrey. “You’re the oldest, Gil.”

“You can do it better. If you need help the rest of us will come to your assistance. Ready now? Know what you’re going to say?”

“Not exactly,” laughed Jeffrey, “but I guess I can stumble through with it.”

“Good!” said Jim eagerly. “Let’s go before we lose courage.”

So, Gil and Jeffrey leading and Poke ambling along behind with his hands in his pockets and a general expression of disapprobation about him, the five mounted the stairs and knocked at the door of the instructor’s room. Bidden to enter, they found Mr. Hanks at his desk, pen in hand and a pile of manuscript at his elbow. He had taken his tea, Hope observed, but nothing else on the tray had been touched. As the embassy filed into the room Mr. Hanks arose from his chair with a look of surprise and embarrassment.

“Good evening, sir,” began Jeffrey. “May we come in for a minute if you’re not too busy?”

“Er—certainly! How do you do? Won’t you—won’t you be seated?” Mr. Hanks glanced around nervously in search of accommodations. Gil and Poke simplified matters by seating themselves on the edge of the bed, leaving the chairs for the others. Mr. Hanks laid aside the tortoise-shell spectacles he was wearing, pushed his manuscript aside, drew it back again, smiled doubtfully and subsided in his chair.

“You—er—you wanted to see me?” he asked, clearing his throat nervously.

“Yes, sir,” replied Jeffrey. “Hope has just told us, sir, that you are thinking of leaving Crofton.”

“Yes.” Mr. Hanks glanced down at his papers. “Yes, I have decided to resign,” he replied, in tones which he strove to make sound businesslike and matter-of-fact.

“We’re awfully sorry to hear it, Mr. Hanks,” said Jeffrey earnestly.

“Terribly sorry,” said Hope.

“Very,” said Gil.

“You bet,” said Jim.

Poke growled something inarticulate.

Mr. Hanks glanced around in surprise and embarrassment.

“Why—er—that’s very good of you all, very kind of you, I’m sure,” he murmured. “I—I regret the necessity of leaving, myself. I was getting very fond of the school, quite attached. And this place—” he looked about the room—“suits me very well. The light is excellent, you see, and owing to the fact that my eyes are not what they used to be I have to be very particular about—er—about light.”

“Yes, sir,” said Jeffrey. “Mr. Hanks, maybe we’re sort of intruding on your affairs, sir, but when we heard about your leaving we got to talking it over and we decided that we’d come up here and ask you to—to reconsider.” Mr. Hanks opened his mouth to speak, but Jeffrey hurried on. “We may be wrong, sir, but our idea is that you’re leaving because some of us haven’t been acting very well in class.”

“I think I have no complaint to make about any of you young gentlemen,” replied Mr. Hanks, looking from one to the other and allowing his eyes to rest on Poke, for what the youth thought was an unnecessary length of time. “But I won’t attempt to deny that your—your assumption is correct, Latham. The fact is that I am, I find, quite unsuited to the work here. The position I have tried to fill requires a man with more experience than I have had.”

“May we talk right out plain, Mr. Hanks?” asked Jeffrey.

“Why, I think so,” replied the instructor, a trifle bewildered.

“Then what we came up here to say, sir, is just this. There isn’t any reason why you should leave us on account of what’s been going on in class. Of course we fellows haven’t any right to act the way we’ve been acting, but I guess it’s more than half your fault, Mr. Hanks. You see, sir, if you’d started right with us we’d have behaved ourselves, but you didn’t understand, I guess. If you’d sent a couple of fellows up to Mr. Gordon the first time there was trouble the whole thing would have stopped right there, but you didn’t and the fellows think now they can do as they please. That’s where the trouble is.”

“Er—yes—I dare say. Yes, I realize now that I should have acted—er—differently, that I should have been—er—stern.” (Gil tried not to grin at the thought of Mr. Hanks being stern.) “Doubtless, I have, as you say, followed a mistaken course with the classes. I see that now. But the damage is done, Latham, and so—so I think the best thing to do is to retire in favor of some man who can—er—who understands you young gentlemen better than I do.” Poke thought he detected a faint emphasis on the word gentlemen. He hadn’t meant to open his mouth, but he suddenly found himself speaking.

“What’s the use, sir?” he asked. “Why don’t you stick it out and start over, sir? Kick a few fellows out of class, send a few up to J. G. and sock some extra work onto a few more? That’ll fix ’em in the shake of a lamb’s tail! It isn’t too late, Mr. Hanks.”

Mr. Hanks shook his head, however. “I’m afraid it is,” he said. “Anything I might do now would be quite futile. They have—er—taken my measure, so to speak.”

“I don’t agree with you, sir,” said Gil. “I think Poke is right. I think if you’ll start in to-morrow and sit down hard on the first fellow who starts anything you’ll have things in shape in no time at all. Of course, you’ll have to keep it up for awhile, sir, but it won’t be long before the fellows will find out that you’re not to be monkeyed with. You see, sir, the fact is none of us have anything against you; I guess we all like you pretty well; anyhow, this bunch here does; it’s just that here at Crofton every new faculty has to be hazed a little. Usually they stand about so much of it and then something drops and it’s all over. You didn’t quite understand, sir, and you let things run along. Why not do as Poke says, Mr. Hanks? Why not stay where you are and hit out from the shoulder once or twice?”

“Hit out from—You don’t mean strike any one?” gasped the instructor.

“No, sir,” Gil laughed, “not actually. I mean punish some one good and hard; set an example for the whole class.”

“Oh!” Mr. Hanks was visibly relieved. “You—you think that would—er—accomplish something?”

“I’m certain of it,” replied Gil decidedly.

“Sure to,” said Poke.

Mr. Hanks played with his pen for a minute. Then he looked up with a helpless smile at Gil.

“What—what could I do?” he asked.

“Why, sir, the first time any fellow does anything in class he shouldn’t, call him down.”

“Call him down?” questioned Mr. Hanks, at a loss.

“Reprimand him, I mean. Then if he doesn’t behave send him to Mr. Gordon. Mr. Gordon will stand back of you, sir; he always does. Take Gary for instance, sir. If you did that just once with him he’d come back as meek as a kitten.”

“And what would Mr. Gordon do to him?”

Gil shrugged his shoulders. “He might do most anything, sir. It would depend on what Gary had done. He might put him on probation, he might send him home for the rest of the term, he might expel him for keeps.”

“But I shouldn’t want anything like that to happen to the boy,” said Mr. Hanks in alarm. “He has been very trying to me; in fact, I have sometimes suspected that in a way he has been at the bottom of most of my troubles, what I might call a ringleader, Benton.”

“Yes, sir, that might be,” replied Gil gravely.

“Yes. But even so I should very much dislike to be the cause of his being sent from school even temporarily.”

“He wouldn’t be if you told J. G. to be easy with him,” said Poke. “That’s what Gary needs, though, Mr. Hanks, a good scare. You throw one into him and see what a difference it will make.”

“I do wish you’d try it, please, sir,” said Hope.

Mr. Hanks was silent a moment. Once he sighed deeply. Once he smiled slightly at the pen he was rolling between his long fingers. Finally he looked up.

“This has been very kind of you,” he said quietly. “I appreciate your—your interest. I thank you—all.”

“And you’ll try it?” cried Hope eagerly.

Mr. Hanks smiled and shook his head. “I must consider it,” he answered. “The plan is—is revolutionary. I have great doubts of my ability in the rÔle you have assigned me. But—I will think it over.”

“And meanwhile you’ll stay, won’t you, sir?” asked Jim anxiously.

“Yes, I shall—er—postpone any action in regard to my resignation for the present. I—I have no wish to leave here. My room is very comfortable and the light is—er—excellent.”

“Well, we don’t want you to leave,” said Poke gruffly. “And I guess you won’t need to if you take our advice, sir. Good night, sir.”

“Good night,” responded Mr. Hanks, rising, “good night. I thank you all very much.”

“Shall I take your tray away?” asked Hope.

“Eh? Why—er—no. I rather think I’ll eat a little of the—er—whatever it is. I really feel a bit hungry.”