Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/262

240 "They are bad eggs, no doubt about it," was the answer.

"What was it about?" came from several, as the door was closed.

"Plum, Macklin, and Poole have been caught."

"Humph! Well, I'm not sorry," said Sam Day.

"That isn't the worst of it, fellows," said Dave, soberly. "All of them have been drinking."

"Drinking!" came from several.

"Yes, and the doctor is so astonished and pained he doesn't know what to do."

"That's too bad," said Shadow. "I knew Plum liked a little now and then. But he shouldn't lead Macklin astray."

"What will the doctor do?" asked Beggs. "Perhaps he will send 'em home. It's strictly against the regulations to drink anything stronger than coffee."

The boys talked the matter over for a while, and then one after another dropped to sleep. Dave was the last to doze away.

"It's a pity they can't leave liquor alone," he told himself. "That is the way men make drunkards of themselves. First they take a little and then they take more and more, until they can't get along without it."

At breakfast on the following morning Plum, Poole, and Macklin did not appear, nor were they