Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/284

262 I can see now what a fool I was, Dave, to toady to Plum, and to play the sneak for him. I never want to do those things again!"

"Has he bothered you since you came?"

"Not yet. I—I haven't given him the chance. Once, I was walking along by the boathouse, and he came after me. But I ran back into the school."

"You might as well face him next time, just to see what he has to say. Show him that you are not afraid of him. It's the only way to treat such a bully."

Gus Plum had expected to pitch into Macklin for exposing the truth concerning the composition, and the bully was much chagrined to find the small boy leaving dormitory No. 13.

"He knew better than to stay in this room," grumbled Plum to Nat Poole. "Just the same, I am sorry to lose him—he was such a handy little sneak to have around."

"Did everything you wanted done, didn't he?"

"Almost everything. He was hard up, and ten cents or a quarter looked as big as the moon to him."

"Are his folks so poor?"

"No, but his stepfather don't believe in extravagance."

"Porter must have hit you pretty hard?" went on Poole, after a pause.

"Pooh! It was nothing to what I gave him.