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 to Number 34 for his books. Billy Desmond met him at the head of the stairs.

"'Alick's' been looking for you, Tom," announced Billy casually. "Wants to converse with you in his study, young feller."

"'Alick'! Golly! Say, did he look—er—pleasant?"

"Extremely jovial, I thought."

Tom groaned. "There's breakers ahead then. He's always sweet and pleasant just before he bites! Well, he will have to wait until after study. Heck, I wish I'd put in more time on my English this morning, instead of wasting it on math!"

Clif pushed Loring's chair along the corridor after study hour and informed him that the chess game was going to be delayed. "Tom's got to see Mr. Wyatt, and he's scared to death." Clif chuckled. "Wyatt's the only person he ever was scared of, I guess!"

"I hope 'Alick' isn't going to be nasty," said Loring uneasily. "You know, Clif, Tom's an awful dumb-*bell about English. Yesterday I thought 'Alick' was going to have a conniption when Tom gave those perfectly inane answers about 'The Ancient Mariner.'"

"He was quaint," laughed Clif. "But I guess 'Alick's' just reading him the riot-act. Hang it, you know, Tom does try!"

"Y-yes, I know, but—" Loring shook his head. "Oh, well, he will pull through. He's an awfully lucky dub!"

Half an hour later, however, the lucky dub didn't