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 "I haven't asked you to attack anybody," he said. "I asked you to stand for the best interests of the school."

Bristow flushed. "I'm entitled to my own opinion of how the Breeze can serve the best interests of the school. The Safety Committee comes under your Congress. I think if you would pay more attention to that committee, instead of telling me how to run my paper, you'd find that Northfield is staggering along with some dead wood."

Praska knew the name for the dead wood. . . Lee Merritt. Bristow had been right on that. And the editor had been right in saying that the Safety Committee should have made short work of the disorders that had broken out in the halls.

The Safety Committee had been called into power to police the corridors and to report open lockers. When the need arose, it did not have the judgment to extend its police power in another direction. A wise chairman, realizing the fundamental danger of corridor disorders, would have checked them on general principles or at least have made some move to show that he was taking note of the ringleaders. But Merritt was neither strong, nor wise, nor energetic. The opportunity to take charge of the situation passed. What had been, one day, a temporary lapse, became before the week was out a settled habit.