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 controversy. "Why, nothing much, only it—it does seem funny."

Big Jim's savage look became a smile. He had seen boys before this falter at the menace of his bulk. The conversation had taken place near the foot of a stairway; he failed to notice that a form had come down the stairs and had stopped one tread from the bottom.

"I'm going over to the Candy Kitchen to see if any Northfield fellows have sneaked over," he said. "I suppose that looks funny, too, doesn't it?"

Merritt did not answer. Big Jim swung around with a swagger, and stopped short. Perry King was on the stairway.

"Got another hunch that a Northfield fellow is going to be there?" Perry asked.

Big Jim was puzzled. He could never quite fathom this boy who surveyed the world so seriously through brooding eyes. Sometimes he thought Perry's questions were asked in good faith; sometimes a jeering irony that he could not decipher seemed to mock him.

"No," he said, after a moment; "I'm just going over on general principles."

That, Perry decided, was honest at any rate. He could have slipped across the street later to see what Big Jim was doing; but that would have