Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/219

 to question Perry, just as he had declined to crossexamine Merritt.

Solemnly, with Praska bringing up the rear, the Congress retired to consider a verdict. Big Jim, with his hands in his pockets, wandered out after them. The main hall was full of students waiting to learn the result of the trial. Two or three of Big Jim's friends came to him and pointed to Perry and Merritt in earnest conversation near the entrance doors.

"Aren't they members of the Congress any more, Jim? They didn't go upstairs with the others."

"They can't vote on the verdict," Big Jim answered. "They were witnesses."

"How did it go—did they rip it into you?"

"It's a joke," said Jim. He believed it, too. Schoolboys like himself going through the motions of a solemn trial, just as though what they did amounted to something. A grin touched his lips.

After a time Praska came down the stairs and led the Congress back to the trial room. Students in the hall made a silent path for them, awed by something in the bearing of these representatives who held so much of the school's destiny in their hands. Big Jim shambled after them, suddenly ill at ease in spite of himself.