Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/42

 with a buoyant step. But the day was to bring disaster, black and overwhelming. Passing out of Room 13 for the first period, in some unaccountable way he slipped and fell. Instinctively, as he lost his balance, he caught the boy next to him. That boy caught at another. Five of them sprawled in undignified disorder just outside the door.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Banning called.

"I slipped, sir," Perry answered. He found some of the students treating the affair as a prank. "I slipped," he said sharply to those around him.

An hour later, during English V, Mr. Quirk asked some one to open a window. Perry, sitting on an outside aisle, sprang to obey. He threw a window wide; and a sporting September breeze, wafting in, lifted a pile of papers from the teacher's desk and scattered them about the room.

"I asked for air," Mr. Quirk said tartly; "not a cyclone."

Perry retrieved the papers. As he came back to his seat along the aisle students winked at him. His face was dark. If they thought he was up to his old tricks—. He tried to catch a glimpse of Praska, but Praska's head happened to be turned the other way.

At noon, in the cafeteria, he merely picked at the food he got at the long service counter.