“Gee! everybody knows,” Dick crowed. “I don’t know who started the little news item on its rounds. But you ought to have the thanks of every decent fellow in Sheddon. Crumb-catchers like Snitty make me sick.” Larry nodded soberly. “Yes, Crawford got his; but, after all, he was only a poor tool in Underhill’s hands. It runs in my mind, Dick, that I’m still in debt――to Underhill and the whole money-rotten gang that he runs with. After the foot-ball game I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to draw any more rich-and-poor lines, or let them be drawn against me; that I’d stand for Old Sheddon as a whole. But if these gambling, betting, money-spenders want a fight, they can have it. It’s the old battle, and I guess it’s got to be fought out――here and everywhere else.” For a little while Dick was silent. When he spoke again it was to say: “I suppose my father is what you’d call a rich man. Does that mean that you’re against us all, Larry?” “Not against you, Dick; but I’ve got to stand with my kind. And that brings on more talk. In a way, I’m little better than Crawford; he’s a hanger-on of the rich fellows, and I’m a pensioner on your father. I know he has consented to call the money he is advancing me a loan, but after what’s happened I can’t take it any more. I’ve got to be consistent. I can’t fight on both sides of the fence at the same time.” “_Larry!_” Dick exclaimed. “I know. It sounds ungrateful, and all that; but I’ve made up my mind――made it up this morning. Prof. Zippert will get me odd jobs of tutoring in Math. if I want them, and will put in a good word for me with Waddell and Gorman, so I can help out in the shops. I may have to live cheaper than I can here at Mrs. Grant’s; but that’s all right.” “You――you’d break with me, Larry?” Larry Donovan looked straight into his room-mate’s eyes. “Never, Dick; not until you want me to. But I can’t hold with the hare and run with the hounds. You’ll have your friends, and maybe I’ll have mine. And they won’t be the same.” Dickie Maxwell threw his head back and laughed――because it was the saving thing for him to do, just then. “You’re crazy, Larry; as crazy as a loon! But I’ll not lay it up against you. To-morrow, after you’ve cooled down a bit from this run-in with Snitty Crawford, you’ll see things in a better light. You see, I know you of old.” But college brings out a good many things that don’t envision themselves in a High School course; and Dick Maxwell had yet to learn how stubborn a mule――and how loyal a friend――Larry Donovan could be in a time of trial. IV DICK’S DROP-OUT “You’ve made up your mind then, have you, Dick?” Larry Donovan had his small drawing-board on the study table and was working out a tangled problem in “projections.” Dick Maxwell had just tossed his books aside and was walking the floor, hands in pockets; his habit when there was anything to be argued about.