"He wouldn't borrow," said Shorty, indignantly; "last of all from Hoover. None of us ever owe _him_ anything except----" And Shorty gulps, and the tears that were starting to his eyes burn out before the sudden fire of his wrath. "Except what?" asks Pop, deliberately. "A lickin'," says Shorty, with reddening face, whereat the Doctor's head tilts back and the great stomach heaves spasmodically. The grim lines about the wide mouth relax. It is his way of laughing and he enjoys it, but Shorty doesn't. "I wish you'd tell me what's the trouble with--with Lawton, sir," he almost sobs again. "They won't let me see him, and the boys say it's all a----" But here Shorty breaks off, which is unlike him. "Yes," suggested Pop, "they say it's all a--what?" "Shame," said Shorty, well knowing that that shame is mentally qualified by a most unqualified adjective. Pop ponders a moment. "Has none of the boys missed anything besides Joy,--no trinkets, rings, anything?" "Hoover and Briggs are always missing something, sir, and Seymour lost a gold pencil." "But Lawton never borrowed and didn't owe anybody,--in school, I mean?" asks Pop. "Didn't owe anybody _anywhere_ that I know of!" protests Shorty. "He says it makes him sick to owe anything. If Hoover says anything different, he's lying. That's all." "What's the reason Hoover isn't at school?" asks Pop, and while his face does not change the eyes study closely. "He's afraid of trouble because some of that Metamora set tripped and hurt Snipe, running to a fire last Saturday." "That's what you get for running to fires, sir. Young gentlemen have no business mingling with crowds and rowdies. That's why you lost the head of the class in Latin three weeks ago. You spent hours at that big fire down-town when you should have been at your Virgil." Shorty reddens, but attempts no defence. He knows it is so. He knows, furthermore, that if the bell were to strike the next minute he'd be off like the wind,--Latin, and even Snipe, to the contrary notwithstanding. What he doesn't understand is how the Doctor knows all about it. "Youngster," says the Doctor, after a moment's reflection, "I want Hoover back at school at once, and there must be no harming him in any way. What's more, I have told Lawton to stay away until I send for him. There are reasons for this, and you can say so to the class. To-night you will see him yourself, and he will tell you the whole story. Now, I must write to Hoover _paterfamilias_. Run along!" But Pop is mistaken in one matter. Shorty does not see Snipe that night, nor the next day, nor the next. He waits vainly until late in the evening, then goes to the Lawrences', and Mrs. Lawrence, with scared face, comes down to ask what he means. George had asked permission soon after dark to go and spend one hour with his friend and chum and tell him his troubles. It is now ten o'clock. He has not been there, and he has not returned. CHAPTER VII.