In the desks of Garry Grayson, Bill Sherwood and Rooster Long three squat flasks were found, hip flasks, each containing a small amount of liquor! No other desk offered anything incriminating. The hapless trio were thunder-struck. The other members of their class were utterly bewildered. They could not believe it; did not want to believe it. Yet there was the evidence, those three evil smelling flasks with their wretched contents. The evidence seemed overwhelming. "We're done!" groaned Bill, after class had been dismissed and they were awaiting with dread a summons to the office. "We've been framed, all right, and I only wish I could get hold of the fellow who did it." "We've got to think how to get out of this jam first," said Garry. "Keep still, fellows, and let me think." CHAPTER XII Out of the Game All of Garry Grayson's thinking promised to be of little use at this juncture. The net of circumstantial evidence closed tightly about him and his friends, and try as he did he could find no way out of it. Their friends--and they were many--were loyally with them, but since they could not explain away the strong evidence of those hip flasks, their friendship was of little practical assistance. Mr. Allen, put on his mettle by that article in the morning paper and furious to find the unpleasant insinuations in it substantiated by what seemed substantial proof, permitted the full weight of his wrath to fall upon the helpless lads. He listened grimly to their protestations of innocence. Then he announced his verdict. The three were to be suspended, summarily barred from Lenox High for three months, as a warning to the other students of the school. It was a terrible blow to the boys. Naturally it was very disturbing to their parents, who were firmly convinced that their sons were being wronged. They went to Mr. Allen and urged that the sentence be modified, at least until the boys could have a chance to unravel the plot they felt had been woven about them. More than this, most of the teachers of the school in conference with their superior privately advised leniency, especially in view of the unspotted records of the boys up to that time. Mr. Phillips was especially urgent in asking for a lighter sentence. He admitted the weight of the evidence was against them, but assured Mr. Allen that nevertheless he was convinced that the boys were innocent and that in due time that innocence would be established. By this time the principal's wrath had cooled somewhat; his certainty of their wrongdoing was wavering; his own liking for the accused boys reasserted itself; and he finally agreed to revoke his order of suspension. However--and this was almost as much a blow to the boys as actual suspension--the final punishment meted out by Mr. Allen barred the lads from all participation in athletic games for the rest of the term.