Jack had no relish for this. It would not be the first time the professor had had a “serious talk” with him, for, of late, the old teacher was getting more and more strict in his treatment of the boy. Jack was sure his father would not approve of the professor’s method. But Mr. Allen was far away, and his son was not likely to see him for some time. But, in spite of what he knew was in store for him the next morning, Jack slept well, for he was a healthy youth. “I suppose he’ll punish me in some way,” he said, as he arose, “but he won’t dare do very much, though he’s been pretty stiff of late.” The professor was “pretty stiff” when he came to Jack’s room to remonstrate with his ward on what he had done. Jack never remembered such a lecture as he got that day. Then the former college instructor ended up with: “And, as a punishment, you will keep to your room to-day and to-morrow. I forbid you to stir from it, and if I find you trying to sneak out, as you did last night, I shall take stringent measures to prevent you.” The professor was a powerful man, and there was more than one story of the corporal punishment he had inflicted on rebellious students. “But, professor,” said Jack. “I was going to have a practice game of baseball with the boys to-day. The season opens next week, and I’m playing in a new position. I’ll have to practice!” “You will remain in your room all of to-day and to-morrow,” was all the reply the professor made, as he strode from Jack’s apartment. CHAPTER IV DISQUIETING NEWS “Well, if this ain’t the meanest thing he’s done to me yet!” exclaimed Jack, as the door closed on the retreating form of his crusty guardian. “This is the limit! The boys expect me to the ball game, and I can’t get there. That means they’ll put somebody else in my place, and maybe I’ll have to be a substitute for the rest of the season. I’ve a good notion----” But so many daring thoughts came into Jack’s mind that he did not know which one to give utterance to first. “I’ll not stand it,” he declared. “He hasn’t any right to punish me like this, for what I did. He had no right to keep me in. I’ll get out the same way I did before.” Jack looked from the window of his room. Below it, seated on a bench, in the shade of a tree, was the professor, reading a large book. “That way’s blocked,” remarked the boy. “He’ll stay there all day, working out problems about how much a dollar will amount to if put out at interest for a thousand years, or else figuring how long it will take a man to get to Mars if he traveled at the rate of a thousand miles a minute, though what in the world good such knowledge is I can’t see. “But I can’t get out while he’s on guard, for he wouldn’t hesitate to wallop me. And when he comes in to breakfast his sister will relieve him. I am certainly up against it! “Hold on, though! Maybe he forgot to bolt the door!”