Jack closed the door of his apartment and sat down in a chair by the bed. His mind was in a whirl. He wondered if the professor would carry out his threat, and call an officer. “He’s mean enough to,” thought the boy. “But I don’t see how he can accuse me of taking that cup. I know he values it very highly, and feels very badly over its loss, if it is gone, but I had nothing to do with it. I can easily prove, by Tom Berwick, that it was a glove I had in the bundle.” Then another thought came to Jack. He remembered that, after getting out of sight of the house, he had thrown away the paper from the catching glove. All Tom could say was that his chum had sold him a glove. Tom would know nothing about any bundle that Jack had carried away from the professor’s house. “I may have hard work proving that I only took the glove with me,” mused Jack. “The professor is so quick tempered that he’ll not believe such proof as I can bring forward. It looks as if I was in a hole.” The more Jack thought it over the less inclined he was to await the return of the professor with an officer. “I’ll not submit to the disgrace of an arrest, even though I know I am innocent,” he declared. “That’s carrying things too far. If dad was only here----” He stopped suddenly, and a lump came into his throat, while there was suspicious moisture in his eyes. “This is the limit!” the boy exclaimed, at length. “I’m not going to stand it! I’ll skip out! I’ll run away! I’ll go anywhere rather than stay in this house any longer! “Whatever happens to me, or wherever I go I can’t be much worse off than I have been here, with old Klopper and his sister. I’ve got a little money left, and I guess I can get work somewhere. I’ll pack up my clothes and leave. Dad wouldn’t blame me, if he knew. Neither would mother. I’ll go; that’s what I’ll do!” Once he had formed this resolution Jack set about ways and means. First he looked to see how much money he had. “Two dollars and fifteen cents,” he said, as he counted the change. “Not an awful lot, but I’ll have to make it do. I wish there was another show coming to town. Maybe I could make a little money doing my clown stunt on amateur night. But I haven’t any time to wait for such a thing as that. I’ve got to get out at once.” Next he began to consider what he had better take with him. He had several suits of clothes, and a plentiful supply of other garments. Selecting the best he placed them in his dress-suit case. “Now to get away,” he murmured. “The professor will have to go to town for an officer, and he can’t get back inside a half hour. I’ve got about fifteen minutes left. Guess I’d better go by the window. That old cat of a sister of his will probably be on the watch downstairs if I go out the door.” Jack gave a last look around the room that had been his for the past year. There were no very pleasant memories connected with it. He saw his school books lying on a shelf.