Step rubbed his chin. “Well, it takes all sorts of people to fill up the world. But there are mighty few like the Shark, I’ll bet you!... Hulloo, though! There’s Jennie Bruce. She lives next door to the Perrines, and she can tell us the latest.” Others had the same thought, and crowded about the girl who had just entered the yard. There was a moment’s waiting, and then an angry murmur ran through the throng. “Whew! That means he’s worse!” Step inferred. Jennie Bruce broke through the press. She came straight to Sam. “You should have heard first of all,” she declared. “You pulled both of them out, you know.” “I hope it isn’t bad news,” said Sam. “It’s bad enough. No; Little Perrine isn’t dead. He’s better this morning, but the doctor says he may not be able to be out for a week. But that isn’t it, at all!” “Isn’t what?” “What I’ve got to tell you, Sam Parker. It’s about last night--and almost all through the night. Poor Little Perrine was out of his head, raving. He seemed to be going over and over it, and then beginning again and going all through it.” “That is, through the accident?” Jennie’s eyes flashed. “Accident! You know well enough it was something else. Oh, well, perhaps it was partly accident, but it was something else, too. Don’t stop me! I don’t call it all accident when the poor little fellow was just driven out upon the thin ice! And while he was delirious he kept crying out, ‘Don’t let him get me! Stop him! Don’t let Tom Orkney get me!’ Why, we could hear him over at our house. It was awful!” “Gee, but it must have been tough!” cried Step. “Tough!” For a moment Jennie regarded Master Jones half pityingly. “Mercy! but you boys have weak ways of putting things! If you’d heard him shrieking----” “Hold on!” the Trojan broke in excitedly. “Here comes Orkney!” There may have been method in the circumstance that Orkney was reaching the school grounds but a few minutes before the opening hour. Perhaps he had hoped that most of his mates would be within the building when he arrived, but he did not falter when his glance fell upon the crowd. Of its temper he could have had little doubt, though probably he had not foreseen the hostility of the reception which awaited him. Three or four senior girls near the gate deliberately turned their backs to him. As many senior boys looked him full in the face with no sign of recognition. Orkney squared his shoulders, and raised his head. Looking straight before him, he walked up the path. No one addressed him, and he spoke to nobody till he came to Sam. “Parker!” Tom’s voice was low and not quite steady. “Well?” said Sam coldly. There was a little pause. Orkney was meeting Sam’s searching gaze without flinching, but his sallow face had taken on a grayish pallor.