Dr. Beverly had been sitting up late, deep in a learned work with which he was greatly interested, when he had heard the noise in his class-room, followed by the voice of the head monitor, calling from above, and asking what was the matter; and he had hurried out--to find Charlton lying half dazed on the floor, having apparently fallen over a form and struck his head; and in his hand was Ralph's examination paper. Charlton being a nervous boy, his very manner seemed guilty when the Head had questioned him; and his story seemed to be false, for upon Dr. Beverly hurrying upstairs, Elgert was found with only his trousers on, as if he had just slipped out of bed, and Dobson was the same. Moreover, the boys in the Fifth declared that Elgert was sitting up in bed when they were aroused; and even Ralph and Warren had to own that Dobson appeared as if he had only just woke up. And both Dobson and Elgert declared that they had never been downstairs, and that Charlton had invented the story. So, still under the suspicion, he was kept in, and Ralph and Warren seized the first opportunity of going to comfort him. "If the Head knew them as well as we do, he would not be in much doubt about things," was Warren's verdict. "Don't you worry, old chap! We know you would not do anything to harm Ralph." "I wanted to go and see my father this afternoon," sighed Charlton; and Ralph answered-- "Never mind. I will go. Tom will come with me." "I am awfully sorry, but I cannot," the monitor put in. "I would in a minute, but I promised mother to go round for her to my aunt's, and I must not disappoint her." "Of course not," said Ralph immediately. "Well, I will go alone, and explain to your father, old chap; so don't you worry about that any more. I wish, though, that I could see some way of bringing this home to those two, but I confess that I don't." "Wait a bit. Give them a rope long enough and they will hang themselves!" growled Warren. "Now, buck up, Charlton, and don't let them think that you are beaten!" And with that the two had to leave their chum, and Charlton felt decidedly comforted. And, after school, Tom Warren went off to obey his mother's desire; and Ralph, true to his promise, started on his journey to the man hiding in the old ruin away by Crab Tree Hill; and the rest of the boys prepared to spend their time according to their own inclinations.