CHAPTER XXIV

RED HAIR STANDS FOR MORE THAN TEMPER

June had come. The regatta on Monatook Lake was but a few days away; Commencement followed. Even the boys of the Lower School were working hard to make up lost lessons these days.

Captain Gray was to graduate, and with him Max Bender and five of the other big boys. There would be at least seven new scholars to come to Rockledge the next September, for there were never less than fifty boys at the school and--as has been said--Dr. Raymond always had a waiting list.

Mr. Leith devoted most of his time to the older boys; but every fortnight, at least, he went over the reports of the entire school. He was a stiff and stern master, but he considered himself just. For that reason he called Bobby Blake to his desk one day and said:

"Robert, I am sorry there is a serious fault marked against you. In recitations you have done better than any boy in the Lower School and better than most in the Upper. But I do not like a stubborn boy; we can none of us--we teachers, I mean--excuse such a fault as that. I hear good reports of you in every direction, and your name has been mentioned among the few who stand a chance of winning the Medal of Honor.

"It is a most serious matter for a boy to refuse to answer proper questions put to him by those who have him in charge. You must learn this _now_. To obey is your duty. Do you realize that?"

"Yes, sir," said Bobby in a low tone, and swallowing hard. "I understand, sir."

What he understood was that, if he had been willing to tell on his chum, and Shiner, and Sparrow, he might have won the medal. _But he could not do that_!

He had never thought of taking the matter up with Dr. Raymond. An older boy--Captain Gray, for instance--might have gone to the Doctor and stated his side of the case. But Bobby did not question for a moment the right of Mr. Leith to put in that report against him.

It was pretty hard for the boy to bear. He wanted so much to write his parents that he had won the distinction of the gold medal Dr. Raymond had shown them on that first day of school. The Lower School was solid for Bobby and many of the older lads admired the pluck and good humor of the boy from Clinton. His strongest partisans were Fred Martin and Sparrow Bangs, who admired him so much because he was so different from themselves, perhaps.

Pee Wee was Bobby's staunch champion, too. The fat boy boldly declared his admiration for the Clinton boy in any company.

"There isn't another boy like him," Pee Wee said in gymnasium one day, when Bobby was absent. "Say! there's not one of you big fellows but what he's done a favor for--and more than once. I say--"

"Come! you needn't froth at the mouth over it," growled Max Bender.

"Huh! _you_ haven't anything to say against Bobby," declared Pee Wee.

"I know I haven't," returned Max, red to his ears. "I'd vote for him right now. Barry can't get the medal anyway.

"He doesn't stand well enough in Latin and physics for one thing," pursued Max. "He knows it. Barry's a good fellow, and the Old Doc. is proud of him, I reckon; but he never was a bone for work."

Pee Wee was inspired by this statement to "root" all the harder for Bobby Blake.

"He can get it, I know!" the fat boy kept saying. "There isn't another boy in the school stands as good a chance."

"But if Mr. Leith is bound not to vote for him, what chance is there for Bobby? Tell me that, now?" demanded Fred Martin.

"What's Old Leith got against him?" asked one of the other boys.

"Oh, it's that fight," said Pee Wee, with a side glance at Fred.

"You've said that before," Skeets Brody observed. "I don't know about any fight Bobby's been in since he came here."

"Oh, _he_ wasn't in it," returned Pee Wee.

Fred's face colored deeply. He waited his chance and got the fat boy aside. "What's all this about Bobby fighting?" he demanded. "You know something more than you're telling."

"_You_ know," said the fat boy.

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do; and Sparrow knows, and Shiner knows--"

"That old thing!" exclaimed Fred. "Who told you about it? And it happened months ago."

"Old Leith doesn't forget easily. You and Sparrow had a scrap, didn't you?"

"Who told you so?"

"Never you mind. I know you are as thick as thieves now," grinned Pee Wee. "But there was a time when you and Sparrow were going to knock each other's heads off. Isn't that so?"

"Aw--it wasn't a fight," growled Fred.

"And Bobby was in it."

"What if he was?"

"Leith knows. He caught Bobby somehow. And Bobby wouldn't tell on the rest of you," said Pee Wee. "That's how he got in bad with Mr. Leith, and it's what is going to keep him out of winning that medal--yes, it is!"

"Wow! I didn't know it was like that," gasped the red-haired boy. "Bobby ran back for my cap. I remember now. I thought Leith only punished him by keeping him shut in for three days."

"Huh! that's the _how_ of it, is it?"

"He never said a word about it," declared Fred, gulping. "He's never peeped that Old Leith was holding it up against him."

"I know," declared Pee Wee, nodding. "He tried to make Bobby tell on you fellows, and Bobby wouldn't. So that busted up his chance of getting the medal."

"Why!" murmured Fred, "he's been working just as hard for it all the time."

The fat boy seemed to have a little better appreciation of Bobby's character than his own chum. "Why!" he said. "I reckon Bobby would do his best anyway. He's that kind of a fellow."

Fred went to the dressing room and slowly got out of his gymnasium suit and stood under the shower. He was puzzled and disturbed. It was not his way to think very deeply.

But red hair stands for something besides a quick temper. Such hair usually belongs to a warm heart. Fred, if thoughtless, was as loyal to his chum as Damon was to Pythias, and all boys have read the story of those famous friends.

Fred had taken it for granted that Bobby's punishment, on that long-past occasion, was completed when he had remained indoors at Mr. Leith's command. Fred did not suppose it had gone farther.

Bobby had never said a word. Of course, he _would not_ have! that was Bobby's way.

It smote Fred Martin hard that if Bobby lost his chance to win the medal, it would be partly his fault. And Bobby had tried to keep him out of the fight with Sparrow, in the first place!

The fight had not done him, or Sparrow, or Shiner, a bit of harm. He and Sparrow had been the best of friends ever since that day in the "bloody corner"! But poor Bobby--

"It's a mean shame," Fred muttered to himself. "Old Leith's not fair. What business has he got holding that against Bobby! He's punishing Bobby for _our_ sins. It's a shame!"

Thinking about it, or talking about it, was not going to help his chum in the least. Fred had been a little afraid that some of the reports that had gone home to his father would call forth from Mr. Martin sharp criticism. He knew he did not stand any too well in his own classes, and in deportment.

He had not been caught in any great fault. However, if Mr. Leith knew that he had been fighting that day in the corner, it would mean a big, black smear on his report for the year. That was just as sure as could be.

"And Dad said if I didn't show up good this year, he'd take me into the store and make me run errands, and send me back to public school," thought Master Fred.

"Gracious! that would leave Bobby here alone. Not to come back to Rockledge next fall--"

The red-haired boy could not bear to think of such a calamity. It was certainly most awful to contemplate.

He got into his clothing and wandered out of the gymnasium. Nobody chanced to speak to him and he stood on the school steps for some minutes turning a very hard problem over in his mind.

And then a thought, like a keen-bladed rapier, stabbed Fred right in his most vulnerable point--his conscience!

"What does it matter if Bobby _does_ appear cheerful? _You're wrong_!

"Oh, crickey!" groaned the red-haired boy, and he turned square around and climbed the steps. With dragging footsteps he made his way to Mr. Leith's class-room, where he knew he should find the master correcting examination papers.

Pee Wee, having gotten hold of one end of the thread, unraveled the whole piece in short order. He soon had the truth out of Sparrow and Shiner about the long-forgotten fight in "bloody corner."

The fat boy was something more than a gossip, however. He, whose mind seemed usually interested mainly in food, proved that he could think of something else.

He wasted little time on the Lower School but it was not long before every other boy at Rockledge knew how Bobby had pluckily--and silently--suffered for the wrong three other boys had done.

Pee Wee knew that the threat of the loss of the medal had hung over Bobby all the time. He--and the other boys, too--knew that Bobby's record was otherwise clean.

"Vote for Bobby Blake--he's all right!" became the rallying cry all over the school, and even Captain Gray took it up.

"You know, fellows," he said to his particular chums, "I haven't a ghost of a show for the medal. I'd like to get it, but your votes wouldn't win it for me. And I declare! beside Bobby, I don't think I deserve it."

The boys had a chance to express their individual opinion about the winner of the medal by secret ballot, several days before the actual vote was taken. In this way the teachers learned just who was most popular with the boys at large.

A slip was given each boy in class, on which was printed "First Choice," "Second Choice," "Third Choice." Every fellow in the Lower School wrote Bobby's name against each choice!

And when the teachers, Mr. Leith and Mr. Carrin, came to count the votes from the other boys, Bobby's name predominated by a good majority. There were still some faithful to Barry Gray, and one or two other boys were named for the medal; but on every slip save two, Bobby's name appeared as either first, second, or third choice. Those two particular slips did not have Barry Gray's name on them, either, and the astute teachers recognized the handwriting of Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks!

If, after this first ballot, there were names voted for, whose owners could not possibly win the medal, because of their standing with the teachers, the fact was to be made known by the Doctor. The whole school waited, most anxiously, for Dr. Raymond's decision in this case.

The regatta came in between. That was the great sporting event of the spring between the two schools which faced each other on opposite sides of Lake Monatook.

There were two-oared races, four-oared races, and then the big race of the day--the trial of speed between the eight-oared shells. The Rockledge boys thought Captain Gray and the others, in their white jerseys with a crimson "R" on each side, were "a pretty nifty crew," when they entered their boat and pushed out to the starter's place.

The Belden crew had rowed over from their side of the lake. The course was laid on the Rockledge side and was two miles in length--a mile straight away, then round the post and return to the starting point.

The younger boys forgot all other things and rooted for Gray and his crew with all the strength of their lungs. They were massed on a part of the bluff where they could see the whole race, and their friends and parents and the townspeople were on hand in force to add to the excitement of the occasion.

Clinton was too far away for Mr. and Mrs. Martin to come to the closing exercises of the school. Mr. Martin could not leave his store long enough for that, and there were too many children at home for Fred's mother to leave for over night.

The chums got warm letters from them, and there were presents for both Fred and Bobby. When the latter saw his mother's handwriting on his package, and knew that she had thought of this time so long ahead, and prepared for it, he was more touched than he had been by the Christmas presents that had reached him from the same source.

Fred was rather woebegone these last few days. "Wow! wait till Dad sees my report," he said, hopelessly. "He'll be sorry he sent me this watch and chain."

Nevertheless, both lads wore their watches very proudly. They were just what they had longed for, and although the timepieces were not very valuable, they were good, practical instruments.

The boys held them now, as they watched the racing shells, and came pretty close to knowing by how many seconds the Rockledge crew beat the Belden, when the shells raced down to the starter's boat.

There was an extra supper that night. Mary baked an enormous cake, with candles on it, and the date of the winning of the boat race traced in pink frosting. This was set down in the middle of the upper table, and Captain Gray had the honor of cutting it. A good-sized piece was sent around to each boy, and Gray was called on for a speech.

The handsome, well-dressed lad was not afraid to speak in public. He was a bit forward but goodhearted. Yet perhaps the Doctor was just as well suited that Barrymore Gray should not be in line for the Medal of Honor.

There was a certain conceit about his character which had always troubled the good doctor; yet Barry had carried off the duties of his captaincy with success.

Frank Durrock was appointed captain for the coming year, and _he_ was called on for a speech, too, having rowed bow in the winning shell. Frank was another sort of a boy. He could only nod his thanks and sit down in confusion.

The youngsters cheered Barry and laughed at Frank; yet they all liked the latter pretty well, too.

The Doctor himself covered Frank Durrock's confusion by making a little speech. His last words were: "And now, boys, to-morrow we decide upon the winner of the Medal of Honor. All electioneering must cease to-night, you know. Be prepared to-morrow to settle for yourselves who is the most popular candidate. You are dismissed."