CHAPTER IV.

DICK MAKES ANOTHER ENEMY.

Professor Gunn had invited Dick to call at his room. The head professor was very friendly toward Frank, whom he greatly admired, and he had taken the first opportunity to have a talk with Frank’s brother.

It happened that Professor Gooch had called while Dick was in the room, but the screen had prevented him from becoming aware of the presence of the boy until Dick stepped out.

Professor Gooch was somewhat staggered by the appearance of the lad, but he quickly recovered, his wrinkled old face twisting into hard knots.

"Yah!" he exclaimed. "So you were listening behind there! Yah! Listening!"

"I was here when you came," returned Dick. "I did not come here to listen to anybody, sir."

"Insolence!" grated the professor. "It’s plain there are good grounds for the charges."

"I beg your pardon," said Dick, restraining himself with not a little difficulty. "I have no intention of being insolent. I simply demand my right. False charges have been made against me, and I ask to know the names of those who have made them."

"What would you do if you knew?"

"I’d make the chaps who said such things retract, or I’d——"

"You’d what?"

"Thrash every one of them!" exclaimed the boy hotly.

"Ah-ha!" exclaimed Professor Gooch, with satisfaction. "That’s the kind of spirit football breeds! It makes fighters, Professor Gunn—brutal fighters!"

"Unless a man is ready to fight for his rights, he stands little show of amounting to much in this world," said the head professor. "I don’t blame the boy for wishing to fight."

"I’m astonished at you—astonished, sir!" cried Professor Gooch, with a pretension of being aghast.

"At the same time," said Professor Gunn, "I do not believe in giving him, at present, the names on this paper."

"At least, you show judgment in that," said Professor Gooch, with sarcasm.

"Why am I not to know the names of those who have made these lying charges against me?" demanded Dick. "I have never been overbearing or insolent toward any one, I have never made sport of my superiors, I have not mocked or derided the faculty, and I have circulated no false reports against anybody."

"In short," said Professor Gunn, "you deny the entire list of charges?"

"I do."

"And I believe your denial," said the head professor.

"It’s simply one against five," said Professor Gooch. "I choose to believe the five."

"Have they offered you any proof of the truth of their charges?" asked Dick.

"It makes no difference. You have not proven the charges are not true."

"Until there is some evidence against the boy he is supposed to be innocent."

"By you, sir, perhaps; but me——"

"You have no right to believe me guilty!" flashed Dick, his indignation breaking all bonds.

"Don’t talk to me that way!" flared the professor—"don’t dare! I will not have it! You must keep your place, sir!"

"You are not my master!" he cried. "You cannot tell me what I shall do!"

Gooch flourished his cane, with the intention of shaking it at the lad, but, quick as a flash, Dick snatched it from his hand.

"Don’t you dare!" he blazed. "Why, if you do——"

He took a step toward Professor Gooch, who fell back, uttering a little squawk of alarm. His appearance was so comical that a sudden and surprising change came over the lad. The look of anger was chased from his face by one of merriment, and he cried:

"Oh, dear! Don’t be frightened! Ha! ha! ha! Oh, ha! ha! ha! I won’t hurt you, sir!"

"Professor Gunn!" gasped Professor Gooch, "will you stand here and see me insulted and threatened like this? Isn’t this just cause to have this boy expelled? I demand that he be brought to book for this conduct! I demand it, sir! He shall be turned out of this school! I will see that it is done!"

Dick tossed the cane at the feet of the excited professor.

"Turn me out!" he said. "What do I care for your old school? I didn’t wish to come here, in the first place. I’ll go back to my home—back to Felicia! Old Joe will go with me, and I’ll be free again. Then I can do as I like, and I’ll have plenty of friends in the birds and the wild creatures that know me. There I’ll have no mean and lying enemies who are trying to hurt me! You may believe the lies about me! I don’t care!"

He turned as if to leave the room, but suddenly whirled toward Professor Gunn, whose hand he quickly grasped.

"You have been kind to me," he said, his voice soft and musical. "I’ll never forget it, sir—never!"

Then, before Zenas Gunn could stop him, he had dashed from the room.

"Why, he’s a perfect young wildcat!" gasped Professor Gooch. "He is not safe to have round! It will be a good thing for the school if he should go!"

Zenas Gunn gave Professor Gooch a look that contained a meaning that was far from complimentary.

"What you need, professor," he said, "is something for your liver. I don’t blame the boy."

"You—you don’t? Why, he snatched the cane from my hand!"

"When you shook it at him."

"But I didn’t mean to strike him."

"How did he know? I have talked with his brother, and he has asked me to bear with any peculiarities of the lad, who was raised alone and without playmates, save one little girl. He is not like other boys. You do not understand him at all."

"I don’t want to; the young wildcat! I think it a shame to have such a boy in the school!"

"And I think it a shame there are not more like him. He is honest and open, and he——"

"But these charges against him, professor?"

"I take no stock in them. I understand that the boy has made enemies because he has been successful in doing remarkable things since entering Fardale. His success has made others envious and jealous. They are trying to down him. Are you going to help them, professor? Are you going to become the instrument of these enemies?"

"Oh, you have a slick way of putting things, Professor Gunn; but you know the boy insulted me in this very room and before your eyes. You know it, sir!"

"He dared stand up manfully and defend himself, for which I confess my admiration."

"Your admiration?"

"Exactly."

"Yah! His actions were admirable! Oh, yes! The young spitfire! I’d like to have the handling of him! He’d play no more football for one while! I’d put him in the guard-house, and he’d live on bread and water for a week, a month, a year, if necessary! I’d break his spirit! I’d show him I was his master!"

"Professor Gooch, you are so angry that you talk childish. When you have cooled down, you may regard this matter in a different light."

"No, sir—no! I have placed in your hands the charges against that boy! I demand that they be investigated!"

"Very well," said the head professor. "They shall be, and if I find they are not true, the ones whose names are signed here must suffer for it. That is all, professor."

"All right, all right! I’m willing to have it stand that way. But that boy must apologize to me, whatever the result of the investigation. I demand it!"

"Very well."

"I demand it!" repeated Professor Gooch. "He must apologize! He must say he is sorry!"

"Very well. I have other matters that require my attention now, professor. You will excuse me."

Zenas Gunn accompanied the visitor to the door, which he held open for the angry professor to pass out.

The result of this affair was that Dick Merriwell had made an enemy in Barnaby Gooch, and one who might cause him serious trouble at Fardale.