CHAPTER VI

One of the Fallen

For a few moments Drayne hung about outside, irresolute.  Then his native shrewdness asserted itself.

“Not to go in, after having been seen here in the yard would be to confess whatever anyone wants to charge,” muttered Phin.  “Of course I’ll go in.  And I’ll just stand there and look more and more astounded every time that anyone says anything.  Brass, Phin—–­brass!  Oh, I’d like to see anyone down me!”

So, with all the swagger he could put on, this young Benedict Arnold of the school stepped into the Board room.  As he entered, the clerk of the Board hastened toward him.

“Step into this anteroom at the side, Mr. Drayne, until you’re called,” the clerk directed.  “There will be some routine business to be transacted first.  Then, I believe, the Board has a few questions it desires to ask you.”

Left by himself, the young man began to be a good bit frightened.  He was brave enough in matters requiring only physical courage.  But in this instance the culprit knew that he had been guilty of a contemptibly mean act, and the knowledge of it made a moral coward of him.

“What are they doing?  Trying to sentence, me to solitary confinement?” wondered the young man, when minute after minute went by without any call for him.  In the Board room he could hear the droning of voices.

“And that Dick Prescott is out there, sitting at a reporter’s table, ready to take in all that happens,” muttered Phin savagely.  “Won’t he enjoy himself, though?”

At last it seemed to Phin as though a hush fell over those in the next room.  But it was only that voices had been much lowered.

Then a door opened, the clerk looking in and calling: 

“Mr. Drayne, will you come before the Board now?”

Phin passed into the larger apartment.  Seated in one chair was Dr. Thornton; in another chair Mr. Morton.  And Dick Prescott was there, but gathering up his writing materials as though about to go.

The chairman waited in silence until Prescott had passed out of the Board room.  After the clerk had closed the door the chairman announced: 

“The Board is now in executive session.  Dr. Thornton, we will listen to the matter which we understand you wish to bring before us for consideration.”

Composedly Dr. Thornton stepped to the edge of the table, standing there, resting his left hand on the table as he began to speak.

In simple words, without any visible emotion, the High School principal stated what he understood of the receipt of copies of the football signal code by the captains of rival football elevens.

Next Mr. Morton took the stand, so to speak, and went much more into detail.  He told what the reader already knows, producing several of the copies returned by the honorable captains of other school teams.