“Well, boys, none the worse from the excitement of last night, I hope,” began the head of the school.  “At least I see you are able to resume football practice,” and he smiled at the rather soiled appearance of the lads.

“Yes, we’re all right,” assented Jack.

“Be you Doctor Meredith?” broke in the farmer.

“I am,” was the quiet answer, and a pair of eyes that had an uncomfortable habit of seeming to bore right through one, looked sharply at the farmer.  “Did you wish to see me?”

“Yes, I’m Mr. Appleby.  It was my hay stacks that burned last night.”

“Oh, yes, I heard about it.  I am sorry for you.  I understand that had it not been for some of my students the fire would have been much worse.  You have come to thank them, through me, I take it.”

“Well, no, Doctor Meredith, I don’t know as I have,” and the farmer’s voice seemed harsh and grating.

“You have not?   Pray, then, what------”

“I come t’ tell you, Doctor Meredith, that perhaps if it hadn’t been fer some of your boys maybe there wouldn’t have been any fire!”

“What’s that?” exclaimed the doctor, drawing himself up sharply and looking at the farmer intently.  “Just what do you mean, Mr. Appleby?”

“Jest what I said.  I’m not satisfied as t’ how that fire started, and I suspect that some of your students set it.”

“Preposterous!  Why should they do such a thing as that?”

“Because some of them have a grudge against me.  It ain’t th’ fust time the school boys has played tricks on me.  Two years ago they burned up an old shed.”

“So you said at the time, but you could never prove it, I believe.  You should be careful how you make accusations, sir.”

“I am careful, Doctor Meredith, an’ that’s why I didn’t come sooner.  I’ve got evidence now.”

“Evidence?  What kind?”

“Well, one of my hired men saw a fellow, who looked like a school lad, sneaking around the hay stacks a leetle while afore they begun to blaze.”

“Is that all?  If it is, I call that very flimsy evidence; and I again warn you to be careful how you make accusations.”

“It ain’t all, Doctor Meredith.  Th’ same hired man picked up this pin near the stacks,” and the farmer held out a pin such as was worn by nearly every Elmwood Hall student.

“Picked up the pin near the stacks; did he?” asked the head master coolly, as he looked at the ornament.  “Well, seeing that a number of my students were helping put out the fire, it is but natural that one might lose a pin there.  I see no evidence in that, and again——­”

“This here pin were picked up at the stacks just afore th’ fire was discovered—­not afterward,” said the farmer in a harsh voice, as his gaze swept the faces of Tom and his chums.

CHAPTER XIII

THE POISONED HORSES