“Wonderful!”

“I didn’t know Dick Rover could do such punching!”

“Say, Flapp, you’ll have to get up early in the morning to beat that.”

“Oh, you shut your mouth!” retorted Lew Flapp angrily.  “I can do ten times better, if I want to.”

“Let us see you.”

“I—­I—­I’m in no condition to go ahead just now.  Remember, I was punching the bag for an hour before Rover got here.”

“How can that be, when all of us just came from the mess hall?” questioned Larry.

“He’s trying to sneak out of the trial,” said a voice in the rear of the crowd.

“I’ll sneak you!” roared Lew Flap, in a rage.  “I want you all to know that I ain’t afraid of Dick Rover, or anybody else.”

“Do you want the trial to continue?” questioned Dick, in an even tone.

“Didn’t I just say I was tired out?  But I’ll show you what I can do some time,” blustered Lew Flapp.

“Oh; all right.”

“You needn’t think you’re king-pin of the punching bag,” went on the tall boy, who had lost control of his temper because of the exhibition.

“Thank you, Flapp, what I think and what I don’t think isn’t any of your business.”

“Pooh!  I’ve heard about you and your two brothers, Dick Rover.  They tell all sorts of stories about you, but I don’t believe the half of them.”

“Come, come, what’s the use of quarreling,” put in Larry pleasantly.

“I’m sure I don’t want to quarrel,” answered Dick.  “He challenged me to punch the bag against him, and I did so, that’s all.”

“You’re dead stuck on yourself, Rover,” went on Lew Flapp slangily.  “You think you’re the only toad in the puddle.  But you ain’t, let me tell you that.  As soon as I heard about you, I made up my mind I wouldn’t knuckle under to you.”

“This isn’t right!” cried Larry.  “Dick is my friend, and let me say he never asks any cadet to knuckle under to him, unless the cadet did something that wasn’t on the level.”

“That’s true!  That’s true!” came from half a dozen of the students.  “Dick Rover is all right!”

“So you’re all turning against me, eh?” burst out Lew Flapp fiercely, his face growing dark with rage.  “I was warned of this before I came here.”

“Who warned you?” asked Tom, who had just put in an appearance.

“A gentleman who used to teach here.”

“What was his name?” questioned several.

“Mr. Jasper Grinder.  He said he had left because the Rover boys tried to run everything.”

“That old fraud!” cried Larry.

“He left because he was kicked out,” came from another.

“And he is a criminal,” put in Dick.  “I can prove it, if he wants me to do it.”

“Oh, you can talk all you please,” growled Lew Flapp.  “I know what I know, and don’t you forget it.  And what is more, Dick Rover, don’t you expect me to knuckle under to you.  If you try that game, you’ll get what you least expect,” and so speaking Lew Flapp forced his way out of the crowd and left the gymnasium.