at me many a time when he was breaking rock at the penitentiary."

The two chums walked slowly back to Main Street, still talking.

"I saw you ahead of me, on the street," Dave rattled on. "I was
trying to overtake you, without calling, when that thing came
whizzing by your head. Say, Dick, I wonder---"

"What?" demanded Prescott.

"Oh, of course, it's a crazy notion. But I was wondering if Mr.
Cantwell could have it in for you so hard that he'd put anyone
up to lying in ambush for you."

Dick started, then thought a few moments. "No," he decided. "Cantwell
may be erratic, and he certainly has a treacherous temper, and
some mean ways. But this was hardly the sort of trick he'd go
in for."

"Then it was Tip Scammon, all by himself," declared Darrin, with
great conviction.

"But to go back to Mr. Cantwell," Dick resumed, with a grin, "I
must tell you something really funny. Prin. went to School Board
tonight with a long, bright knife sharpened for me. But he didn't
do a thing."

Then Prescott confessed to being a "Blade" representative, and
told of the principal's visit to the Board, and of his hurried
departure.