"Why should I say anything, sir?" demand Drayne, with an impudent
assumption of swaggering ease.

"Then you admit the truth of the charges, Mr. Drayne?"

"I do not."

"Then you must really have something to say."

"I have heard a charge made against me. I am waiting to have
it proved."

"Do you admit," asked the presiding officer, "that these copies
of the code were written on your father's office machine?"

"I do not, sir. But, if it be true, is that any proof that I
made those copies of the signal code? Is it argued that I alone
have access to the typewriter in my father's office. For that
matter, if I have an enemy in the High School and I must have
several---wouldn't it be possible for that enemy, or several of
them, to slyly break into my father's office and use that particular
typewriting machine?"

This was confidently delivered, and it made an undoubted impression
on at least two or three members of the Board. But now Mr. Morton
broke in, quietly:

"I thought some such attempt as this might be made. So I waited
until I saw what the young man's line of defense might be. Here