CHAPTER IV

A FRIEND IN NEED



It lacked only five minutes or so of the school hour on the following
morning when Jack Winters, hurrying along, was intercepted by a
disturbed looking boy, who had been impatiently awaiting his arrival.

Of course this was none other than Big Bob Jeffries, who had kept
aloof from all his customary associates ever since arriving, and had
never once taken his eyes off the street along which he knew Jack must
come.

He seized hold of the other eagerly. Jack needed no second look to
convince him that poor Bob had passed a wretched night. His eyes were
red, and there was an expression of mute misery on his usually merry
face, that doubtless had induced more than one fellow to ask if he
felt ill. No doubt Bob had a stereotyped answer to this sympathetic
question, which was to the effect that he was "not feeling himself."

"Oh! I thought you'd never come along, Jack!" he exclaimed, in a voice
that quivered with eagerness and anxiety; "though of course I
understood that you must be waiting for Mr. Dickerson to be free to
talk with you. Tell me what you did, please, Jack?"

"I'm sorry to say I couldn't learn much at the post-office," the other
hastened to say, determined not to keep Bob in suspense any longer
than could be helped.