JACK HOBART'S PROJECT

"There's no other way out of it," began Jack, "except for you to take the matter into your own hands, Ward. You can't report it to the teachers, and you can't be expected to let it go on without doing something to protect yourself. I think even Mr. Crane wouldn't expect anything less than that of you."

"But I don't see just what I'm to do," protested Ward. "Of course I know now that Tim Pickard is the one who's stirring the trouble up, though I've been satisfied all the time that he was the ringleader. I don't see what I can do, unless I fight him."

"That's one way out of it," replied Jack, who perhaps was not entirely averse to a settlement of troubles by that primitive and brutal method. "But you don't need to do that just yet. You can hold that till later, though I'm not sure but you might save yourself a deal of trouble by pitching into Tim now. It may have to come to that in the end. Still, I think it would be better to try my plan first."

Ward smiled as he thought of Jack in the role of a peacemaker. He appreciated fully Jack's spirit and life, and he well knew how he enjoyed anything that partook of the nature of tests of physical strength in the school. His last words, in which with apparent reluctance he had counseled his friend to postpone the method his boyish heart decidedly preferred, had been spoken in a tone which made Berry laugh aloud.

"Let's hear your plan, Jack," said Ward.

"It's nothing more than giving Tim a dose of his own medicine."

"What do you mean? that I'm to stack his room?"

"That's exactly my meaning. You grasp it quickly, as Mr. Blake sometimes tells me--no, I mean you, Ward--in his classes. Yes, sir, that's the thing for you to do, for it's the only thing a fellow like Tim Pickard will appreciate. 'Hoist with his own petard.' Isn't that something you've heard somewhere, sometime?"

"I think I have heard the expression before. How am I to do it, Jack?"

"Just as easily as falling off a log. Tim rooms down at Ma Perrins', as you know, and has a room all to himself. Now to-night after supper, my friend, here, Luscious, will send for him to come up to our room. I think it very likely that Luscious will have something to say about the nine, and Tim won't wait long after hearing that Luscious Berry has something to say about that, for if he's interested in anything it's the work and the prospects of the nine, you know."

"Yes, I know," replied Ward somewhat gloomily. Tim Pickard's work and interest in the nine was a subject on which he had very strong feelings at that time.

"Well, Luscious will get him up here and he'll hold him with his glittering eye, à la ancient mariner, and he'll have so many bright speeches to make, that Tim won't be able to get away from him. Meanwhile you and I'll step down to Tim's room and rearrange it for him, don't you see? I'm going into this with you, Ward, and see if I can't help you to put a stop to these rascally proceedings."

"Yes, but----"

"There isn't a 'but' about it," interrupted Jack. "I know what you were going to say, but it isn't worth saying, Ward. I know all the fine phrases about 'stooping' and 'belittling yourself,' and all that sort of stuff, but it's no time for indulging in such nonsense. Here you are bothered to death by Tim's pranks. You don't want to bother him, or have anything to do with him, for the matter of that. I understand all these things. But you can't study; you won't be the valedic; you can't report the trouble to the faculty. What can you do? Just nothing, but take the matter into your own hands and do the thing that will put a stop in the shortest time to all this nonsense. Do you see the point?"

"Yes, I see----"

"Well, I'm glad for once in your life that you're able to see the point."

"And I'm glad that for once in your life you can make a point clear," said Ward with a laugh.

"Well done, my friend, I've hopes of you yet. Now, I say it's all fair to feed Tim with his own food and from his own spoon. Why my father was telling me the last time I was home about a trick a fellow named Bram Martling played in the 'neutral ground,' away back in the Revolution. It seems that this same Bram, which is short as I understand it for Abraham, was a young officer in the Continental army, and once when he came home he found the Tories and British had been burning the houses around there just for the fun of seeing 'em burn, I fancy. Well, Bram was pretty well stirred up when he found out what was going on, so he just quietly got a dozen young fellows together, and they met over by Wolfert's Roost on the Hudson, and took two whaleboats and pulled down to Morningside Heights in the night. Then they crept up and set fire to Oliver De Lancy's great house, and got away without one of them being caught. They thought 'twas a great deed in those days, and made out that the aforesaid Bram was quite a hero. But he stopped the Tories from burning houses after that, let me tell you. It makes all the difference in the world whether you are the burner or the burnee."

"And you think----?"

"Be silent, my young friend. This fable, which I have just related for your special benefit, teaches that in bad things as well as in good it is much more pleasant to give than to receive. Now, for your own good, and for the good of Tim Pickard too, you are simply compelled to let him know just how good it is to have one's room stacked. It must be done thoroughly and at once. Who was it that said, 'if 'twere well done when it is done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly'?"

"I guess it was Shakespeare," said Ward laughing; "but you got the quotation twisted a bit. The way it reads is----"

"Oh, bother the way it reads, you know what I mean. Now, Luscious, you tell Ward if you don't think what I've said is true."

"I think, Ward," said Berry, "that Jack's right. I don't see that you can do anything else. You've got to put a stop to the racket and Jack's plan is a good one."

For a moment Ward did not speak. Somehow he knew that Henry would not go into the scheme, and he had a very decided opinion that Mr. Crane would not approve. Indeed, the teacher had at one time said to him that it was a good deal better to suffer wrong than to do it. One wrong did not make another wrong right. Ward needed no one to tell him that.

Yet there was the trouble all the time threatening to become worse and it was certainly bad enough as it was, and Henry and Little Pond were both made to suffer too for his unpopularity. Jack's plan might work well. Who could say? The specious reasoning of boys who would not intentionally do anything very bad also appealed to him.

But more than all was Jack's evident friendship and interest. Ward was well aware of the risks the impulsive lad would be incurring in entering into the project with him. Tim Pickard's enmity in the Weston school was no light matter, and Jack, even more than Ward, fed upon the good will of his companions. Jack might feel hurt if he should refuse now to enter into the project, when his only motive for proposing it had been the desire to aid him. Ward felt that he could not refuse.

"Well, Jack," he said at last, "I'm obliged to you, and I think your suggestion is worth trying."

"Good for you, old man," said Jack eagerly, rising from his chair as he spoke. "Now we'll do it this very night. You go right up to your room just as soon as you've had your supper, and as soon as Luscious and I have had ours I'll h............