CHAPTER XI

TOM IS BORED

Clif didn't include his part in the action when telling Tom of the automobile accident. He had merely encountered Loring Deane in the village and returned to the school with him. Tom was inclined to be hurt because Clif hadn't asked him to go to the village, too. "Best accident of the season, and I miss it," he mourned, returning from church. "Just my luck!" After dinner he suggested a walk, but when Clif explained that he had borrowed Deane's paper, and must return it to him soon, he consented to sit on the steps in the sunshine, and peruse the comic section while Clif dug into the football news. It was after half-past three when the latter had exhausted the paper and, folding it neatly, declared his intention of restoring it to its owner. But when he bade Tom go with him, Tom refused.

"I'll wait here," said Tom. "I'm not feeling up to meeting your swell friends just now."

"But I can't just shove the paper at him and run," protested Clif. "I'll have to stay a few minutes, anyway."

"Why?" demanded Tom.

Clif couldn't explain satisfactorily without revealing the details of the morning's incident, and so he