CHAPTER XVIII

MR. GRAYSON IS SURPRISED

Dick's retirement from the hall took on the nature of an ovation. Many of the fellows pushed their way across to shake hands with him, to tell him "It was hot stuff, Dick!" to form a laughing, excited escort for him to the door. Louise Brent met him on the way out. "It was splendid!" she declared warmly. "I'm so glad, Dick!" Toby Sears, too, reached him before he had left the hall, and slapped him on the shoulder. "That was good plain talk, Dick, and we needed it," he said.

Dick went off in the runabout with George Cotner, while Gordon and Morris, waiting on the steps for the crowd to leave, reviewed events with much chuckling. "He did just the right thing," said Gordon. "If he had been apologetic and tried to