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But young Prescott, wholly heedless of his own safety, and with only one object in mind, scrambled out on the creaking limb as far as he could; then, with a prayer on his lips, he made a wild, strenuous leap. Sub-master Luce turned white as he saw what Dick had attempted to do. Had he been made of more timorous stuff the high school teacher would have closed his eyes for that awful instant.
Morton," he came out straightforwardly. "That sounded like slang, or disrespect. I beg to assure you, sir, that neither was intended. The truth is " "Your mind is busy with other things this morning, I see," smiled the sub-master. "Ye-es, sir." Dick dropped once more into his seat. Ralph Morton sighed.
"Why, you see, sir," proclaimed Thomp, "every member of the team, and every sub who stands any show to get into the game, has taken the oath of the dub." "'The oath of the dub'?" repeated Sub-master Morton. "That's a new one on me. "It's a new one on us all," admitted Thompson, gravely.
Dick, however, had not waited to see if the sub-master had followed him. His horror-filled eyes, as he ran, were turned straight ahead. It needed but a few steps to carry him across the road. He bounded into a field where a loaded hay wagon stood near an apple tree. The horses had been led away to be fed.
It was the conductor of the trolley car, just reaching the spot, who told how Dick Prescott and Mr. Luce had leaped from the moving car. The sub-master described Dick's feat in climbing the apple tree and leaping from the limb of the tree to the top of the loaded hay wagon. "It was a nervy thing for any man to do!" choked the farmer, tears of joy running down his cheeks.
At the moment of Dick's leap from the car, Sub-master Luce did not know what had happened. He realized in an instant what was the matter, and made frantic efforts to reach the scene at the same moment with Prescott. Dick, however, kept the lead. As the flames shot up through the hay the children on top of the hay began to gather a sense of their awful danger.
As Prescott passed inside the car he was greeted by a pleasant-faced, well-dressed young man. It was Mr. Luce, one of the sub-masters of Gridley High School. Dick dropped into a seat beside him. "Been tramping a bit, Prescott?" inquired the sub-master. "No, sir; I've been over here on a little matter of business, but I expect to start, in a day or two, on a few weeks of tramping."
"That was simply magnificent, Prescott!" said the sub-master enthusiastically. "But I honestly believed that it would be your last good deed." While the sub-master spoke he was running both hands up and down over the high school boy's clothing, putting out many glowing sparks that had found lodgment in the cloth. "It was easy," smiled Dick. "Thank goodness I saw the trouble in time!"
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