If Fred were wrong, Bobby could be angry with him, but he could not desert him. If his chum intended to fight Sparrow Bangs in this disgraceful way, Bobby would "second" him—of course he would!
If Dr. Raymond should hear of it and suspend them both from school, it could not be helped. He knew very well that he was running a risk of losing all chance for the Medal of Honor; yet he would stick to his chum.
He was unhappy that night—very, very unhappy. Fred and he said little when they were alone. Shiner came to him and whispered, at bedtime, that there would be a chance to "pull off" the fight the next noontime after dinner. They could cut the mid-day study hour to do it, without being caught.
Beyond his determination to stand by Fred, right or wrong, Bobby wanted his chum—as long as he _would_ fight—to win! He advised him in the morning:
"Now, Fred, eat a good breakfast—a _big_ breakfast. But you’re going to go light on dinner."
"Don’t drink much water at dinner time, either. If you think you’ll be tempted too much, keep out of the dining-room."
"No," growled Fred. "They’ll think I’m afraid."
"All right. But eat lightly," urged Bobby.
For once something was going on in the Lower School that the whole crowd of boys was not "on to." Shiner and Sparrow had been as mum as Fred and Bobby.
The two combatants did not even scowl at each other; they kept apart. They did not want any of the other boys to suspect.
Howell Purdy asked Bobby if "Ginger wasn’t going to knock Sparrow’s head off?" and Bobby dodged the question adroitly.
It seemed to Bobby as though that forenoon would never come to an end. At half past eleven the Lower School was let out. Bobby took Fred into the gymnasium and they put on the gloves together for a little practice.
With the experience they had had before, and the instruction of the Rockledge athletic teacher, for boys of their size, Bobby and Fred were quite proficient in the so-called manly art.
Sparring, as a game like baseball or tennis, is splendid exercise and good training for mind and temper. It may, or may not, lead to fisticuffs among boys. Certainly boys who spar together in a gymnasium are much less likely to have rude fights as the outgrowth of sudden temper. They respect each other’s prowess too much.