Danny Orlis Goes to School (10 page)

"Understand you're having some trouble with General Science," he said.

"You can say that again," Danny told him. "Since I sit across from you," Steve replied, "if you want me to, I'll take care of you tomorrow."

"What do you mean?"

"You wait and see." He winked at Danny significantly. "Larry's a good friend of mine. You do him a good turn, I do you a good turn. Only just keep those tracts to yourself, Dynamite Dan. We'll make a sensible guy out of you yet."

TEMPTATION RESISTED

D
ANNY
Orlis studied his General Science as hard as he could that night, but a guy couldn't study everything that they had covered for the whole year in one night. He knew he would never be able to remember things they had taken up months before.

"I just don't know what to do, Larry," he confided to his cousin on his way to school. "I just know that I'm going to flunk this test."

"You might be able to do like I do," Larry said slyly. "Some of the guys who sit closer to me are good in General Science, and they don't always cover their papers as well as they should. I don't have any trouble in getting a passing grade on the tests."

Danny looked at him quickly. Larry had never suggested anything to him like that before. He had always sneaked around with the dishonest things he did. But here he was suggesting that Danny cheat. The young woodsman turned quickly away.

Before Danny had agreed to lie for him, Larry had felt that he was different, that he would never stoop to such a thing as cheating. Now he knew that his cousin from Angle Inlet was just the same as he was. Danny gulped hard. What had happened to his testimony in the past few days?

As the General Science class gathered at ten for the all-important test, Steve passed by Danny's desk and winked significantly. The young woodsman managed a weak little grin.

"I have no need to tell you what this test means to some of you," Mr. Sterling, the teacher, began, looking straight at Danny. "We're going to see just how much General Science you have absorbed in the past few months."

Back home at the Angle, Danny had never been tempted to copy from anyone. The teacher there had even left the room during the tests if she felt like it because she knew she didn't have a pupil who would cheat to get a better grade. But then, back at the Angle he had never promised to lie, either.

Steve turned a little in his seat, so that Danny could have a full view of his paper. He was working on the questions rapidly. Danny ran his fingers through his hair nervously and set to work. Once before, not so long ago, he had been tempted to copy in an English quiz, but that time he had been saved by the bell. This time there wasn't anything to save him. It was all up to him.

The questions were difficult, much harder than he had ever thought they would be. The first two he couldn't answer at all. He glanced up at Steve. There just a few short feet away were all the answers. All he would have to do was look over toward Steve, and his grade problems would be over.

"O God," Danny prayed desperately. "I don't want to cheat. Help me not to look! Regardless of what kind of a grade I get, help me not to look!"

Danny went to work again, scarcely lifting his gaze from his paper. It was strange how hard it was to keep from looking toward Steve's paper. The more determined he was not to, the more his eyes seemed to be drawn in that direction. Once or twice as he got a new sheet of paper or reached for an eraser, he got a glimpse of Steve. The lanky science wizard kept turning his head ever so slightly to see whether Danny was taking advantage of his chances to copy. There was a bewildered, half-angry look on Steve's face.

The farther Danny got into the questions, the easier they seemed to get, and he began to feel a little better about his grade. If only he could have answered something for the first two questions, he might have a good chance of getting by.

When the bell rang ending the period, he sighed deeply and folded his paper.

As he went out of school that afternoon, Eric Tanner, who was just ahead of him, waited for a moment.

"I hear you're having some trouble with your grades," Eric said with a friendliness that astonished the young woodsman.

"I guess I am," Danny admitted.

"I'm having trouble with my girl," Eric went on, "and if I had my choice, I'd take grade trouble."

Danny walked along in silence. Here was his opportunity to testify to Eric, to tell him about Jesus who had changed Peggy's life and his own. But he could not—not when Eric very likely knew about the lie he had promised to tell—not when Eric knew the truth about him.

Someone called to him from a car just then. It was Clarence. Danny felt the color drain from his face as he walked over to the car.

"I just happened to be in the neighborhood," the government agent said, "so I thought I'd drop in and see you. The last time I was on official business. Now I thought we'd just visit a little."

Danny walked around the car and got in beside his friend.

"Believe me, Danny," Clarence said as he pulled away from the curb. "I know how rough it's going to be for you to testify against your own cousin."

Danny gulped a little and dropped his gaze so that Clarence couldn't see what was written there.

"I was hoping that we could get by without calling on you to testify," Clarence went on. "But the way things have worked out, it looks as though you're going to be our most important witness."

Danny said nothing.

Clarence chatted on aimlessly. Danny sat there, but he wasn't listening. What would his friend think of him when he got up on the witness stand and lied?

The next morning when Danny came to school, there was a note on his desk asking him to report to Mr. Sterling immediately.

"I suppose this is it," Danny said to himself as he started toward the General Science room.

There were only three or four students in the room when Danny went in to see the teacher.

"I'm afraid I owe you an apology, Danny," Mr. Sterling began softly. "One of the older students was helping me average grades. She made a mistake in yours which made it appear that you weren't doing passing work in General Science, but I find now that you are."

"You mean I'm not down?" Danny echoed.

"That's right."

He turned to go and was halfway to the door when Mr. Sterling called him back.

"There's one more thing, Danny," the teacher said. "I could have told you about this yesterday, but I noticed that Steve was sitting so you could have a good look at his paper. So I decided to wait and see by your answers whether or not you copied. I just want to tell you that I'm proud of you."

Danny stood there. In spite of everything tears came to his eyes. Mr. Sterling knew that he was a Christian. He knew about tracts and Peggy and the testifying Danny had done in school. By not cheating when he had the chance, Danny had won the teacher's respect.

What if he had given in to temptation?

In that very instant Danny knew that, regardless of what happened, he couldn't go through with his promise to Larry. He couldn't lie to save him from the reformatory!

"But you can't do that," his cousin exclaimed bitterly when he told him. "You promised!"

"I know that," Danny said miserably. "I promised something I should never have promised in the first place. It's wrong to break a promise. I know that, and as far as the Lord is concerned, it's as bad as actually doing it. But it's worse to keep a promise that will cause you to commit another sin. That's what I'd be doing, Larry, if I went ahead with my promise to lie for you."

Danny expected his cousin to get mad and rage at him. But instead he just stood there pitifully. and stared at him. "They'll put me in the reformatory, Danny," he managed hoarsely. "They'll do it now for sure!"

“
O God, I don't want to cheat.”

MISSION COMPLETED

I
T
had seemed to Danny Orlis that the day for Larry's trial would never come; it seemed that it was all an ugly nightmare and he would awaken to find that it had never happened at all—that it was only a dream. But it wasn't a dream. It was grim, dark, reality.

Nobody at Uncle Claude's mentioned the trial to the young woodsman or said anything to him about the fact that he had decided to tell the truth when he took the witness stand. In fact, nobody said anything to him at all. They worked with him in silence. They ate with him in silence—a cruel, heavy silence which seemed to weigh on Danny's heart every waking moment.

It was the hardest three weeks that he had spent in all his life. To think that they had taken him in and had given him a place to live so that he could go to school, and then he rewarded them by being the one whose testimony would send Larry back to the reformatory.

The young woodsman wanted to talk to his aunt and uncle, to tell them how he felt, but they didn't give him the opportunity. They looked past him and around him and acted as though he weren't even there.

Once or twice Danny tried to talk to Larry about Jesus and how much he needed Him now, but his cousin refused to listen.

"You'll pray for me!" Larry retorted bitterly. "A lot of good it'll do to pray for me when you won't do the one thing that would get me out of this whole rotten mess."

Danny bit his lower lip and turned away. He knew that he was doing the right thing—that he couldn't do anything less than tell the truth. But why did the choice have to be so difficult? Why couldn't it be a simple thing of right and wrong? Why did he have to hurt those he loved in order to do the one thing that was right and honorable?

The night before the trial the young woodsman scarcely closed his eyes.

"O God," he prayed over and over again, "help me to have the courage to say the right thing. Be with Larry too, and, Lord Jesus, if it be Your will, help him not to have to go back to the reformatory."

Finally the long, miserable night ended, and they were all in the solemn courtroom. The trial was a short one. The prosecuting attorney briefly told what had happened, put Clarence on the stand to fill in the details, and then called on Danny.

"Yes," the young woodsman said in answer to a question, "Larry was the one who was operating the transmitter."

The trial went on after that, but there was no doubt about the outcome. It was no surprise at all when the judge sentenced Larry to nine months in the reformatory.

Larry's lawyer tried to get him released on bond, but the judge refused harshly.

"This young man has a record of parole violation. Men had to risk their lives to find him and bring him back after he ran away," the judge said. "A boy whom he enticed to go with him almost lost his life. Larry will be confined to the county jail until such time as the sheriff can deliver him to the reformatory."

Danny Orlis sat in the chair without moving while the others filed out. Clarence stopped momentarily and patted him on the shoulder, and he looked up wordlessly. He had sent his own cousin to the reformatory! How could he ever face any of the family again! He sat there, motionless, until the janitor came and tapped him on the arm.

Danny sat without moving while the others filed out.

"You'll have to leave, sonny. I've got to lock up now."

Back home Aunt Lydia was getting supper. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her face was streaked with tears. When Danny stepped into the room, she came over to him quickly.

"Danny," she said so softly that he could scarcely hear her, "I want you to know that neither your Uncle Claude nor I blame you for what happened today."

"I wanted to help Larry," he managed, "but I...I just couldn't lie to do it."

Aunt Lydia went over to the table and sat down. "It's our fault," she said, her voice sounding dull and far away. "We didn't see that Larry was in Sunday school and church. We thought we didn't have time for God. And now this happened, and it's our fault."