Part 17 (1/2)
”Sure. You can always count on me. What is it this time?”
”Well, you know the little open pavilion down near the river?”
”The one near the boathouse?”
”That same.”
”Sure I know it.”
”Well, you know according to ancient and revered college tradition that is sacred to the soph.o.m.ores. None other but members of the second-year cla.s.s may go there. If one of us freshmen is caught there it means a ducking, to say the least.”
”So I've heard.”
”Well, Kerr and I were in there the other day, for we heard that the sophs were off on a little racket, and we didn't think we'd be disturbed.
We had a couple of girls there and were having a little confab when along came Gladdus and Battersby, grabbed us before we knew it and chucked us into the H{2}O, whence we floundered like drowned rats.”
”Yes, I heard about it.”
”So did the whole college, I guess. Now Kerr and I feel that not only have we been insulted, but that the whole freshman cla.s.s has.”
”I agree to that.”
”And will you help us to get even?”
”Sure. What you going to do?”
”You'll see later. What I need now is a coil of wire. I want to know if you'll get it for me.”
”Certainly, but why can't you get it for yourself?”
”Well, to tell you the truth, I've got about all the marks I can stand this term, and merely because I happened to play an innocent trick in cla.s.s to-day I'm forbidden to leave the college grounds for a week. Just when I want to go to town, too. So I've got to get some one else to get the wire for me, and I thought you would. I'll pay for it, of course.”
”Sure I'll get it,” agreed Tom, not stopping to think that Kerr, the special chum of Langridge, might have acted for his friend. ”What kind do you want?”
”I'll tell you. Here's the money,” and Langridge handed over a bill, also giving Tom a memorandum of the kind of wire wanted and where to get it in Haddonfield.
”And one more thing,” the other youth added as he prepared to take his leave.
”What's that?”
”Don't, for the life of you, tell a soul that you got the wire for me. I want it kept a dead secret. The trick will be all the better then. Will you promise?”
”I will.”
”On your honor as a freshman of Randall College?”
Tom wondered at the other's insistence.
”Of course I will. Shall I swear?” and Tom laughed.