Part 2 (1/2)
”Coach Corridan will have to use the alarm clock from now on! I'm called away on business. See that my stuff gets to Bannister O.K. Stow it in the room next to yours. I'll be back at college some time in the next century.
Give myto Coach Corridan and the squad.
”Yours truthfully,
”T. HAVILAND HICKS, JR.
”P.S.: Tell Coach Corridan he should worry--! I'm hot on the trail of a fullback that will make Ted Coy at his coyest look like the paralyzed inmate of an old man's home. Just leave it to Hicks!”
CHAPTER III
HICKS' PRODIGIOUS PRODIGY
”Has anybody here seen our Hicks?
H-i-c-k-s!
Has anybody here seen our Hicks?
If you've seen him, answer, 'Yes!'
He's tall and slim, and he wears a grin, And his banjo-thumping is a sin.
Hashere seen our Hicks-- Hicks--and his old banjo?”
Captain Butch Brewster, big Beef McNaughton, the Phillyloo Bird--that flamingo-like Senior--and little Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e, the timorous b.o.n.e.r whom Bannister College called the ”Human Encyclopedia,” roosted on the sacred Senior Fence, between the Gymnasium and the Administration Building.
A gloomy silence, like a somber mantle, enshrouded the four members of '19, as they listened to a rollicking parody on, ”Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?”
chanted by some Juniors in Nord.y.k.e, with T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., as the object of solicitude. Nor did the melancholy youths respond to the queries hurled down at them from the dormitories' windows:
”Say, Butch Brewster, where is that crazy Hicks?”
”Beef, ain't our Hicks a-comin' back here no more?”
”h.e.l.lo, Phillyloo, any word from our Hicks yet?”
”Ahoy there, Theophilus, where is Hicks, the Missing?”
The seven-thirty study-hour bell was ringing, its mellow chimes sounding from the Administration Building tower. From the windows of the dormitories gleams of light shot athwart the darkness. Over in Creighton Hall, the abode of Freshmen, a silence reigned, but in Smithson, where the Soph.o.m.ores roomed, Nord.y.k.e, home of the Juniors, and Bannister, haunt of the solemn Seniors, pandemonium obtained. In these dorm. rooms and corridors that night, just as in the cla.s.s-rooms, or on the campus, and Bannister Field that day, there was but one topic. Whenever two students met, came the query inevitable:
”Where is Hicks? Isn't Hicks coming back this year?”
The Freshmen, bewildered, quite naturally, at the furore made over one missing student, asked, ”Who is Hicks?” Seeking information from upper-cla.s.smen they received innumerable tales, in the nature of Iliad and Odyssey, concerning T. Haviland Hicks, Jr.; they heard of his campus exploits, such as his originating The Big Brotherhood of Bannister, and they laughed, at recitals of his athletic fiascos. They were told of his inevitably sunny nature, his loyal comrades.h.i.+p, his generous disposition, and as a result, the Freshmen, too, became intensely interested in the all-important campus problem: ”Where is T. Haviland Hicks, Jr.?”
Little Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e, whose big-rimmed spectacles, high forehead, and bushy hair gave him an intensely owlish appearance, sighed tremendously, stared solemnly at his cla.s.s-mates, and became the author of a most astounding statement: ”I--I can't study,” quavered the ”b.o.n.e.r,”
he whose tender devotion to his books was a campus tradition, and whose loyalty to his firm friend, the blithesome Hicks, was as that of Damon to Pythias, ”I justcare about my studies, without Hicks here!
Somehow, it--it doesn't seem like old times, on the campus.”
”I should say not!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Phillyloo Bird, sepulchrally, his string-bean length draped with extreme decorative effect on the Senior Fence, ”Life at old Bannister without T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., is about as interesting as 'The Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture!'
Prexy thought he started the college on its Marathon three days ago, but Bannister will not be officially opened until Hicks stands by his window some study-hour, tw.a.n.gs that old banjo, and shatters the campus quietude with a ballad roared in his fog-horn voice!”