Part 23 (1/2)
”Yes, if there's room.”
”I think there will be.”
”He can make his way all right, I think, but you'll have to help me with Peter John. Get hold of his other arm. That's right,” he added as Will grasped his maudlin cla.s.smate by the left arm, while Foster supported him by the right.
”Come on, Mott, if you want to ride up,” said Will sharply to the soph.o.m.ore.
”That ish good o' you, freshman,” drawled Mott. ”Broke, dead broke! Do ash much for you some day. You get broke some daysh, I s'pose.”
”Shut up, Mott,” said Foster savagely.
”A'-a' right. Just's you say, not's I care.”
A few in the a.s.semblage noted the condition of the boys and laughed thoughtlessly, but neither Will nor his room-mate was in a frame of mind to respond. Disgusted, angry, mortified beyond expression, they nevertheless a.s.sisted the boys to the seats in the taxi which Will had secured, and quickly doing as he was bidden, the driver started rapidly up the street. Peter John had fallen heavily against Will's shoulder and was instantly asleep, but Mott was not to be so easily disposed of.
Peering out from the window at the crowds that were moving up the street and by which the taxi was pa.s.sing, he emitted three or four wild whoops and then began to sing:
”We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band, On the right side of temperance we always do stand; We don't use tobacco, for this we do think, That those who do use it most always do drink.”
”Mott, if you don't keep quiet I'll throw you out,” exclaimed Will mortified as he perceived that the pa.s.sing crowd was turning about to discover what the noisy commotion meant.
”A'-a' right,” responded Mott in a shout that could have been heard far away. ”I'll be as sthill as an intensified hippopotamus! Not a sound of my voice shall awake the echoes of these purple hills. I'll not be the one to arouse the slumbers of this peaceful vale.”
”Driver,” interrupted Will sharply, ”stop your cab.”
”No, no, Will, you'll only make a bad matter worse. Let's keep on and do the best we can. It'll only call attention to ourselves,” said Foster hastily.
”Thatsh sho,” a.s.sented Mott noisily, swaying in his seat as he spoke.
”Keep on, driver. Go straight up to prexy's house; I've got something p'ticular to shay t' him. Shame, way the team sold out t'-day! Disgrace to old Winthrop! Have a good mind to leave the college myself an' go to Alden; they're men there! They know how to stan' up an' take their med'cine. Great place, Alden! Guess they'll be shorry here when they shee me with a great big A on my sweater!”
”Mott, keep still,” exclaimed Foster.
”Keep still yerself, freshman. Don't talk t' me.”
There was nothing to be done except to endure it all in silence or put the noisy student out of the taxi. Poor Will felt that the people they were pa.s.sing looked upon all four of the occupants of the cab as if they were all in the same disgraceful condition. His eyes blazed and his cheeks were crimson. To him it seemed as if the cab was scarcely moving on its way to Leland Hall. The way was interminable, the suffering almost too great to be endured.
At last, however, the driver stopped before the dormitory where Mott had his room and Foster said, ”Will, I'll look after this fellow if you'll attend to Peter John.”
”n.o.body--no freshman in p'ticular--ish going to help me!” exclaimed Mott noisily. ”I can walk a chalk line, I can. Keep your eyes on me and you'll see how it's done.”
”All right. Get out, then,” said Foster hastily.
Mott lurched out of the cab, and the driver, at Foster's word, at once started on and neither of the boys glanced behind to see how it fared with the intoxicated soph.o.m.ore. They were eager now to dispose of their cla.s.smate, and as soon as the taxi halted in front of Leland Hall they tried to arouse the slumbering freshman. At last, by dint of their united efforts, they succeeded in lifting him to the ground, and then they somehow got him up the stairway and soon had him in his bed. When their labors were ended Will exclaimed, ”It must be midnight. Surely the people couldn't see who we were except when the cab pa.s.sed the street lights, but I'm afraid some of them knew then.”
”That isn't so bad. I don't care half so much about their seeing as I do about something else.”
”What's that?”
”What they saw. Poor fool!” he added bitterly as he turned and glanced at the bed whereon Peter John was lying and noisily sleeping. ”I did my best to hold him back, but he would go on with Mott.”