CHAPTER XVISERVING OUR TERM
The next morning found us settled in our temporary lodgings at the house in which my eating club was located. We had secured a double room on the second floor, and had transferred our necessary effects there at the earliest moment.
This had been an especially severe trial for Ray, who was compelled to relinquish the comforts and luxury of the beautiful apartments which he loved so well. It was useless, however, to brood over lost privileges, for we found our condition much better than we had expected.
We wrote home, as Professor Fuller had suggested, and received in reply letters that showed us that our parents were in sympathy with us, and were not inclined to judge us severely. Ray’s father informed him that he had also written to Dr. Drayton concerning the matter.
When the news became generally known it created a great flood of feeling among the students, and we were the objects of sympathetic attention on every hand. No fear that the fellows would fail to appreciate our sacrifice. We were fairly lionized. Notonly did the students come in one after another, personally, to condole with us, and to offer their services should we need anything, but we received a formal vote of thanks from the baseball association for what they were pleased to term our “patriotic spirit.”
We received so much attention, in fact, that for the first two or three days we feared that we would never have a moment to ourselves to keep up our studies. We found no difficulty in making arrangements for securing the notes of the college lectures. Tony Larcom, who wrote a very fair shorthand, promised to copy out his notes and lend them to me, while Ray made a similar arrangement with a member of his class. Mr. Dikes showed himself more than willing to help us, so we set apart certain evenings of the week when he would come to our room and tutor us in the various subjects which our classes were pursuing.
In order that we might secure the necessary leisure we were compelled to make a rule of being at home to nobody during certain hours; for we would otherwise have been fairly overrun with visitors. One of our most interesting visits occurred on the first evening we spent in our new quarters.
Tony Larcom was the only one with us at the time, when a soft rap sounded at the door, and, in response to our summons to “come in,” the door was opened gently about a foot, and the head of Percy Randall was thrust through the aperture. Immediately Tony Larcom let fly with a book, which hit the door with astartling thump. The head disappeared like a flash, and a foot appeared instead.
Finding that hostilities were not renewed, the door was at length opened wide, and Percy came in. He approached us with such penitence and humility expressed in his looks that we could hardly repress a smile.
“Now, then, you rascal,” said Ray. “What have you got to say for yourself?”
“Nothing at all,” answered Percy meekly. “I came here to give you a chance to have your say. I supposed you’d have lots of great big language saved up for me, and I am ready to take anything.”
“Oh, well, words won’t do any good,” said I.
“Then maybe you want to kick me,” rejoined Percy. “Go ahead. Help yourself. I deserve anything.”
“We don’t care for satisfaction of that kind,” answered Ray, with a laugh. “We can’t undo anything that has happened. We are in a nice mess on your account, and you can’t help us out, so we will have to make the best of it.”
“See here, Ray,” exclaimed Percy earnestly. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll go straight to Dr. Drayton and make a clean breast of it—tell him that I was responsible, and get him to suspend me and take you fellows back. I’ll offer to give him information as to the leader in the mischief, on condition that he lets you off your penalty, and then I’ll expose myself.”
“No, that wouldn’t work,” I answered. “Dr.Drayton would never make such a condition in the first place——”
“Well, I guess if he can make conditions for you, he can take them, too,” said Percy.
Ray shook his head.
“No,” he said. “It would be useless and foolhardy for you to do that. We appreciate your disposition, Percy, and we thank you for offering, but you must not think of going to Dr. Drayton. It would only get you into trouble, while it would do us no good whatever. They did not suspend us because they thought we were leaders in the trouble, but because we had asharein it, and that fact would not be altered by your confession.”
“Well, it does seem a shame that you fellows who did the least should suffer for it,” he said, as he turned away regretfully.
“It can’t be helped now. We can only profit by experience and keep out of your company on future occasions,” Ray answered, with a smile.
“Well, boys, I’m sorry I got you into such a fix, and I wish with all my heart that I could get you out,” said Percy. He was standing by the door when I called after him.
“Say Percy, do you happen to know who it was that got Ray’s match box from me that night?”
“Len Howard, I think,” answered Percy from the hall. “He lit the other cannon, I know.”
I turned quickly and looked at Ray, who said nothing, but merely raised his eyebrows.
However severe the penalty we were suffering for the sake of the old cannons, we had at least the satisfaction of knowing that it was not in vain. We had no means of learning, except by rumor, of the effect of the expedition upon the Park College men, but, from what we heard, we judged that a tremendous sensation had been created the morning following, by the discovery of what had happened while they were quietly sleeping. They had put themselves to great pains to rob us of the cannons, and they had been planning to celebrate their deed with a great jubilee, so their chagrin and exasperation knew no bounds when they arose to find the prize had been snatched out of their very hands.
The students, however, were helpless, for the matter had gone up into the hands of the faculties of the two colleges. Considerable correspondence occurred, and after several days a committee from each faculty was appointed to confer together. They met and discussed the question thoroughly, and the result was that the Park College committee, on behalf of their college, formally renounced all claims to the cannons for good. Mutual explanations were made, and the gates were returned to Berkeley. But, although these committees parted upon a friendly basis, the feeling of anger on the part of our students, and the chagrin of the Park men, only served to stir up the old, long standing spirit of animosity between the two colleges to renewed heat.
“There will be exciting times when we meet thosefellows on the ball field now,” prophesied Tony Larcom. “It has been bad enough in the past, but now things will fairly hum. Phew! Methinks I smell blood already.”
“And this is just the season when we want most to beat them,” said Ray Wendell.
Our prospects of realizing that end were certainly very bright. The nine had been practising steadily each day, and was rapidly getting into shape. Ray was right when he said we had good material. In all my college life I do not think I ever saw a more promising nine. No changes as yet had been found necessary, and it looked as if we would continue through the season with the nine as first chosen. The men were all good individual players, and, under Ray’s efficient captaincy, they were playing together with the utmost harmony and precision. Since our suspension the members of the nine became more devoted to Ray than ever, and his control over them was perfect.
Recognizing the extraordinary good chance we had this season of redeeming Belmont’s baseball record of the past two years, we bent every nerve to securing a successful issue, and were regular and assiduous in practice. As the baseball grounds were situated close to the lake and beyond the college, we were unable to reach it conveniently except by a short cut through the college grounds. Since this was forbidden us, Tony Larcom devised the plan of meeting us down by the dock with his boat and rowing us across a portionof the lake to the ball ground. In this romantic and picturesque way we were conducted each day back and forth from practice.
And so the days passed by while we were busily engaged in our exercises and studies. We had as yet heard nothing from either Professor Fuller or Dr. Drayton, but as we found that we were able, with the assistance of our copied notes and Mr. Dikes’ instruction, to keep well up with our classes, our anxieties had somewhat subsided. We were content to wait patiently, for the present at least.
The day of our first baseball game approached. We had finished our last hour of practice, and were to go over to Dean College the next morning. Ray had given final instructions to the members of the nine to retire early and report at our quarters at eleven o’clock the following day. We were sitting in our room about half past eight in the evening, discussing our chances in the series of games that was about to begin, when we heard a terrific roar in the hall down stairs. The street door was slammed with a noise like a pistol shot, then came the sounds of footsteps clattering up the stairs three steps at a time; our door was flung wide open, and Tony Larcom stood before us, his face flushed, his eyes glistening, waving a letter triumphantly over his head. We gazed at him in silent astonishment.
“Good news! Good news!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, although we were scarcely ten feet away.
A premonition of the truth seized us both at once,and we sprang forward eagerly. Tony tossed the envelope to Ray.
“There, read that!” he exclaimed, throwing himself on our bed and kicking his heels in the air.