"Great!" commented Tom. "But how can you be sure that the proctor will be out there?"

"Oh, we've arranged for that. Snail and Holly took pains to converse, rather loudly, in Mr. Zane's hearing to-night, though they pretended not to see him. They intimated that they might try to sneak in about eleven o'clock."

"Then the trick comes off then?" asked Phil.

"Exactly. We've got half an hour yet."

The students sat and talked of many things while waiting, chiefly baseball, until a slight vibration of the wire and a tug of the cord warned them that the time for action had arrived. Dutch explained that he had arranged a code of signals with his chums so that he knew when to haul in on the cord which would pull the stuffed figure along the wire.

"There it goes!" he whispered finally. "Now watch the fun!"

He began to haul, and the sagging of the wire told of a weight on it.

Listening, as they peered from the window into the darkness, Tom and his friends could hear some one running across the campus. Then came a challenge.

"Stop, if you please, sir! I see you, and it is useless to try and sneak into college at this hour! I demand your name, sir!"

"That's Zane!" whispered Phil.

A moment later the wire was violently agitated.

"He's caught him!" exclaimed Dutch. "Why don't they turn on the light, so he can see it's only a stuffed scarecrow?"

At that instant a dazzling pencil of light cut the air, wavered around uncertainly, and then was focused on a queer sight. The dignified proctor of Randall College held in his embrace the swaying figure of an effigy, attired in full evening dress, but with a caricature of a face.

The image swayed from the overhead wire, and the proctor cried out:

"It is disgraceful, sir! I believe you are intoxicated! You will be expelled for this!"

Then, as the light suddenly became brighter the official was made aware that what he had grasped was only rags and straw in a dress suit. So bright was the light that the amazed anger on the proctor's face was plainly depicted. Suddenly Mr. Zane leaped back from the image, looked up and saw the wire, and darted for the clump of elms, toward which it extended.

"Why don't they turn off that light?" demanded Dutch, anxiously, and, as though in answer, it went out. Hurriedly he cut the wire, and closed the window.

"It worked like a charm," he said. "Mum's the word now."

What happened outside in the darkness Tom and his chums could not see, but later they learned that the image and wire was safely hauled out of sight, and the students escaped from the group of trees before the proctor got there. Of course he made diligent efforts to find out who had played the trick, but it was useless.

"That puts us in good humor for the game to-morrow," observed Tom, as, chuckling, he and his chums went to bed. But if they had known what was in store for them on the morrow, they would not have slept so peacefully.

For they suffered a severe drubbing at the hands of Fairview Inst.i.tute when they met that nine on the diamond the next afternoon. How it happened they did not like to think of afterward, but it was mainly due to poor fielding. Tom pitched well, and Sid made some good hits, but his foot went back on him, even in the short spurt to first. Then, too, Dutch and Holly, usually to be depended on, disgraced themselves by making almost inexcusable errors.

Nor was Fairview's playing anything to boast of, aside from the work of the battery. It was just one of those occasions when both teams seem to go stale, and probably on the part of Randall the prank of the night before, which kept several members of the team up late, had not a little to do with it. Sufficient to say, that though Tom managed to whip his men into some kind of shape for the last three innings it was too late, and they went down to defeat by a score of 3 to 10.

"And the girls watching us, too!" groaned Phil, as they were changing their clothes after the game.

"Are you going to see them when we get washed up?" asked Sid eagerly.

"I don't feel much like it," grumbled Tom, but, somehow, he and Phil did manage to gravitate to where Madge Tyler and Ruth Clinton were standing.

Sid followed at a discreet distance, but when he saw Miss Harrison strolling about the grounds with Langridge, the second baseman took a trolley car for home.

Tom and Sid had to stand considerable chaffing on the part of their two pretty companions, but they didn't mind so much, and Tom declared that his team was only practicing, and would eventually win the championship, and the gold loving cup.

"Oh, by the way," remarked Phil, at parting, "Ruth, don't you and Miss Tyler want to come to our doings next week?"

"What doings?" asked his sister. "See you defeated at baseball again, or go to a fraternity dance?"

"Something on the order of the latter," replied her brother, making a wry face. "The sophs are going to have a little picnic on Crest Island, in Tonoka Lake, next Wednesday, and it will be one swell affair. Regular old-fashioned picnic--basket lunches, ants in the b.u.t.ter, snakes under the leaves, and all that. Holly Cross thought it up, and it's great!"

"What a wonderful brain he must have," said Miss Tyler, with a delicious laugh. "But it sounds nice. What do you say, Ruth? Shall we go?"

"I will, if you will. But--er--Mabel----" She looked questioningly toward her chum, who was strolling with Langridge.

"Oh, bring her along," invited Phil. "This is an old-fashioned affair, and no special person will bring any one else. Tom and Sid and I will look after you girls."

"But, Phil, you forget that Mr. Henderson and Mabel----" began Ruth.

"Oh, hang it all, don't let that matter," spoke Phil. "I dare say Sid won't be around. As soon as he gets in the woods or fields he's always after bugs or animals--he's a naturalist, you know."

"I should say so," agreed Tom. "Remember last fall how he went out after a picture of a fox, and got stuck in the bog, and how Zane caught him, all covered with mud, and thought poor Sid was a thief, and how we pretended we didn't know our own chum, when the proctor brought him to our room for identification? Remember that, Phil?"

"I should say I did. Well, that's probably what Sid will do this time, so Miss Harrison needn't worry about having to accept him as an escort, though for the life of me I can't understand what's up between her and Sid?" and Phil looked questioningly at his sister.

"We don't know, either," answered Ruth, "except that Mabel is very miserable over it."

"She can't be taking it very hard, when I see her off with that chump, Langridge," retorted Phil.

"Yes, I'm sorry she goes with him," retorted Madge Tyler. "But she won't listen to us. However, to change the subject--are we to go to the picnic, Ruth?"

"Oh, I guess so. How will we get there, Phil?"

"Tom and I will come for you, we'll go to the summer resort on the west sh.o.r.e of the lake, and row to the island. It will be sport. Now pray for good weather."

"And you boys pray that there aren't any snakes," added Miss Tyler.

"Nor ants in the b.u.t.ter," went on Ruth, as the boys bade the girls good-by.

CHAPTER XIII

A SPORTY COMPANION

"Where's my blue tie?" cried Tom, tumbling about the things on his bureau. "Have you seen it, Phil?"

"Well, I like your nerve! Yes, I used it as a shoe polishing rag,"

remarked Phil sarcastically. "You'll find it on the blue-tie hook, I should say. Why don't you look there."

"Blue-tie hook?" queried Tom.