"Give it up," replied Phil. "Langridge lit out, too; the cad! What a chump he must be to think he could get away with a game like that!"

"Yes, it was almost as good to have Sid discover him trying it, as if our old chum had held down the second bag," declared the captain. "A flash at the right moment would have confused Pete, and might have cost us the game."

"That's right. Come on, hurry up, or the girls will get tired of waiting."

The two went out, in time to see Langridge approaching the three young ladies. The Boxer Hall pitcher was striding over the gra.s.s toward Miss Harrison, who stood a little apart from her two friends.

"I'm awfully sorry to have kept you waiting, Miss Mabel," began Langridge. "The truth was, I had an important engagement, that I came near forgetting."

"You haven't kept me waiting," was the cool answer.

"No? Well, I'm glad of it. Now, if you're ready we'll trot along. I met a friend of mine, Mr. Bascome, of Randall, and he will take us back to Fairview in his auto."

"Thank you, I don't care to go," replied Miss Harrison.

"What? Don't you like rides in the gasolene gig?" asked Langridge, with a forced laugh.

"Oh, I didn't exactly mean that," went on Miss Harrison. "It's the company I object to."

"You mean Bascome? Why he's all right. Maybe he's a little too----"

"I mean you!" burst out the girl, flashing a look of scorn on him from her blue eyes. "I don't care to ride with a person who seeks to take unfair advantage of another in a ball game."

"You mean that mirror? That was all an accident--I a.s.sure you it was. I didn't intend anything--honestly."

"You will favor me by not speaking to me again!" came in snapping tones from the indignant girl. "I shall refuse to recognize you after this, Mr. Langridge."

"Oh, but I say now----" protested the bully, as he took a step forward.

But Mabel linked her arm in that of Ruth, and, as Tom and Phil came along just then, Langridge, who was aware that they had heard the foregoing conversation, slipped hastily away, with a very red face.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting," began Tom, unconsciously repeating the remark of Langridge. Miss Harrison seemed a little ill at ease, and Phil blurted out:

"Oh, come on! Let's hurry, or there won't be any ice cream left at Anderson's. It's a hot day and the crowd must be dry as a bone. I know I am. Come on, girls."

They had a merry little time, until it was necessary for the girls to return to Fairview, whither Tom and Phil escorted them.

"Did you say any more to Langridge, old man?" asked Tom of Sid, that night in the room of the "inseparables."

"No, it wasn't necessary."

"You should have heard Miss Harrison lay him out," exulted Phil. "She certainly put it all over him!"

"How?" demanded Sid eagerly, and his chums took turns telling him how the blue-eyed girl had given Langridge his "walking papers" in a manner very distasteful to that individual.

"No! You don't mean it!" exclaimed Sid joyfully. Then, as a look came into his eyes that his chums had not seen there since the first happy days he had experienced with Mabel Harrison, Sid went on:

"Say, what's the date of the Junior racket? I've mislaid my tickets."

"Why?" asked Tom mischievously, though he well knew.

"None of your affair," retorted Sid, but there was no sting in his answer.

"It's next Friday," put in Phil.

Sid tossed aside the things on his desk, and made a great fuss about writing a letter, while Phil and Tom casually looked on, well knowing to whom the epistle was addressed. Sid made several false starts, and destroyed enough paper to have enabled him to compute several problems and tore up a lot of envelopes before he finished something that met with his approval, and then he went out to post it.

"He's asked Miss Harrison to go to the Junior affair with him," said Phil.

"Of course," agreed Tom. "I hope she goes."

Sid lived in an atmosphere of rosy hope for several days, but, when no reply came, he began to get uneasy. He eagerly accepted an invitation extended to him a few days later, to accompany Phil and Tom on a trip to Fairview, Ruth again having asked her brother to call to talk about the proposed trip to Europe. The three chums found the three girls in the reception room, and Miss Harrison showed some embarra.s.sment when Sid entered. With a view to dispelling it Ruth, with a rapid signal to her brother, Tom and Madge, left the room, they following, leaving Miss Harrison and Sid alone there.

"Lovely weather," remarked Sid desperately.

"Very," answered Miss Harrison, uncertain whether to be amused or angry at the trick played on her by her chums.

"Are you going to the Junior dance Friday night?" went on Sid. "I wrote and asked you--you got my letter, didn't you?"

"Yes, Mr. Henderson, and I should have answered before, but I was uncertain----"

"Won't you let me take you?" pleaded Sid.

"I would like--won't you--can you explain a certain matter which I wish to know about?" she asked. "You know what I mean. Believe me, I'm not prudish, or anything like that, but--if you only knew how I feel about it--won't you tell me about that--that item in the paper accusing you?"

she stammered. "If you weren't there, why can't you say so?" and she leaned eagerly forward, looking Sid full in the face.

He scarcely seemed to breathe. There was a great struggle going on within him. He looked into the blue eyes of the girl.

"I--I can't tell you--yet," he said brokenly.

"Then I can't go with you to the dance," she replied in a low voice, and she turned and left the room, going back to the den she shared with Ruth and Madge, while Sid went out the front door, and across the campus; nor would he stay, though Phil and Tom called to him, but walked off, black despair in his heart.

CHAPTER XXIII

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

Tom and Phil went to the Junior dance, taking Madge and Ruth, and, though they enjoyed it thoroughly, there was a little sorrow in the hearts of the two lads that Sid was not there to share the pleasure with them.

"I wonder why he didn't come?" asked Phil of Ruth, as the four stood chatting about his absence, over an ice, during an intermission.

"You ought to be able to guess," replied his sister.

"Why?" persisted Phil.

"Because a certain person with blue eyes didn't."