"She was much affected, but she forgave him, and is to take him abroad this week, to straighten him out. That was the end of my thralldom.

To-day Guy went with me to Dr. Churchill, made a clean breast of it, told what I had done, and why, and before the a.s.sembled members of the faculty, proved my innocence. It was just in time to allow the lifting of the expulsion ban, and permit me to play--only I had a task to get here in time----"

"But you did, old man!" cried Tom, seizing his chum's hand--only one, however, for, somehow Mabel Harrison had the other. "You were in time to help us bat to win! Sid, can you forgive us?"

"Forgive? There's nothing to forgive," declared Sid, and his eyes were moist. "I don't blame you in the least for thinking I was doing the very things I was trying to save my cousin from. Many a time I went broke on his account, but I didn't mind, for he was worth saving, for the sake of his mother and sister, if not for himself. He's all right now, I believe, and thoroughly ashamed of himself."

"Thanks to you," put in Madge Tyler.

"Oh, I think you were perfectly splendid, Mr. Henderson!" cried Ruth Clinton, with shining eyes.

Mabel Harrison did not say what she thought, but the look from her blue eyes was enough for Sid. He held her hand, and--Oh, well, what's the use of telling on a chap, anyhow? You'd have done the same, I guess, if you had been there.

There was a little pause after Sid had finished his story, and all about sounded the victorious yells and songs of the exulting Randallites.

"Well, are you ready for those plates of cream, now?" asked Phil.

"Talking is dry work. So that was your secret, Sid?"

"That was it, and hard enough it was to keep, too, at times, let me tell you," and the second baseman sighed.

A little later a jolly party sat in an ice-cream parlor, and their merry laughter and jests brought smiles to more than one countenance, as the other guests looked on and listened.

"Why do you suppose Mr. Langridge sent that false clipping from the newspaper to you--I mean the one about Sid?" asked Ruth of Mabel.

"Oh, I--I don't know--exactly," answered the blue-eyed girl, but I suspect that she did know, but did not want to say, for she was done with Langridge forever.

"Now for college, and a procession in honor of our victory, the loving cup, and Sid Henderson--with bonfires and feasting on the side,"

remarked Captain Tom, a little later, when reluctant good-bys had been said to the girls. And the celebration in Randall that night was marked for years afterward in prominent letters in the college annals. Dr.

Churchill made a thrilling speech, and even Professor Tines condescended to smile. The loving cup was carried at the head of a triumphant procession, the light from many gala-fires glinting from its polished surface.

"Well, it's all over," remarked Tom, several hours later when he, Phil and Sid were together in their room. "My, but it has been a baseball season, though!"

"A great one," commented Phil. "We've got a corking good team. I only hope we have as good a one when it comes time to kick the pigskin."

"Oh, I guess we will," spoke Sid slowly. They did, as will be related in the next volume of this series, to be called "The Winning Touchdown," a tale of college football in which we shall meet all our old friends again.

"Well," went on Sid, after a pause, "I don't know what you fellows are going to do, but I'm going to turn in. I'm dead tired after my long tramp," and he began to get ready for bed, while Tom and Phil, sitting by the open windows, listened to the shouts of the revelers out on the campus, for many had not yet had enough of the joys of victory. Then, as the captain threw himself on the old couch, and Phil curled up in the easy chair, the fussy alarm clock went off with a whirr, the bell jangling discordantly.

"Time to get up, Sid, instead of going to bed," remarked Phil with a laugh, as he silenced the racket, and then the three chums--the inseparables--stood and looked at each other, while the clock resumed its interrupted ticking, and the shouts of the celebrators came in faintly on the night wind.

THE END