"The more the merrier," commented Frank. "But does any one know anything definite about this?"

No one did, beyond rumors that the athletic committee was considering it. Then they fell to talking of what might happen when the Spring came, of records, past performances, of great baseball and football games won and lost, and, by degrees, Tom felt less keenly the unpleasant news that had come to him.

"I do hope your dad wins that case!" exclaimed Phil, as they were getting ready for bed, on hearing the warning bell ring. "We don't want to lose you, Tom."

"And I don't want to go, but still, a fellow----"

"I know, he has to do his duty. I sometimes feel that I ought to be at work helping the family instead of staying here, where it costs considerable," interrupted Phil. "But if I ever can I'm going to make it up to them. Wait until I get my degree, and the law cases come pouring in on me, with big fees--say, maybe I could give your dad some points!"

he exclaimed, for Phil was considering the law as his profession.

"Well, dad has hired about all the lawyers he can afford," replied Tom with a smile.

"Oh, I didn't mean for a retainer!" cried Phil. "I'd take the case for practice."

"I'll tell dad," was the pitcher's smiling answer.

From the easy chairs, and the rickety sofa, the lads arose, amid clouds of dust. The alarm clock, that served to awaken them in time for first chapel call, was set going again, and carefully placed under some cushions that the ticking might not keep them awake, while yet the bell might summon them in time for worship next morning.

"We surely must do something to that sofa," remarked Phil, as he pressed down on the old springs. "We need a new one----"

"Never!" cried Tom.

"Then we'll have to have this one revamped. It feels like lying on a pile of bricks to stretch out on it now. I think----"

"Hark!" interrupted Tom.

There were loud voices out in the hall. Voices in dispute.

"I tell you I will go out!" exclaimed someone.

"But the last bell is just going to ring," expostulated another, whom the boys recognized as a hall monitor.

"What do I care! I can fool Zane. Stand aside!"

There was a moment of silence, and then the strokes of the retiring bell peeled out through the dormitories.

"There! I told you!" said the monitor. "You can't go. If you do, I'll have to report you."

"All right, report and be hanged to you!" and then followed the sound of a scuffle in the corridor, as if some one was shoving the monitor aside.

CHAPTER IV

THE NEW FELLOW

"Something's up," remarked Tom in a whisper.

"Sure," a.s.sented Phil. "But who is it?"

"I'll take a look," volunteered Sid, and, with a quick motion he turned out the electric light, somewhat of an innovation in Randall. Then he tiptoed to the door, which he opened on a crack. Through the aperture came the noise of retreating footsteps, and it was evident to the strained ears of the four chums that someone was going down the hall, toward the broad stairway that led out on the campus, while someone else was proceeding toward the main part of the dormitory, where Proctor Zane had a sort of auxiliary office.

"Who is it--can you see?" demanded Tom Parsons, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.

"No! Keep still, can't you? Wait until he gets under the hall light,"

was the reply from Sid.

"One of 'em was Franklin, the monitor for this floor; I'm sure of that,"

declared Phil. "I know his voice."

"And the other----" began Tom.

"It's that new fellow," interrupted Sid as he, just then, caught a glimpse of the youth who had caused the disturbance. "He came in yesterday, don't you remember. He's in the soph. science division.

Gabbler--Rabbler or some such name as that."

"I know!" exclaimed Tom. "It's Shambler--Jake Shambler. He introduced himself to me after first lecture. Rather fresh, I thought him, even if he did make the soph. cla.s.s. What's he doing?"

"Going out, as near as I can tell," replied Sid. "He must have had a scuffle with Franklin. Well, it's none of our funeral. Let's turn in.

I'm dead tired."

"What sort of a chap is he?" asked Frank, in rather idle curiosity, as with the light once more switched on, the four boys proceeded to get ready for bed.

"Not our sort at all," replied Tom. "Decent enough appearing, and all that, but the kind that thinks he knows it all. That was a fair sample, the way he talked to the monitor just now."

"Serve him right if he got caught," murmured Phil.

"Oh, he'll get it all right," declared Sid. "Pop Zane isn't as easy as he was when we first came here. He's right up to the mark, and if this Shambler thinks he can shuffle off the campus, and come back when it pleases his own sweet will, he'll have another guess coming. What did he say to you, Tom?"

"Nothing much."

"It must have been something."

"Well, I was in a hurry, and I didn't pay much attention. He wanted to know something about athletics, whether we'd have a ball team or not. I said we probably would, and then he wanted to know what show there was for track athletics. I didn't know, so I couldn't tell him. Then I thought he was getting too friendly on short notice, so I shook him."

"Nice way for one of Randall's old stand-bys to treat a stranger, in a strange land," commented Phil.

"Oh, he won't be a stranger long," declared Tom. "He has bra.s.s enough to carry him anywhere. He'll get along. I don't believe we want him in our crowd, anyhow."

"All right," a.s.sented the others and then, as the last bell, for "lights out" resounded through the dormitory, they leaped into bed.

If Jake Shambler, or any others who tried to "run the guard" that night were caught, it did not come to the notice of our friends. They awoke betimes the next morning, and, as usual hastened to chapel, making the last of their simple toilets on the way, for, somehow, neck scarfs never did seem to lend themselves to quick tying, in the early hours of dawn.

"Well, I hear you lads had a grand time last night," remarked Holly Cross to the "inseparables," as they paused on the chapel steps. "Saved fair maidens in distress, and all that sort of thing."

"Oh, we were on the job with the bob," laughed Tom. "Where were you?"