In silence they plowed on, and a little later they saw the welcome lights of Elmwood Hall.

"Humph! Late, young gentlemen," remarked Mr. Porter, the proctor, as they filed in the gate. "Report to Doctor Meredith at once."

"It was an accident--we got lost," explained Bert.

"And a crusty old farmer wouldn't show us the road," added Tom.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help it. Report to the doctor," was all the satisfaction they received.

But the head master was not at all unkind about it. He listened to their explanation, and consoled them for their ill luck.

They managed to get something to eat, and then, paying a surrept.i.tious visit to the rooms of some of their chums, they learned that they were fully three-quarters of an hour later in coming back than were the last of the stragglers.

"Did Sam and Nick make good time?" asked Tom, of the football captain.

"Very good, yes. They were among the first ones in. I'm sorry about you boys."

"I suppose we're out of the game," hinted Jack.

"Well, not altogether, but it'll set you back. However, I'll do what I can. Better turn in now. You must be tired."

"Tired isn't a name for it!" groaned Bert. "I'll sleep like a locomotive to-night."

They were all slumbering almost as soon as they tumbled into bed, and, though they had been well soaked, they experienced no ill effects the next morning.

To their delight the football captain and coach said nothing about their ill-luck in being outside the time limit for the cross-country run, and they went to practice as usual.

"Huh! I wonder if they call that fair?" sneered Sam, when he saw his enemy, and the latter's friends, in their usual places.

"It's not right," a.s.serted Nick, "after we made the run, and got in on time."

"Well, you didn't get lost in the woods," said George Abbot, who was at least on speaking terms with Sam and his crony. "A farm fellow told us to take the wrong road to avoid a hill."

"Did he?" asked Sam, and there was a trace of a smile on his face.

"Well, you can't always trust farm hands," and he nudged Nick in the ribs, though George did not see it.

Two days later Doctor Meredith called Tom to his office.

"There has been a complaint made against you," said the school head.

"Trampling down the corn of one--er--Jed Appleby----" went on Doctor Meredith, reading from a memoranda. "He says you agreed to pay for it, and his bill is--ten dollars!"

"What!" cried Tom. "We didn't do half that damage! But I'm willing to pay."

"And after this, please be careful not to annoy the farmers hereabout,"

warned the head of the school. "We have to guard against the students doing that."

"I'll be careful," promised Tom grimly. "Ten dollars! Whew!" he exclaimed, as he took the bill and went out. "If he got a dollar he'd be getting more than the corn we trampled was worth. But I'll not dispute it. Only I'll get square with him," he boasted to his chums.

On going to pay the amount a.s.sessed against him, Tom found that the possessions of Mr. Appleby extended to within a short distance of the school grounds. At least one of the farmer's hay fields did, being connected to a main road by a long lane.

"And if he'd been decent," mused Tom, on his way back, after settling the score, "he could have shown us the way through his hay field, and we might have gotten into the Hall on time. The old grouch!"

He cut through the lot, pa.s.sing a big pile of hay that was stacked and thatched for winter.

"Well, did you fix him up?" asked Jack, as his chum entered the room on his return.

"I did--worse luck to him. Some day we'll have to have the white-caps visit him, or treat him to a coat of tar and feathers. It isn't the ten dollars that I mind so much as it is being gouged by a farmer.

I'll get square though!"

It was several nights after this that Tom, gathering up some packages from his dresser, slipped on his coat and cap.

"Where you going?" asked Jack, yawning and tossing aside a book he had been pretending to study.

"Oh, just out for a walk," replied Tom, evasively.

"Want any company?"

"I'll be right back," was the remark, which would seem to indicate that company was not desired.

"All right. Bring me back some peanuts if you go past Pop's place,"

and Jack tossed over a dime.

Tom's chums were in bed when he returned, and without awakening them, as he supposed, he undressed in the dark and tumbled into his cot.

"That you, Tom?" murmured Jack sleepily.

"Yes."

"What smells so queer? Have you been smoking?"

"No, but I came home in a trolley and there were some fellows in it hitting the pipe."

"Oh, I thought it couldn't be you," for neither Tom nor his chums used the weed.

Jack turned over, and was soon breathing heavily, and Tom, too, was not long in getting to sleep.

It was Bert who awakened them some hours later.

"h.e.l.lo fellows!" he called. "There's a fire somewhere. I can see the reflection of it on the windows."

They all jumped up, and Jack, going to the cas.e.m.e.nt, exclaimed:

"It isn't here. None of the school buildings are ablaze."

"No, it's over that hill," said Bert. "I have it!" he cried. "Some of Farmer Appleby's hay ricks are on fire, or maybe a barn. Come on fellows, let's help put 'em out!"