"The old grouch!" gasped Jack. "Isn't he the limit?"
"And then some more," added Bert. "Come on back to bed. I smell like a smoked ham I imagine."
"We all do," agreed Jack. "But I wonder what old Appleby was driving at when he said some of our lads might know more about this fire than they were saying?"
"Oh, just talk I imagine," said Tom quickly. "He hedged when I tried to corner him. He's so excited he doesn't know what he is saying. Come on; let's go back."
They filed out of the still smoky farmyard and made their way back to the Hall, other lads doing the same thing. The excitement was over now, and soon Elmwood Hall had taken on her normal appearance at night, with her students resuming their interrupted slumbers.
There was much talk of the fire the next morning, the topic forming a fruitful source of conversation at the breakfast tables, and on the way to chapel. Then came lessons, when the lads separated. But in Tom's mind there rankled the words the old farmer had used.
"I wonder what will come of it?" he mused.
He had not long to wait to find out. That afternoon, following some hard football practice, when he and his two particular chums were on their way to the gymnasium for a shower bath, they heard a voice behind them asking:
"I say, kin you boys tell me where I kin find Doctor Meredith? I want t' have a talk with him."
They turned, to behold Farmer Appleby, dressed in what were apparently his best clothes, and with a "biled" shirt, the collar of which obviously galled his neck.