"Without what?" chirped Danny Griswold.
"Without yonder portal," solemnly returned Jones. "As I approached this gilded snare of Satan, I chanced to behold one who hath lately removed from one eye a beef-steak poultice, and whose other eye is in the neighborhood of several strips of plaster."
"Mason?" cried several.
"Verily thou hast named him," bowed Dismal. "He stood there shivering in the bitter cold, while about him gathered his wretched followers. It was a sad and heart-rending sight. I was touched—no, I mean I was afraid I would be touched, and I hastened hither to seek something that would drive from me memory that sad spectacle. Hot toddy, please."
"Mason?" exclaimed Diamond. "I wonder why the fellow is hanging around here?"
"Looking for Merry, perhaps," laughed Paul Pierson.
"He wants to look out, or he will get merry thunder," laughed Lewis Little.
"He got that the last time," said Andy Emery.
"Boys," said Danny Griswold, with sudden seriousness, "I believe there is something in the air."
"What?" asked several.