“Only two more,” muttered Mason.
“Just enough to take us both in,” said Bertrand, with pretended lightness, though his heart was sinking.
“Not enough to take me in,” declared the youth from South Carolina rather sadly. “There was never a ghost of a show for me. I only came here to see the other fellows made happy. You know my record when I first came here hurt me, and when a man gets started wrong at Yale, he has hard work to change his course and get on the right track. I’ve been side-tracked right along.”
“It’s too bad!” nodded Defarge. “Hello! there goes another ‘Keys’ man. You might make Wolf’s Head, Mason, you know.”
“My chance of making heaven is better. But surely a society man like you——”
“‘Bones,’ or nothing!” muttered Defarge grimly. “There are two more to go, and I’m waiting.”
“Hooray! Codwell! Hoopee! Hooray!”
“‘Bones!’” said Defarge hoarsely, his face growing white.
“Fourteen!” counted Mason. “That leaves but one more.”
“I’m the man!” the French youth inwardly declared. “I must be the man! What if they did not take me in! What if I failed after making the other societies!”