“Bony, where’s that extra choice pie you had?” asked Jack with a wink at his chum. “Give it to Mr. Socker here,” and Bony passed over the bit of pastry that had met with the accident in the hall.
“That will keep him quiet for a while,” said Jack in a whisper.
The lads, bearing the good things Jack had provided, passed through the boiler-room and into a storage apartment, where cans of oil, waste, tools and the like were kept. Socker had arranged some boards on a couple of sawhorses for the students, and there, by the light of several candles stuck in the necks of bottles, the table was spread.
“Say, but this is jolly, all right,” said Sam Chalmers. “Jack, you’re a public benefactor.”
He leaned over to shake hands with our hero.
“Look out! You’ll upset the table!” cried Jack, as Sam, leaning against the boards, tilted them.
“Save the pieces!” cried Nat, springing to the rescue.
“Gentlemen, be seated!” invited Jack as the lads arranged themselves about the table. Socker had provided planks, stretched across big, empty oilcans. “Here you are, Will, right next to me,” went on our hero in a low tone to the lad who had joined him in the dark hall. “I’ll introduce you presently.”
No one of Jack’s chums had yet noticed the new lad, for Will had kept in the shadows, and there was much confusion attending the placing of the good things on the board. But as the guests prepared to seat themselves, Sam Chalmers caught sight of the unfamiliar face of Will Williams. He knew he was not one of Jack’s crowd, and thinking the lad might have come uninvited he said:
“We have a stranger with us.”