For a week or more after the episode at the lake, matters at the academy went on in a rather more even tenor than was usual. One night Sam, who finished his studying early went to Jack's room.
"Boning away?" he asked.
"Just finishing my Caesar," was the reply. "Why, anything on?"
"Nothing special," replied Sam. "Do you feel anything queer in your bones?"
"Not so much as a touch of fever and ague," replied Jack with a laugh. "Do you need quinine?"
"Quit your fooling. I mean don't you feel as if you wanted to do something?"
"Oh I'm always that way, more or less," Jack admitted. "I'm not taking anything for it, though."
"I'd like to take a stroll," said Sam. "I think that would quiet me down. I feel just as if something was going to happen."
"Probably something will, if we go out at this hour," Jack said.
"It's against the rules."
"I know it is, but it wouldn't be the first time you or I did it. Come on, let's go out. Down the trellis, the way you did when you discovered Grimm smoking."