“Maybe they’ll have to,” said Jerry, mysteriously. “I might persuade them.”
“How can you do it?”
“I’ll tell you,” and Jerry and Bart went off to a secluded place together, much to the wonderment of Frank, who could not imagine why his crony had suddenly become so chummy with one of the boys whom Frank and his chums had voted to snub.
But if poverty makes strange bedfellows, the desire to win a football game may make a fellow forget a contract he has entered into, especially when such an agreement is not altogether in good taste. Bart was beginning to like Jerry in spite of the efforts Frank made to prevent this. And when Jerry made his proposition, Bart cried:
“Say, if you can do that I’ll be your friend for life! If we can postpone the examination I’ll be all right, for I’m just at passing mark now. But if I flunked in chemistry I wouldn’t be.”
“Leave it to me,” said Jerry. “What time is the exam?”
“Two this afternoon, and I’m going to spend every second from now to then boning away.”
“You needn’t,” Jerry assured him. “There won’t be a chemistry test to-day.”
And there was not. When the class assembled in the room to wait for Professor Baldwin to come in to give the examination, they waited a long time. No professor appeared, though usually he was very prompt. Some of the boys looked wonderingly at one another, but they were on an honor system, and had promised not to speak after entering the examination room. They kept their word.
An hour passed, and no chemistry professor appeared to conduct the test. As it was partly oral, his presence was needed.