“I—I think,” murmured Terry, “that perhaps the bell was also meant for us.”
“Yes,” agreed Sim, “it probably was. Well, here’s where we go in off the deep end!”
As the three freshmen hastily made ready to attend in the recreation hall, and as the black gloom of night settled down over Cedar Ridge College, out in the old apple orchard a young man in blue overalls wandered beneath the gnarled trees. He looked toward the brightly lighted windows of the recreation hall and then, with a quizzical smile on his bronzed face, while he stroked his mustache, he glanced toward the broken swimming pool and walked softly away through the rows of fruit-laden branches.
CHAPTER III
Black Danger
Rather timid, diffident, and certainly not as self-confident as they had been when the sneering sophomores had invaded their room, Arden, Terry, and Sim stood looking at one another outside the hall. Finally Arden broke the portentous silence by saying:
“Well, I suppose we had better go in.”
“No help for it,” voiced Sim.
“Oh, it may not be as bad as we think,” consoled Terry. “It’s like going in for a swim the first day of the season. The first is always the worst.”
“Don’t talk to me about dives and swimming!” snapped Sim. “I’m cheated, and I resent it!”
“Oh, Sim!” murmured Arden helplessly.