"And the money I've lost, too," added Poole.
"Well, we'll have to pocket our losses, that's all," answered Jasniff. "With Porter, Babcock, and Henshaw off the list I thought we'd make a sure thing of it—but we didn't, and there you are."
"I don't know what I am going to do about the money I put up," said Gus Plum.
"Write to your old man for some," suggested Jasniff. "Tell him you lost your money, but don't say how."
"He won't let me have any more just yet—said so in his last letter."
"How about you, Nat?"
"My old man won't give up a cent until next allowance day, and that's two weeks off. I'll have to live on air till then."
A little later Poole was called away by one of the students, and Gus Plum and Nick Jasniff were left to themselves. Plum was in a quandary, for he had borrowed from several parties and now did not know how to pay the amounts back. Jasniff noticed his uneasiness.
"Don't take the loss so hard, Gus," he said. "Let us go off and have a smoke—it will settle your nerves. If we were in town we might get a drink. But we can't get it around here."