At that moment came the sound of carriage wheels on the gravel path near the barn.
"There is papa now!" cried Minnie Sanderson. "You can talk to him. I guess he'll take you to the college quick enough."
"How did those two young fellows get here?" asked Sam.
"I don't know. And please—that is—you won't say anything to my father about that, will you? It would make him very angry, and I don't know what he'd do."
"We'll not say a word if you wish it that way," answered Dick.
"I don't think they'll bother me again after the way you treated them," added the girl.
She led them toward the barn and introduced her father, a fat and jolly farmer of perhaps fifty. Mr. Sanderson had been off on a short drive with one horse and he readily agreed to take them to Brill College for two dollars.
"Just wait till I put in a fresh team," he said. "Then I'll get you over to the college in less than an hour and a quarter."
While he was hooking up he explained that he had been to a nearby village for a dry battery for the electric doorbell.
"We don't use the bell much, but I hate to have it out of order," he explained.