"He's drowned!" shouted McCabe, "No man can swim with his feet tied in that river! Benz, your practical joke worked this time!"
"The falls!" somebody shrieked. "They're just a little below that bend. He'll go over them and into the mill pond sure!"
Fellows began running along the river bank below the bend.
"If we only had a lantern!" another cried, frantically.
Several commenced calling Judd's name in the hope that he might hear and answer them.
"I can never go back to college after this!" Benz breathed,
hysterically. "He's drowned and of course, I'll be blamed, … but no!
No one can prove that I let him drop! We'll all be held to account;
… Oh why, why did I do it?"
* * * * *
It was one o'clock and still no signs of Judd. Cateye was growing anxious. He got up, slipped on a bathrobe, and hobbling over to a chair, sat by the window looking out upon the campus.
"Judd said that he and Benz had almost clashed. I wonder if something has happened to one or both?" Cateye shuddered nervously at the thought.
Suddenly he glimpsed a lone figure running swiftly across the campus, rapidly nearing the dormitory. It was so dark that Cateye could not make out who it was but the very fact that the person was running coupled with the time of night, signified that something unusual had happened.