“I know it,” was the emphatic response.
“And can we serve it up to our guests, and have everything go off just as we planned it?” continued Mack.
“Of course—that’s the very idea,” said the president, encouragingly.
“But how in the name of all that’s wonderful could Blake, with only two men at his back, get the better of Lester and Enoch and such a crowd as they had with them?” inquired Mack, who, although he firmly believed that Blake had done that very thing, could not, for the life of him, imagine how he had done it. “There must have been at least thirty or forty fellows in Lester’s party, and I shouldn’t think they would permit themselves to be balked at the very last minute. Having got safely off with the dinner, why didn’t they hold fast to it?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” answered the president. “But that is our dinner on the rear flat, covered up with a tarpaulin, and I am positive of it. Now, what shall we do?”
“Let’s first make sure that we are right in our suppositions, and then we will go to work and carry out our programme,” replied Mack. “It really looks to me as though things were working in our favor, in spite of all Lester’s efforts to prevent it; but if we should be disappointed after all—”
The president hastened to assure his companion that they were not going to be disappointed, and, in order to satisfy himself on that point at the earliest possible moment, he set out for the depot at the top of his speed, Mack following close at his heels. The train had by this time crossed the bridge, and as it disappeared through one of the huge doorways, a shout arose from the inside of the building—a shout so loud that it effectually drowned the music of the band. The boys were greatly astonished at this, but they were so impatient to find some one who could explain everything to them, that they did not stop to ask each other any questions. They kept on with increased speed, and when they dashed into the depot, they found that the noisy greeting they had heard came from a company of railroad men, assisted by a crowd of professional hangers-on—men and boys who always run to the station whenever they hear the whistle of an approaching train.
The Race for the Class Dinner.
The most of these men and boys had seen Lester and his company when they marched through the city that morning, led by the band, and, at the time, they thought that everything was just as it should be—that Lester and the rest were first-class boys, as they pretended to be, and that they had a right to the good things which Mr. Taylor had so carefully prepared, and which were following behind them, loaded on drays; and it was not until the afternoon train came in, bringing Captain Walker and his men, that the citizens of Hamilton learned how neatly the members of the graduating class had been outwitted. Some of them laughed, and said that it served the young upstarts just right (the boys in the first class did throw on a good deal of style, as a general thing), while others could not have been more exasperated if they had been personally interested in the matter. They knew, too, of the steps that Blake had taken to turn the tables on those who had made off with the dinner (we shall tell all about it presently), and when the triumphant strains of the band told them that the quick-witted fellow had been successful in his endeavors, they could not resist the impulse to cheer him. Blake was the first boy who sprang out of the engineer’s cab to greet Mack and his companion.