“There’s one thing about it, fellows,” said Enoch, as he and Jones stopped to exchange a few words with Charley Porter. “They are afraid of our crowd, and have taken all sorts of precautions to guard against any interference on our part. They couldn’t have paid us a bigger compliment; could they, Jones?”
“N—no,” stammered the latter. “Oh, yes; it was a splendid compliment,” he added, trying to arouse himself. The fact was, he did not know what Enoch was talking about.
“I guess you didn’t hear much that was said while you were in the recitation room,” said Charley, who did not fail to notice how very pale Jones’s face was and how his hands trembled. “You look and act as if you were scared half to death.”
“And so I was,” answered Jones, who knew that it would be of no use to deny the charge. “It makes me shiver all over when I think what those fellows would have done to us if they had caught us there. Fortunately they were all gathered in the front of the room, and that was the way we escaped discovery.”
“You know that much about it, don’t you?” said Enoch, with a laugh. “Never mind; I was frightened myself, and when I went down stairs, Charley told me that he wouldn’t act as a spy on Mack and the rest for a million dollars. Charley is nobody’s coward, either.”
“I hope I am not,” said the guard, who was pleased with the compliment. “And I am not foolhardy, either. I don’t call you two brave—I call you reckless.”
“Perhaps we were,” said Enoch. “At any rate I wouldn’t do the same thing again for a dozen dinners. Now we are ready to talk the matter up among the fellows, and we will begin to-morrow.”
Just then the deep tones of the big bell in the cupola rang through the building, and the spies, knowing that the officer of the guard would soon make his rounds, burned toward their rooms; while Charley placed his hands behind his back and began pacing up and down the hall.
“That for you and your rules, Don Gordon,” thought Enoch, snapping his fingers in the air and taking his seat at the study-table opposite his room-mate—a good little boy, who would have been frightened at the bare thought of deliberately violating any of the rules of school. Bert Gordon had fondly hoped that by “chumming” Enoch on a studious, well-behaved fellow, he could induce him to mend his ways and devote himself to business, so that he could take a higher stand in the school; for Enoch was bright, and could have earned a lieutenant’s shoulder-straps very easily, if he had only applied himself. If Bert had known what Enoch was thinking about now, he would have seen that his plan was not likely to work.
That was a long night to Enoch, who rolled restlessly about on his bed trying in vain to go to sleep. His mind was full of thoughts of the dinner and of the stratagems of which he intended to make use in order to secure possession of it (he knew that those he would take into his confidence would expect him to manage the matter), and the worst of it was, that he could not unburden himself to anybody before morning. When at last he sank into an uneasy slumber, he dreamed about the fun in prospect, and it was the first thing that came into his mind when the booming of the morning gun called him up to begin the duties of the day.