“Can you doubt me?” asked Tom, also laughing, and he bowed low, with his hand on his heart.
“Oh, no! Men—especially young men—are never faithless!” she exclaimed gaily.
“But how can you present me to her, when the ‘ogress,’ as I have heard her called, bars the way?”
“Hush! She may hear you,” cautioned Madge. “Oh, we have ‘ways that are dark and tricks that are vain,’ I suppose Miss Philock would say. I’ll just send a message by wireless, and Ruth will soon be here. I think it will be safe. Philly, as we call her, will be in her office by this time.”
Madge stepped to the steam pipes in the room, and with her pencil tapped several times in a peculiar way.
“That’s a code message to Ruth to come down here,” she explained.
“It’s a great system,” complimented Tom. “How do you work it?”
“Oh, we have a code. Each girl has a number, and we just tap that number on the pipes. You know, you can hear a tap all over the building. Then, after giving the number, we rap out the message, also by numbers. We just had to invent it. You boys have ever so many things that we girls can’t, you know. Now tell me all about football. I suppose you will play?”
“I hope to.”
“And Phil—I mean Mr. Clinton, but I call him Phil, because I hear Ruth speak of him so often—I think he plays half-back, doesn’t he?”