The figure ahead of him glided on, and Tom followed. Then, instead of turning into the library, it mounted a flight of stairs that led to the rooms above, where other students slept.
“For cats’ sake!” thought Tom. “What is Sid up to anyhow? Is he going to snare someone else in on this game? Or is he playing some trick? The bell in the tower! Jove, if he dares to ring that at this hour!”
For, when the new dormitory had been built, a bell had been hung in an ornate corner tower, though it pealed forth but seldom, being more of an ornament. Still it could be rung if desired.
“That’s what old Sid is up to!” decided Tom. “He must be going daffy. He’s sure to be caught, for Simond has a room up there, and he’s a light sleeper.” Simond being one of the new teachers, who had been assigned to this dormitory as a sort of moral-policeman. He was, however, a well-liked instructor.
“I wonder how it would be for me to tip Sid off not to do it?” thought Tom. “If he does jingle the chimes they’ll say we all had a hand in it, and it will be bad for the bunch. I guess I’ll call him off. No use going too far for a joke.”
Tom was about to sprint forward, when, to his surprise, the figure turned and entered one of the student’s rooms, the door opening noiselessly and closing again as silently.
“Well, what do you know about that?” asked Tom of himself. “Who rooms there, I wonder? And what is Sid going in there for? Can it be that he isn’t up to dashing off a fervid love poem himself, and has to get someone else, under the cover of night, to do it for him?”
Tom came to a halt, some distance from the door that had opened and closed, and remained gazing down the corridor. He seldom came up here, and did not know which students occupied the different rooms. And, as the corridor was long, and as Tom was looking down it on an angle, he could not be exactly sure which door had opened, they being all alike, and many without numbers.
“I’ll just stay here and wait,” he decided. “He can’t stay in there very long,” and then Tom began to wish he had slipped on his bath robe, for he was getting more and more chilly each minute.