“I thought there was going to be a fight,” murmured one disappointed lad, whose “loud” clothes bespoke his sporting proclivities.
“There was,” answered a companion, “only something stopped it.”
“Who are those three fellows?” asked another lad from Boxer Hall—a freshman evidently.
“What—don’t you know the three inseparables?” inquired the “sport.” “Not to know them argues yourself unknown.”
The girls were more at their ease now, and Phil, who had started what had so nearly been trouble, did not refer to it, to the great relief of his sister. Really, the interview with Langridge had been unsought on the part of the girls, and they had done their best to avoid speaking to him, without being downright insulting.
Miss Tyler and Miss Harrison began a series of gay nothings, and Ruth was soon drawn into the conversation, to which Tom, Phil and Sid contributed their share.
“Oh, tell us about the clock and chair mystery, boys,” begged Ruth, when they had left the place where they had partaken of hot chocolate. “Phil said something about it, but I had to drag it out of him like a lawyer cross-questioning a reluctant witness.”
“My! Listen to Portia!” cried Madge. “But we should dearly love to hear about the queer happenings.”
Thereupon the three young men together and separately, told of the disappearance of their beloved chair, the missing clock, the appearance of the mahogany timepiece, and their ineffectual search for clews.