“When, to-morrow?” asked one of the enemy.
“No, to-night, and before that dinner’s over,” answered Slim above the burst of laughter that greeted the sally. “You’re pretty clever for a bunch of freshies, but then you’re only freshies, you know!” Slim managed to smile sweetly as he said it, but that didn’t make the insult less severe. He took Leonard’s arm and turned carelessly away while the crowd jeered more loudly and with the first note of anger. To call a freshman a freshman is, for some reason, the deadliest of insults.
“Sore-head!” some one called shrilly, and “Follow them, Tom!” advised a second. “Better watch ’em!”
Slim turned and leveled a finger at the big leader of the crowd. “Come on,” he said. “Follow us. I’d like to have you!”
But the big freshman only grinned and shook his head. “No, thanks,” he called after them. “I’ll wait here. Come again, Staples, won’t you? Dinner’s ready!”
Followed by Leonard, Slim walked briskly around the corner of Moody street, but, once out of sight, he slowed down. “Any one after us?” he asked softly.
“No,” said Leonard. “Now what, Slim?”
Slim shook his head. “There’s the back entrance, but something tells me I didn’t do those guys justice. I’m going to have a look, but I don’t believe they’ve left the back door unguarded.” He went down the block about half-way and there turned into a narrow alley. Some eighty feet beyond, the forms of a dozen or more youths showed where the dim light from a glass-paneled door fell across the passage. Slim stopped. “You can’t fight them,” he muttered disgustedly. “They’ve got us stopped again, General.” The two retraced their steps, followed by a jeering shout from the depths of the alley. “We’ll go around to Market street,” announced Slim, “and think this over. There must be some way!”