“Let me in, Sophs! This is Grant!” he shouted.
“Come away from that now!” ordered the policeman gruffly. He was almost at the top, and Leonard’s brief glance told him that his good-nature was no longer to be relied on.
“I’ve got a right in here,” panted Leonard, still pounding and kicking. “I’m—I’m one of the party!”
“Your party’s down below,” answered the officer grimly, and, topping the last step, stretched out a massive hand. Leonard, backed against the door now, waved weakly at the menace and tried to find words. Then, just when the Law was about to clutch him, the door behind him opened suddenly and unexpectedly and Leonard arrived on the scene of the Sophomore Dinner in most undignified manner!
The door closed as quickly as it had opened, leaving a surprised policeman to scratch his head and, finally, to retrace his steps to the sidewalk, where his appearance empty-handed summoned a groan of disappointment from the waiting throng. That disappointment was the last straw, and, after a rather half-hearted cheer for themselves, the freshmen wended their way back to school.
Upstairs, Leonard was finishing his sixth and final oyster.
[CHAPTER XIX]
NOT ELIGIBLE
After a day like yesterday only one thing could be expected of the weather, and so here was a rainy Sunday. After church came dinner, and after dinner—well, nothing, it seemed, but a long and sleepy afternoon. Leonard and Slim found reading matter and settled down, Slim on the window-seat because he managed to reach it first, and Leonard on his bed, with his own and Slim’s pillows under his head. Outside the November afternoon was dark with lead-gray clouds and a fine, persistent rain challenged Leonard’s optimistic prediction of clearing weather by four o’clock. Slim grunted gloomily and hunched himself more comfortably against the cushions. “It’s days like this,” he said, “that account for the startling prevalence of crime during the month of November in American preparatory schools.”