“I don’t think so. I guess you have to change at Danbury. There are only two through trains, I think; the eleven in the morning, and the two-something in the afternoon. Even suppose he has to lie over at Danbury, though, he’d be gone before we could get there. And neither of us could go, anyhow!”
“We’ll have a look at the time-table first,” said Loring. “Tom’s done a perfectly idiotic thing, Clif, and he oughtn’t to be allowed to get away with it. He’s probably sorry already. Anyway, he will be in the morning, and the morning will be too late. We’ve got to get him back here to-night—somehow!”
“I wish we could,” agreed Clif desperately, “but I don’t believe there’s a train back from Danbury before morning, even if I got there before he’d left. Besides, if he didn’t want to come back with me I couldn’t make him, could I? He’s beastly stubborn. And I’d have to cut study hour, and if faculty found it out we’d both be in wrong.”
“No, you couldn’t go,” said Loring. “There’d be no sense in you getting into trouble, too. And, as you say, you couldn’t make him come back if he didn’t want to. And even if he really wanted to, he probably wouldn’t. He’d be ashamed to quit and turn back, I guess. No, you wouldn’t do, Clif.”
“Then who—what—”
But just then Wattles returned with the time-table, and Loring eagerly spread it open before him. “Get a pencil, Clif, and stand by, will you? All set? Leave Freeburg 6:34. Arrive Danbury 9:07. That’s a slow old train! Leave Danbury for New York—wait a minute. Yes, that’s right. Leave Danbury 9:52. Arrive New York 11:35. Got it? Now let’s see about the next one. Leave Freeburg—leave Freeburg—leave— Here we are! Leave Freeburg 8:54. Arrive Danbury 11:02. Hm, that’s an hour and ten minutes too late. No use trying to catch him by train, Wattles.”
“No, sir,” agreed Wattles impassively.
“No, it can’t be done. Are we broke, Wattles?”
“Oh, no, sir, I believe there’s something like forty dollars in the trunk, and I have a small sum on me, sir.”