“Yes, he’ll come,” said Jimmy. “As this happens to be a Saturday night, Dud, your excuse of having to dig Latin or something is very poor. Let’s find a crowd, fellows.”
“Let’s not,” said Bert. “I’ll round up Hobo and Ted Trafford. They went off a minute ago. That’s enough. By the way, though, I suppose you fellows know that the rules forbid it?”
“No, honest?” Jimmy was evidently as pained as he was surprised. “Did you know that, Nick?”
“News to me, Jimmy! I was never so surprised in my life! Are you sure of what you tell us, Bert?”
“Oh, go to the dickens! Come on then before the moon goes down.”
“Or the river evaporates,” added Jimmy. “I’m going to suggest, fellows, that we avoid publicity as much as possible. The last time I had anything to do with that old river it nearly got me into trouble!”
I feel that I ought to record here that Dud’s conscience made itself heard, and that, refusing to transgress the rules of the school, he persuaded the others to forego the enterprise. I’d like to record that, but I can’t, for Dud’s conscience must have been asleep, and ten minutes or so later he was following the others—and Pop Driver, who had been discovered in the company of Hugh and Ted Trafford and persuaded to join the party—across the Green and Lothrop Field to the Beach, as the scanty expanse of sandy shore bordering the Cove was somewhat ironically called. And I am forced to relate that the moonlight bathing party was a huge success, that it lasted until nearly ten o’clock and that faculty remained forever in ignorance of it. So, it would seem, for once the transgressor went unpunished. But perhaps not, after all, for Nick cut his foot open on a mussel shell or a piece of glass and Ted Trafford caught an awful cold that lasted him nearly until school closed! Possibly the reason that the others escaped retribution was just because their crime was not, after all, especially wicked.
CHAPTER XXI
ON THE MOUND
Dud wondered—Jimmy wasn’t there to stop him!—what Mr. Sargent would say to him on Monday regarding that performance of his in the Lawrence Textile game. As a matter of fact, Mr. Sargent said absolutely nothing, either then or at any other time. There was very light practice that afternoon, most of it batting, and the fellows were dismissed early, many of them returning after changing to the practice diamond to watch the second team put away the Grafton High School nine. It wasn’t a vastly exciting affair, however, for the second, with Joe Kelly pitching, had things about its own way. Dud and Jimmy departed at the end of the seventh inning, leaving the home team five runs to the good, and spent a half-hour on the river in Nick Blake’s canoe. (Jimmy asked permission when they returned, and so that was all right!) Jimmy was troubled today and made Dud his confidant as they paddled slowly along under the drooping boughs. His trouble concerned Starling Meyer. But we’ll let Jimmy tell it in his own inimitable way.