“I should say so!” agreed Hugh, scrambling out of the ditch he had followed Nick into. “’Ware water, fellows!”
Dud and Jimmy escaped that time, but during the next half-hour or so they had their share of misfortunes. There was no moon and the stars were partly hidden by light clouds and it was impossible to see more than a pace ahead at any time. They never actually tumbled into the river, but they frequently stumbled down the bank and only saved themselves by prompt laying hold of whatever they could reach, as when Nick, walking too close to the edge and finding himself slipping, promptly clutched Hugh’s leg and nearly doubled the catastrophe! It seemed more like an hour than a half-hour since they had left the willows before they caught sight of the old bridge looming indistinctly above them. After that the rest was easy, for they had only to break their way through the bushes that clad the embankment and foot it along Crumbie Street to the corner of the campus, their path now illumined by the infrequent street lights. Under the first of them they stopped to take stock. Every one of them was wet to the knees or above and plastered here and there with the nice, dark, rich mud of the marshes. It was almost eight o’clock and any hope they may have entertained of reaching their various rooms undetected had long since vanished. Nick sighed philosophically as he turned to continue his journey, his shoes squish-squashing at every step.
“Anyway,” he said, “when we tell them we lost the canoes and had to walk home they’ll just have to believe us! That is the one bright spot in the surrounding gloom.”
“I’ve always wondered,” mused Jimmy, “how it would feel to be on probation.”
“You ought to know by this time,” chuckled Dud. “You’ve been there twice already.” For some reason, Dud seemed less troubled by the impending disaster than the others.
Jimmy sniffed. “I don’t know, Mr. Baker, where you get your information, but you have been sadly misled. The other occasions to which you doubtless allude——”
“Shut up, Jimmy,” warned Nick. “And, say, we’d better part company about now. You and Baker beat it up here and Hugh and I’ll amble careless-like over to River Street. I hate to attract attention, I’m that modest. Nighty-night!”
“Same to you,” replied Jimmy. “And thanks for a pleasant party. Although I must say that your arrangements for getting us home were a bit—ah—primitive!”
“Don’t mention it! Farewell, brothers. We meet in prison!”
Whether by design or accident, Mr. Russell’s study door was wide open as Dud and Jimmy quietly slipped from the stairway well into the first-floor corridor of Trow, and, although they didn’t think it advisable to stop to pass the time of day with the instructor, they stopped just the same.