Light, quick feet on the stairs, a tap at the door, and in came—Lieutenant Jack Adeler!
Hike and Poodle arose and beat him on the back till he could scarcely breathe, half laughing and half crying with joy.
“Yes,” he answered their questions, which were piled on him like a brick-wall falling, “I’ll be here all year. Want to make some experiments. The military part here won’t take much time. And I’ll have the pleasure of getting even with you two young fiends for mixing me up with Welch and Jolls. Oh, the way I’ll hector you on the parade-ground—! By the way, speaking of Jolls, his trial ought to come off pretty soon.”
Then Messrs. Griffin and Darby suddenly changed from Santa Benicians to very grown-up aviators, and plunged into a long talk with Jack Adeler.
But when the Lieutenant had gone, when Taps had sounded and they were undressing, in the dark, they changed back into two very tired youngsters, horribly bored at the thought of being “jollied” all that year.
They seemed to have guessed right. Though Hike was immediately tried out at half on the school team, for two weeks they had to keep to themselves as much as possible. The school wits found a hundred new ways of referring to aviation, every day.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE GREAT HAZING
Tune: Son of a Gambolier.
Oh, I’m an aviator, I’m a number seven slob,
And when it comes to heroism, I am on the job.