"You go down and get that now, you pretty, playful child," said Holworthy, indignantly. "Oh, thank you, yes, throw it up, please," he continued to someone outside. "Much obliged. No, Rattleton isn't here. I believe he went out for a ride."
"Who's that?" asked Randolph, as Holworthy drew in his head, having caught the book.
"Varnum, the coxswain."
"What the deuce does he want with Jack Rattleton?" queried Burleigh.
"I am sure I don't know," answered Holworthy, "but he and Jack are great pals, you know."
"What!" exclaimed Bender, who was not one of Rattleton's intimate friends, "Varnum and Rattleton? That is the funniest combination I ever heard of. The quietest, hardest worker in college, and the worst loafer."
"You are wrong there," said Holworthy. "If you knew Jack as well as the rest of us do, you'd know he was the best loafer in college."
"I believe that good-for-nothing chap would get up in the middle of the night to be hanged for any one of us," added Rivers.
"I am not sure about the middle of the night," said Hudson, doubtfully. "At any rate if he was to be hanged for it himself, he wouldn't get up before nine in the morning."
"How did he happen to get thick with Varnum?" inquired Bender.