“Well, it does seem a shame that you fellows who did the least should suffer for it,” he said, as he turned away regretfully.
“It can’t be helped now. We can only profit by experience and keep out of your company on future occasions,” Ray answered, with a smile.
“Well, boys, I’m sorry I got you into such a fix, and I wish with all my heart that I could get you out,” said Percy. He was standing by the door when I called after him.
“Say Percy, do you happen to know who it was that got Ray’s match box from me that night?”
“Len Howard, I think,” answered Percy from the hall. “He lit the other cannon, I know.”
I turned quickly and looked at Ray, who said nothing, but merely raised his eyebrows.
However severe the penalty we were suffering for the sake of the old cannons, we had at least the satisfaction of knowing that it was not in vain. We had no means of learning, except by rumor, of the effect of the expedition upon the Park College men, but, from what we heard, we judged that a tremendous sensation had been created the morning following, by the discovery of what had happened while they were quietly sleeping. They had put themselves to great pains to rob us of the cannons, and they had been planning to celebrate their deed with a great jubilee, so their chagrin and exasperation knew no bounds when they arose to find the prize had been snatched out of their very hands.
The students, however, were helpless, for the matter had gone up into the hands of the faculties of the two colleges. Considerable correspondence occurred, and after several days a committee from each faculty was appointed to confer together. They met and discussed the question thoroughly, and the result was that the Park College committee, on behalf of their college, formally renounced all claims to the cannons for good. Mutual explanations were made, and the gates were returned to Berkeley. But, although these committees parted upon a friendly basis, the feeling of anger on the part of our students, and the chagrin of the Park men, only served to stir up the old, long standing spirit of animosity between the two colleges to renewed heat.
“There will be exciting times when we meet those fellows on the ball field now,” prophesied Tony Larcom. “It has been bad enough in the past, but now things will fairly hum. Phew! Methinks I smell blood already.”