For the Honor of Randall Part 13

"It all happened so suddenly," said Ruth when, some little time later, her brother and his chums were admitted to the room where the two girls were wrapped in blankets, and sitting in big chairs before a roaring fire. "We were skating on when, all of a sudden, the ice gave way, and Madge and I found ourselves in the water. Oh, I thought we would come up under the ice, and have to stay there until----" She stopped with a shudder.

"Don't talk about it, Ruth dear," begged her chum.

"It's a good thing the boys were so close," spoke Mabel. "They came like the wind, but, even then, I thought they would never get there."

"I wonder if we can go back to school?" ventured Ruth.

"Certainly not," decided her brother. "You must be kept good and warm, and----"

"But, Phil dear, perhaps they haven't room here for us, and----"

"Yes we have," interrupted the woman. "I've plenty of spare beds. You just make yourselves comfortable. Well, I declare, here comes Dr. Nash,"

and she looked out of the window as the medical man, who had been summoned by Shambler, walked in the front yard. The physician continued the treatment already so well begun, and said, with a good night's sleep, the young ladies would be none the worse off for the affair.

It was arranged that Mabel and Helen should go back to Fairview, to report the accident, and that Madge and Ruth should remain at the farmhouse over night. The boys, after making sure there was nothing more they could do, took their leave.

"Whew! That was a mighty close call!" gasped Phil, when they were once more skating toward Randall. "It gave me the cold shivers."

"Same here," added Tom.

"How'd you come to see 'em fall in?" asked Frank.

"I didn't," replied Tom. "I--er--some one told me."

"Oh, yes, Shambler," interposed Sid. "I wonder why he didn't----"

Tom took a sudden resolve. It was within his power then to break Shambler--utterly to destroy his reputation among his fellow-students, for there was no doubt but that the new lad had acted the part of a coward. And, as Tom thought of the mean actions of the fellow in the gymnasium that afternoon, he was tempted to tell what he knew. Randall was no place for cowards.

And yet----

Tom seemed to see himself back in the room with his chums. He saw them lolling on the old sofa, or in the big chairs. He heard the ticking of the fussy little alarm clock, and with that there seemed to come to him a still, small voice, urging him to choose the better way--the more n.o.ble way.

"Shambler," repeated Frank, "he----"

"He saw us going to the rescue I guess," put in Tom quietly. "He saw that we could beat him skating and he--he ran for the doctor. It was--the wisest thing he could do."

"That's so," agreed Phil. "I didn't think of that. I must thank Shambler when I see him."

Tom kept silent, but he thought deeply, and he knew that Phil's thanks would be as dead-sea apples to Shambler.

"Come on, let's. .h.i.t it up," proposed Frank. "I'm cold." And they skated on rapidly.

They were soon at Randall, where the story of the rescue had preceded them, and they were in for no end of congratulations and hearty claps on the back.

"You fellows have all the luck," complained Holly Cross. "I never rescued a pretty girl yet."

"No, Holly's too bashful," added Dutch Housenlager! "He'd want to be introduced before he saved her life."

"Or else he'd pa.s.s over his card, to introduce himself," added Jerry Jackson. "Then he'd tell her what college he was from, and want to know whether she would have any serious objection to being pulled from the icy H2O by the aforesaid Holly."

"You get out!" cried the badgered one. "I can save girls as well as anyone, only I never get the chance."

"You're not quick enough," suggested Dutch. "You should be on the lookout to get a life-saving medal. But, all joking aside, Tom, was it at all serious?"

"It sure was," came the reply. "It looked to be touch and go for a few minutes."

On his way to the library that evening, to get a book he needed in preparing his lessons, Tom met Shambler. The athlete looked at our hero, half shamefacedly, and asked:

"Are the--the girls all right?"

"Yes," answered Tom shortly.

"I say, Parsons," and Shambler's voice had a note of pleading in it.

"I--I lost my head, I guess. I was a coward, I know it. I--er--are you going to tell?"

"Of course not!" snapped Tom. "We--we don't tell--at Randall."

He hurried on, not stopping to hear what Shambler had to say--if anything--in the way of thanks.

CHAPTER IX

IN THE ICE BOAT

"What can we do to have some fun?"

"Stand on your head."

"Go off by yourself to a moving picture show."

"You're a whole circus yourself."

It was Dutch Housenlager who had asked the question, and it was Tom Parsons and his chums who had made answers, for Dutch had invaded the precinct of their room in search of amus.e.m.e.nt, to the detriment of the studious habits of our friends.

"Oh, say now, be decent, can't you?" pleaded Dutch. "I'm in earnest."

"So are we," declared Tom. "We aren't all geniuses like you, Dutch. We have to study in order to know anything, but we can't if you come here, begging to be amused."

"I've got to do something--or bust," declared the fun-loving lad in desperation.

"If you're going to blow up, please go outside," invited the big Californian solemnly. "It messes up a room horribly to have a fellow like you scattered all over it. Get outside!"

"You brute," murmured Dutch. "After all I've done to add to the gaiety of Randall."

"Work off another ink catapult on a new teacher," advised Tom. "That's always good for a laugh."