For the Honor of Randall Part 21

The lunches had been eaten, and the boys and girls strolled about the grove. Madge had not been near her chums all day, and they felt it keenly, though from a distance she had gaily waved her hand to them. The boys had rather lost interest in the ident.i.ty of her companion.

"Oh, Phil," called Helen to her escort as she saw a pretty flower growing on a woodland bank. "Get that for me, please. Look out for thorns, though."

"A-la-Miss Benson?" asked Phil, referring to Tom's escapade with the pretty girl.

"Yes," a.s.sented Helen with a laugh and a blush. And then, as she looked at a stone at her feet she screamed.

"What is it?" cried Phil, scrambling down the bank with such haste that he slipped, and rolled nearly half the distance. "Did you sprain your ankle?"

"No, but it's a horrid snake!"

She pointed to a little one, not bigger than an angle worm.

"Pooh!" sneered Phil. "It's lost its mamma, that's all. You shouldn't scare the poor thing so by screaming."

"Ugh! The horrid thing!" said Helen with a shudder, as Phil tossed the snake gently into the bushes. "I can't bear anything that crawls."

Then Phil, brushing the dirt from his new trousers, made another and successful attempt to get the flower. And so the day went on.

Back in his room Tom straightened up, and looked from the window. The afternoon was waning, and already long shadows athwart the campus told of the setting sun.

"Well!" he said aloud. "I might as well go out and walk about. They'll be back pretty soon, and then----" he shrugged his shoulders. "What's the use?" he asked himself, apropos of nothing in particular.

Some whim prompted him to board a car going in the direction of Fairview. The May walk he knew would be over by this time, save perhaps for a few stragglers. And he hoped--yet what did he hope?

Tom found himself walking through the little grove where the boys and girls of the college had eaten lunch a few hours before. The place seemed deserted now, though now and then a distant laugh told of some late-staying couple. The sun was almost down, sending golden-red shafts of light slanting through the newly-leafing trees.

Tom turned down a deserted path of beach trees. He walked on, not heeding his course until, as he neared a cross-trail, he heard voices.

There was the soft tones of a girl, and the deeper rumble of a youth.

Tom stepped back behind a sheltering trunk, and only just in time, for the couple suddenly stepped into view.

"Hasn't it been a perfect day?" asked the youth.

"Yes--almost," was his companion's rather indifferent answer.

"Why not altogether, Miss Tyler?"

Tom started at this. He peered from behind the big beach.

"Oh, nothing is perfect in this world," was the laughing answer.

The sun, suddenly dipping down, struck clearly on the faces of the couple. Tom saw them, and his lips formed a name.

"Shambler! That's whom she meant when she said she could not go with me.

Shambler!"

The couple pa.s.sed on, and Tom stood there looking at them, his hands clenched so that the nails deeply indented his palms.

"Shambler!" he murmured. "Shambler!"

CHAPTER XIV

SHAMBLER'S VISITOR

Tom Parsons's chums had the common sense--or shall we say grace--not to mention his non-appearance at the May walk. As they came into the room at the close of the day that had meant so much to them, and which had been fraught with incidents that would be long remembered, Sid, Phil and Frank acted just as though, all along, they had not expected Tom to go, or as if he would be on hand to meet them on their return. For he was back ahead of them. He had fairly rushed for a car after seeing Madge with Shambler.

"Did you finish your book?" asked Frank, as he slumped down into an easy chair.

"No," replied Tom quietly. "I went for a walk."

"It was a fine day," remarked Sid, taking the companion chair to the one Frank had selected, and with such violence did he fling himself into it that the joints creaked and groaned in protest. "I'm tired," added Sid, in explanation.

"No reason for killing the chair though," objected Phil. "That's the old original, too, not the one we got from Rosencranz. Treat it gently."

Tom was stretched out on the sofa, his arms up over his head, staring at the ceiling. He moved his feet to make room for Phil, who settled down beside his chum.

For a s.p.a.ce there was silence in the room, a deep silence, for no one knew just what to say to relieve the somewhat embarra.s.sing situation.

The three did not just know what to make of Tom, though they had heard, just before coming home, that Madge Tyler was with Shambler, and that explained much.

"Great Scott! The clock!" suddenly exclaimed Sid, as the silence, which was beginning to make itself felt, became so oppressive that they were all aware that the clock had stopped. "Have you been doing anything to it, Tom?"

"Who? Me? No, it was going when I went out. Maybe it needs winding."

"That's it," declared Sid with an air of relief as, by testing the thumb screw that operated the main spring, he found the time piece had indeed run down. Soon its cheerful, if somewhat monotonous ticking, filled the room.

"Well, now for some boning," remarked Phil, with half a sigh, as he took off his stiff collar, and made himself comfortable. "I understand the Spring exams are going to be pretty stiff," he added.

"Well, they ought to be," remarked Frank. "We're getting up in the world. We're not in the kindergarten cla.s.s any more. But it will soon be Summer, and then for a long rest. I'm going out on a ranch, I think."

"Me for the mountains," declared Sid.

"And a lake and a motor-boat for me," chimed in Phil. "How about you, Tom?"

"I don't know. Haven't made any plans. It depends on how dad's lawsuit comes out. I may be a waiter in a hotel where some of you fellows are sporting."

"If you are, I'll sit at your table and give you big enough tips so you can come back to Randall in the Fall," spoke Sid with a laugh, in which the others joined. And then, with minds that probably dwelt more on the happenings of the day than on their books, the three fell to studying.

But Tom remained stretched out on the sofa, with his arms up over his head, and his eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"Everybody out for practice to-day!" ordered Holly Cross the following afternoon, as a crowd of lads poured forth from Randall at the close of the last lecture of the day. "Shot-putters, weight throwers, runners, jumpers, hurdlers--everybody on the job!"

"What's the rush?" asked Phil. "Anything new?"

"Well, yes, in a way. The committee from the four colleges met last night, and we've practically decided to hold the meet. All the objectionable points were done away with, and it only remains to decide on the events and the date."