“Of course we are, Wallops. Why? You aren’t betting, I hope.”
“No, but you see--well, er--yes, I am in a way. A friend of mine bet a box of candy--I mean I bet the box of candy and----”
“And _she_ wagered a necktie, I suppose,” interrupted Tom with a laugh. “Well, Wallops, I hope the young lady bet on us, and that you lose, though I’d buy her the candy, if I were you.”
“Thanks, Mr. Parsons, I guess I will,” answered the messenger with a cheerful grin. “She’s an awful nice girl.”
“Humph!” mused Tom, as he walked on. “Every fellow thinks that I suppose, about his own. But I wonder what that package is?”
He found it outside the door, which was locked. None of his chums was in as Tom swung the portal, and soon he was unwrapping the bundle.
“Ha! A bottle of medicine,” remarked Tom, as the last paper came off, revealing a flask of some dark fluid. “I wonder who could have sent it to me?”
He looked at the wrapper, but it bore no sender’s name, and his own address was in typewriting.
“Hello! What you got?” demanded Sid, as he entered at that moment, and saw Tom holding the bottle up to the light.
“Search me,” was the answer. “It’s a bottle of some kind of training dope I guess, to judge by the label.”
“That’s good stuff,” he announced. “It’s a sort of iron tonic. I’ve used it. It’s a patent medicine, but lots of fellows use it in training. Who sent it?”
“It came from Fairview,” he declared. “Tom, some of the girls thought you were losing your nerve, and they sent this. Well, a dose of it won’t hurt you. They meant all right, I guess. Going to take any? It’s fine for the stomach.”
“No, I don’t feel the need of it,” and Tom set the bottle of medicine on the shelf.
“Of course. I can see that without glasses. But who to, if it’s not a personal question?” persisted Tom tantalizingly, as he stretched out on the old couch, and watched his chum busy with pen and ink. Phil and Frank were making more or less successful pretenses at study.
“Well--er--it _is_ sort of personal,” replied Sid, and Tom noticed that the writer got red back of the ears. That is always regarded as a sure sign.
“As if you didn’t know! You saw her Sunday, and here it is only Wednesday, and you’re writing. I say, that’s against the union rules you know; how about it fellows?”