“Well, they fell into the trap as easily as Chunky here can eat pie. I brought around the machine, got them in and off we went for the swamp. When I got them to the fossil bed, wild horses couldn’t have pulled them away, for I’d unearthed some new specimens. And then the fun began. The two professors went at each other with pet theories for weapons, and pointed out minute indications in geology that I had never dreamed of. I was completely out of it, so I wandered off in the woods and waited for them to finish.
“I guess they would have been at it yet, only they dug up a queer kind of rock that stumped them both to tell what it was, and they yelled for me to hurry with them back to the college so they could look it up in the dictionary--or whatever book they use for such things.
“And there you are, boys. We just got back, and it’s up to you chaps to provide some amusement for me in return for listening to a lot of dry rock-talk all afternoon, besides losing my fun.”
“Oh, we’ll take care of you all right!” laughed Bart. “That sure was one dandy little trick! It worked like a charm. Shake!”
Bart and Jerry clasped hands in a most friendly fashion, to the no small disgust of Frank.
“Say, don’t let it get out--I mean my part in it!” begged Jerry. “I’d be jugged if it were known.”
“Oh, we’ll keep it dark,” promised Bart. “The faculty will never know.”
It is hard to say whether this state of affairs existed long, but one is inclined to think that some, at least the proctor, must have suspected. But he could do nothing, for Professor Baldwin had remained away of his own accord. And he was the dean.
“Say, why do you want to get so thick with that Jerry Hopkins?” asked Frank of Bart that evening.
“Because he did me a big favor. I’d never have been able to play in the game to-morrow if he hadn’t held that exam off the way he did.”
That Thanksgiving Day game with Kenwell was a good one, though at first, when the military lads rolled up two touchdowns and a goal against Boxwood Hall, it looked black for the latter. And then Bart cut loose, and in each of the second, third and fourth quarters made a touchdown, while another was scored on a forward pass, and thus Boxwood Hall humbled her ancient enemy.