"Sure. You can always count on me. What is it this time?"

"Well, you know the little open pavilion down near the river?"

"The one near the boathouse?"

"That same."

"Sure I know it."

"Well, you know according to ancient and revered college tradition that is sacred to the soph.o.m.ores. None other but members of the second-year cla.s.s may go there. If one of us freshmen is caught there it means a ducking, to say the least."

"So I've heard."

"Well, Kerr and I were in there the other day, for we heard that the sophs were off on a little racket, and we didn't think we'd be disturbed.

We had a couple of girls there and were having a little confab when along came Gladdus and Battersby, grabbed us before we knew it and chucked us into the H{2}O, whence we floundered like drowned rats."

"Yes, I heard about it."

"So did the whole college, I guess. Now Kerr and I feel that not only have we been insulted, but that the whole freshman cla.s.s has."

"I agree to that."

"And will you help us to get even?"

"Sure. What you going to do?"

"You'll see later. What I need now is a coil of wire. I want to know if you'll get it for me."

"Certainly, but why can't you get it for yourself?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I've got about all the marks I can stand this term, and merely because I happened to play an innocent trick in cla.s.s to-day I'm forbidden to leave the college grounds for a week. Just when I want to go to town, too. So I've got to get some one else to get the wire for me, and I thought you would. I'll pay for it, of course."

"Sure I'll get it," agreed Tom, not stopping to think that Kerr, the special chum of Langridge, might have acted for his friend. "What kind do you want?"

"I'll tell you. Here's the money," and Langridge handed over a bill, also giving Tom a memorandum of the kind of wire wanted and where to get it in Haddonfield.

"And one more thing," the other youth added as he prepared to take his leave.

"What's that?"

"Don't, for the life of you, tell a soul that you got the wire for me. I want it kept a dead secret. The trick will be all the better then. Will you promise?"

"I will."

"On your honor as a freshman of Randall College?"

Tom wondered at the other's insistence.

"Of course I will. Shall I swear?" and Tom laughed.

"No, your word is enough," spoke Langridge significantly. "Have the wire by to-night, and we'll teach the sophs a lesson they won't soon forget."

CHAPTER XI

AN ELECTRIC SHOCK

Late that same afternoon Tom, having gone to town alone, that he might accomplish his mission un.o.bserved, came back with a coil of telegraph wire concealed under his sweater at his waist. He smuggled it to Langridge's room without being seen.

"That's the stuff, old man," cried Langridge heartily, but there was an air of patronizing superiority in his manner that Tom did not like.

Still, he reasoned, the other could not rid himself of an inborn habit so easily, and it really seemed, in spite of the fact that Tom might be regarded as a rival of Langridge, that the latter was doing his best to be friendly.

"I s'pose it wouldn't do to ask what's up, would it?" inquired Tom as he was about to leave.

"Hardly," replied Langridge with what he meant to be a genial smile. "It might get out, you know. But you can be in at the death, so to speak.

The whole freshman cla.s.s will a.s.semble at the boathouse about nine.

There'll be a full moon and we can have a good view of the sophs'

pavilion."

"Are they going to be there?"

"I hope so. In fact I'm counting on it. This is the night of their annual moonlight song festival. They gather in and about the pavilion and make the night hideous with s.n.a.t.c.hes of melody. They're rotten singers--the sophs this year--but that is neither here nor there. The point is that they'll be there, and it's up to us freshmen to give 'em a little surprise party."

"I suppose you're going to arrange the wire so they can't get into the pavilion without cutting it," suggested Tom, "or else put it across the path to trip them up."

"Er--yes--something like that," replied Langridge hastily. "Oh, by the way, have you a knife? I lost mine out rowing the other day. I'll give it back to you to-morrow."

Tom pa.s.sed over his knife, a good-sized one, with his name engraved on the handle. His father had given it to him.

"Don't lose it," he cautioned. "I think a great deal of it."

"I'll not," promised Langridge. "Now don't forget to be on hand."

"I'll be there to see the fun."

"And maybe you'll see more than you bargain for," whispered Langridge as Tom went out. There was a curious look on the face of the 'varsity pitcher.

One by one, by twos and threes or in small groups, silent figures stole away from dormitories that night and gathered about the pavilion or the boathouse, which was not far from it. To the first place went the soph.o.m.ores, bent on having their annual frolic of song. To the second rendezvous traveled the freshmen, but they went more silently, for they did not want their natural enemies to learn of their presence.

The soph.o.m.ores, however, were on their guard. From time immemorial it had been the custom for the first-year cla.s.s to endeavor to break up the song fest of their predecessors, and it was the function of the first years to do this in as novel a manner as possible.

Tradition had it that various methods had been used, such as setting fire to the pavilion, digging pits in the paths that led to it and covering the holes with leaves and gra.s.s, laying a line of hose to the place, so that at an opportune moment the singers would be drenched and routed. The latter was a favorite plan and most successful.

But to-night a more strict guard than usual had been kept over the battle-scarred pavilion. All that day a committee had been on the watch so that it was thought impossible that any hose could be used or any pits dug.

Now the soph.o.m.ores were beginning to gather in and around the small shelter. They were jubilant, for they began to think they had outwitted their never-ceasing enemies.