CHAPTER XII
PLANNING A PICNIC
When Dutch returned, after an absence of about half an hour, he seemedin considerable of a hurry. He went directly to the window, out of whichthere stretched away in the darkness the tight wire, and from thecasement dropped a cord. Then he gave a whistling signal, which wasanswered. Dutch began to haul up on the cord.
"Say, look here!" burst out Phil. "What's up, anyhow? Let us in on thejoke, as long as you're using our room to work it from."
"Sure," agreed Dutch. "It's all ready now, as soon as I get the cordSnail Looper is fastening to this one."
He hauled up a thin but strong rope, and once more gave some whistlingsignals. Then he closed down the window.
"Now we'll have to wait about an hour," he explained, "but I'll tell youwhat's up. You know the proctor has been unusually officious of late,and several of us have suffered."
Sid nodded appreciatively.
"Well," resumed Dutch, "some of us have rigged up an effigy, in the shapeof a student in a dress suit, and at this moment the said imitationstudent is strung on this wire, which extends from your window across thecampus, to the clump of elms just beyond Booker Memorial chapel. Theeffigy is a sort of trolley car, and this is the wire. This cord, which Ijust hauled up is also attached to the figure. Now at the proper time,when Proc. Zane goes out to catch some poor chap, who has been off to seehis best girl, and has stayed too late, I'll pull this string, the figurewill slide along the wire, with the feet just touching the ground, andthe proctor thinking it is a student, will rush up to identify him. Therewill be something interesting when the two meet," and Dutch began tochuckle.
"But how can we see it?" asked Tom. "It's as dark as a pocket to-night."
"All the better. The fellows hidden in the clump of elms have anautomobile search light, which they will turn on at the proper moment.Do you catch on?"
"Wow! It's rich!" cried Phil.
"All to the mustard and the spoon, too!" decided Tom.
"A lallapaloosa!" was Sid's comment.
"And not a bit of danger," added Dutch. "As soon as the search lightflashes on the scene, and the proctor is made aware of the joke, I'llcut the wire from your window, it will fall to the ground, be hauled inby the fellows in the elms, together with the figure, and not a bit ofevidence will remain."
"Great!" commented Tom. "But how can you be sure that the proctor willbe out there?"
"Oh, we've arranged for that. Snail and Holly took pains to converse,rather loudly, in Mr. Zane's hearing to-night, though they pretended notto see him. They intimated that they might try to sneak in about eleveno'clock."
"Then the trick comes off then?" asked Phil.
"Exactly. We've got half an hour yet."
The students sat and talked of many things while waiting, chieflybaseball, until a slight vibration of the wire and a tug of the cordwarned them that the time for action had arrived. Dutch explained thathe had arranged a code of signals with his chums so that he knew when tohaul in on the cord which would pull the stuffed figure along the wire.
"There it goes!" he whispered finally. "Now watch the fun!"
He began to haul, and the sagging of the wire told of a weight on it.Listening, as they peered from the window into the darkness, Tom andhis friends could hear some one running across the campus. Then came achallenge.
"Stop, if you please, sir! I see you, and it is useless to try and sneakinto college at this hour! I demand your name, sir!"
"That's Zane!" whispered Phil.
A moment later the wire was violently agitated.
"He's caught him!" exclaimed Dutch. "Why don't they turn on the light,so he can see it's only a stuffed scarecrow?"
At that instant a dazzling pencil of light cut the air, wavered arounduncertainly, and then was focused on a queer sight. The dignifiedproctor of Randall College held in his embrace the swaying figure of aneffigy, attired in full evening dress, but with a caricature of a face.The image swayed from the overhead wire, and the proctor cried out:
"It is disgraceful, sir! I believe you are intoxicated! You will beexpelled for this!"
Then, as the light suddenly became brighter the official was made awarethat what he had grasped was only rags and straw in a dress suit. Sobright was the light that the amazed anger on the proctor's face wasplainly depicted. Suddenly Mr. Zane leaped back from the image, lookedup and saw the wire, and darted for the clump of elms, toward which itextended.
"Why don't they turn off that light?" demanded Dutch, anxiously, and, asthough in answer, it went out. Hurriedly he cut the wire, and closed thewindow.
"It worked like a charm," he said. "Mum's the word now."
What happened outside in the darkness Tom and his chums could not see,but later they learned that the image and wire was safely hauled out ofsight, and the students escaped from the group of trees before theproctor got there. Of course he made diligent efforts to find out whohad played the trick, but it was useless.
"That puts us in good humor for the game to-morrow," observed Tom, as,chuckling, he and his chums went to bed. But if they had known whatwas in store for them on the morrow, they would not have slept sopeacefully.
For they suffered a severe drubbing at the hands of Fairview Institutewhen they met that nine on the diamond the next afternoon. How ithappened they did not like to think of afterward, but it was mainly dueto poor fielding. Tom pitched well, and Sid made some good hits, but hisfoot went back on him, even in the short spurt to first. Then, too,Dutch and Holly, usually to be depended on, disgraced themselves bymaking almost inexcusable errors.
Nor was Fairview's playing anything to boast of, aside from the work ofthe battery. It was just one of those occasions when both teams seem togo stale, and probably on the part of Randall the prank of the nightbefore, which kept several members of the team up late, had not a littleto do with it. Sufficient to say, that though Tom managed to whip hismen into some kind of shape for the last three innings it was too late,and they went down to defeat by a score of 3 to 10.
"And the girls watching us, too!" groaned Phil, as they were changingtheir clothes after the game.
"Are you going to see them when we get washed up?" asked Sid eagerly.
"I don't feel much like it," grumbled Tom, but, somehow, he and Phil didmanage to gravitate to where Madge Tyler and Ruth Clinton were standing.Sid followed at a discreet distance, but when he saw Miss Harrisonstrolling about the grounds with Langridge, the second baseman took atrolley car for home.
Tom and Sid had to stand considerable chaffing on the part of their twopretty companions, but they didn't mind so much, and Tom declared thathis team was only practicing, and would eventually win the championship,and the gold loving cup.
"Oh, by the way," remarked Phil, at parting, "Ruth, don't you and MissTyler want to come to our doings next week?"
"What doings?" asked his sister. "See you defeated at baseball again, orgo to a fraternity dance?"
"Something on the order of the latter," replied her brother, making awry face. "The sophs are going to have a little picnic on Crest Island,in Tonoka Lake, next Wednesday, and it will be one swell affair. Regularold-fashioned picnic--basket lunches, ants in the butter, snakes underthe leaves, and all that. Holly Cross thought it up, and it's great!"
"What a wonderful brain he must have," said Miss Tyler, with a deliciouslaugh. "But it sounds nice. What do you say, Ruth? Shall we go?"
"I will, if you will. But--er--Mabel----" She looked questioninglytoward her chum, who was strolling with Langridge.
"Oh, bring her along," invited Phil. "This is an old-fashioned affair,and no special person will bring any one else. Tom and Sid and I willlook after you girls."
"But, Phil, you forget that Mr. Henderson and Mabel----" began Ruth.
"Oh, hang it all, don't let that matter," spoke Phil. "I dare say Sidwon't be around. As soon as he gets in the woods or fields he's alwaysafter bugs or animals--he's a naturalist, you know."
"I should say s
o," agreed Tom. "Remember last fall how he went out aftera picture of a fox, and got stuck in the bog, and how Zane caught him,all covered with mud, and thought poor Sid was a thief, and how wepretended we didn't know our own chum, when the proctor brought him toour room for identification? Remember that, Phil?"
"I should say I did. Well, that's probably what Sid will do this time,so Miss Harrison needn't worry about having to accept him as an escort,though for the life of me I can't understand what's up between her andSid?" and Phil looked questioningly at his sister.
"We don't know, either," answered Ruth, "except that Mabel is verymiserable over it."
"She can't be taking it very hard, when I see her off with that chump,Langridge," retorted Phil.
"Yes, I'm sorry she goes with him," retorted Madge Tyler. "But she won'tlisten to us. However, to change the subject--are we to go to thepicnic, Ruth?"
"Oh, I guess so. How will we get there, Phil?"
"Tom and I will come for you, we'll go to the summer resort on the westshore of the lake, and row to the island. It will be sport. Now pray forgood weather."
"And you boys pray that there aren't any snakes," added Miss Tyler.
"Nor ants in the butter," went on Ruth, as the boys bade the girlsgood-by.