University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.
ON THE EDGE OF IT.

Time was going on: the dark evening was drawing
near, and with it that chill was closing in, which seems
to wait a little way off for twilight. The shouts and
cries of boys engaged, not far away, “at shinney” or
“hockey,” came round the corner of the house, while
Brade stood anxiously on watch, and Remsen impatiently
coaxed the utmost out of the hose. Just as the
quarter-bell before tea began to ring, Remsen gave
a shout of success, to which Brade answered.

Towne had not stopped to look on at hockey, but had
with all his might, and with his friend behind him, gone
in for a share in that eager play. With no fear of consequences,
he rushed into the thick of the game, while
Wilkins, acting like a fellow who had knowledge
enough of anatomy to know where his own shins were,
and had sense enough to take care of them, kept well
outside.

On his way to the wash-room, and afterward, on his
way to tea, Towne was a little noisy and exultant over
some “high old time” that he was going to have. He
and Wilkins each got a few “lines” for disorder at the
table; and in the school-room, after tea, “lines” fell
upon them and others of their allies from time to time,
for idleness and whispering, and passing notes; and

when, at last, the signal for First Bedtime was given,
Towne and Wilkins and Fatty Dover were all called
back and received a few more lines for disorder in
hurrying out of the school-room.

“Never mind, fellows,” said Towne, partly in a loud
whisper, and partly in a low voice, as he saw the coast
clear of the departing tutor, “now for it! You, Fatty,
must get your dress on as soon as the light's out in the
dormitory, and tutor all gone. I'll give the signal this
way: `Ahem! ahem!' You'll have to be listening, for
it won't be loud, but just the way you heard, — `ahem!
ahem!' Nobody'll ever suspect that;” and, to do him
justice, the signal had a very innocent sound. But
Fatty Dover was in a condition to need stiffening. He
did not seem to himself at all calculated to carry out
the chief part.

“'Tain't the chief part,” said Towne; and as Dover
objected that Towne had told him it was, he was
assured by the leader that “it was the principal part,
but it hadn't got any talking, and it wa'n't dangerous,
for he, the leader, was to be in there, and he was the
only one that had got any thing to say.”

The irresolute subordinate objected that “it was
close by Mr. Cornell's door.”

“Do you s'pose I haven't looked out for that?” asked
Towne, scornfully. “What sort of a fellow should I
be to manage things, if I didn't know enough to look
out for that? Mr. Cornell's going out, and he's going
to be out the whole evening. I heard him say so to
Mr. Bruce.”

“So did I,” said Wilkins. Others confirmed this
statement.

“You've only got to be spunky!” said Wilkins, whose

blood of generations was in a glow. “Why, I've got
to be peekin' out all the time, and that's more dangerous
than any thing else, ain't it, Towne?”

Without heeding this question, in the press of his
duties, Towne gave or repeated his hurried directions.
“There's the five-minute bell!” said he. “Now remember!
You, Fatty, get ready, as soon as the lamp goes
out, and start out when I give the signal, and come
right to Brade's alcove; and, Wilkins, you come out by
Mr. Cornell's door, and watch; and, if you hear any
stirring, ask if you may go and get a drink; and,
Fatty, that's the signal; quick's you hear that, follow
me right out the window, and then shut the window
down, and along the roof, just the way we've been
doing; and, Leavitt, you and Ransom have got to make
sure and light a light in the wash-room, as quick as the
tutor's gone, and be washing away there like every
thing, — all over your heads. There! there!” said he,
summarily bringing his instructions to an end, as the
tutor called out, “Towne! Dover! Wilkins! Ransom!
Leavitt! Tarleton! late!”

Towne tried the persuasiveness of words, and began
pleading that “he had had something very particular
to say to those boys, and they didn't know how time
went.” But this well-devised though not strictly original
phrase fell flat, and answered no good purpose:
the leader and his followers were hurried away to their
alcoves, and left to find comfort in the coming success
of their scheme. In due course the lamp was put out,
and the tutor departed.