On Monday Andy Ryan gave his decision regarding Jake Hiltz’s protest of Gerald in the cross-country trial. Both Hiltz and Gerald were to be retained on the squad.

“That,” explained Andy, “will make thirteen of you instead of twelve, and it ain’t likely that either of you or Hiltz will get in the race with Broadwood, but, of course, something might happen to give you a chance. So you can train with the team or not, just as you like.”

“I’ll keep on,” said Gerald. “If I didn’t fellows might think you believed Hiltz’s story and had put me off.”

“Well, I’m not worrying about what he said,” confided Andy. “Maybe he thought you cut the corner, but——”

“He knows very well I didn’t!” exclaimed Gerald indignantly.

“Well, well, it doesn’t matter,” said the trainer soothingly. “I’ll keep you both. That gives us[61] three substitutes, you and Hiltz and Groom. If anything happens to one of the first ten, then one of you boys will get your chance, and I’ll take the one that shows up best between now and the race, no matter how you finished Saturday.”

That seemed fair enough and Gerald couldn’t object, although he had hoped for a vindication from the trainer. The cross-country squad went to a training table a few days later, for, although the race with Broadwood was more than a month distant, the school had set its heart on winning and Andy meant that it should. There was a run three afternoons a week for varying distances, although it was not until a week before the final contest that the team was sent over the full course. Meanwhile relations between Jake Hiltz and Gerald remained strained. It was embarrassing at first, having to sit right across the table three times a day from Hiltz, but Gerald soon got used to it. For a while Hiltz never wasted an opportunity to nag the younger boy, but the rest of the squad soon got tired of it and came to Gerald’s rescue and Hiltz gave it up. Besides, he had plenty of other troubles by that time.

He was exceedingly angry with Dan for entering the race for committeeman, and, while he was pretty certain of re?lection, he didn’t neglect any[62] chances. He never quite understood how Dan had got ahead of him with Brewster, and when that absent youth replied to his letter by informing him that he had already pledged his vote to Vinton, Hiltz was both astounded and angry. He had always intended seeking re?lection, for the office carried not a little honor with it, but Dan and Arthur were correct in their surmise that it had been his grudge against Gerald which had set him suddenly to work securing pledges. He was quite certain that Gerald would come up again for election to Cambridge, and, since he had defeated him in the spring when his dislike to the millionaire’s son had been general rather than personal, he certainly wasn’t going to let him get in now when he detested him as much as he did. Besides Hiltz’s dislike for Gerald there was also his dislike of Gerald’s sponsors to egg him on. Hiltz envied both Dan and Alf, just as he envied any fellow who had secured honor and popularity denied him, and with Hiltz envy was akin to hate. So, in a way of speaking, he had three reasons for securing re?lection to the Admission Committee and keeping Gerald out of Cambridge.

The election of Admission Committees by the First, Second, and Third Classes was to take place on the first Wednesday in November.[63] Meanwhile Dan and Arthur Thompson were busy. Hiltz had soon learned of Arthur’s defection and had entered him in his bad books also. Murdock had finally agreed to vote for Dan. Brewster, too, was pledged, and Dan had at last persuaded Caspar Lowd to promise him his vote. Therefore, out of twenty-nine votes Dan was practically sure of thirteen, two less than necessary to secure his election.

“I know where you can get one vote,” said Arthur, one day, less than a week before the election.

“Where?” asked Dan eagerly.

Arthur pointed his pencil at Dan. “Why, vote for yourself,” he said. “Why not?”

“Because—” Dan hesitated. “Oh, I don’t like the idea of it.”

“Nonsense! You don’t suppose that Jake will vote for you, do you?”

“No, not much. But, just the same— Besides, I’d still be short a vote, Arthur.”

“Well, if you should find that other vote will you agree to cast your own vote where it’ll do the most good?”

“I’ll think it over,” answered Dan. “I don’t suppose there’s any good reason why I shouldn’t.”

“Of course there isn’t! It’s only a matter of[64] courtesy to vote for your opponent, and you certainly don’t owe any courtesy to Jake Hiltz.”

“I’ll think about it; and I’ll ask Alf and Tom what they think.”

“All right. If only we could get Hammel to change his mind; or Simms.”

“I don’t want Simms’s vote,” said Dan.

“Oh, shucks, a vote’s a vote, isn’t it? Besides, you haven’t anything against Simms, have you?”

“No, but I know pretty well that he doesn’t like me, and so I don’t want him to vote for me.”

“Personal likes and dislikes,” quoth Arthur oracularly, “shouldn’t enter into politics.”

“But I fancy they do a good deal,” laughed Dan. “What time do the elections come off?”

“Three to three-fifteen in Oxford F. And we’ve got to do some hustling that day and see that our constituents get to the polls. Gee, if a couple of Jake’s henchmen failed to show up in time to vote it would help a lot, wouldn’t it? But they won’t; Jake will be right after them. And so must we be. I wonder if we ought to provide carriages for our voters.”

“We might get Gerald to loan us his father’s automobile,” laughed Dan. “It’s down there at Sound View not doing a thing.”

“Say, that would make a hit, wouldn’t it?[65] Maybe if we could tell some of Jake’s supporters that if they voted for you they’d be taken from their rooms to Oxford in an automobile, we could land the election for you!”

“I guess that’s the only way we can land it,” said Dan dubiously. “I’m going to talk things over with Alf. He was cut out for a politician. Want to come along?”

“Can’t; I have to study a bit. I’ll look in to-morrow. There goes Gerald. I wonder if he knows what a mint of trouble you’re taking to get him elected to Cambridge.”

“I fancy he suspects,” said Dan, with a smile. “He isn’t a fool, Gerald isn’t. Well, see you to-morrow then. So long, Arthur. Thanks for taking so much trouble for me. I’ll try and do something for you some day to make up.”

“Pshaw, you don’t need to! I like it! I only hope we succeed, that’s all.”

They got up from where they had been sitting on the steps of Whitson and Arthur rattled upstairs to his room while Dan went across the Yard to Dudley. Alf’s and Tom’s room was on the ground floor and so it wasn’t necessary to enter the building in order to discover whether they were at home. Dan simply put his head in at the open window.

[66]

“Anyone in?” he asked.

“No, we’re both out,” replied Tom, from the window seat, making a grab for Dan and just missing. Dan looked carefully about the Yard and then swung himself in through the casement, trampling on Tom and bringing a groan of protest from that recumbent youth.

“If faculty sees you do that,” remonstrated Alf from the table, “you’ll get fits.”

“What faculty doesn’t see won’t hurt them,” returned Dan. “What’s happened to your nose, Alf?”

“Haven’t you seen this before?” inquired Alf, feeling gingerly of the strip of plaster that marred the beauty of his countenance. “I got that yesterday in practice. I think Tom handed it to me, although he pretends he didn’t. All I know is that he mistook me for the second once and tried to lay me out.”

“Didn’t,” growled Tom. “You got mixed on your signals, as per usual, and got in the way.”

“Isn’t broken, is it?” asked Dan anxiously.

“No, just gouged out a bit, and rather swelly. What’s new?”

“Nothing, I guess. But I wanted to ask you fellows something.”

“You have come to the right place for knowledge,”[67] said Alf cheerfully. “We are the Oracle Brothers.”

“Well, see here, would it be all right for me to vote for myself next Wednesday?”

“If you can’t find a good candidate,” responded Alf gravely.

“Oh, shut up! I’m in earnest. I’m short two votes as it stands now and Thompson says I ought to agree to vote for myself if we can get hold of another vote anywhere.”

“Of course you ought,” said Alf. “What beastly nonsense! Why not?”

“Well, it isn’t done generally, is it?”

“Sometimes it isn’t, but I guess that’s only when the candidate is sure of his election.”

“What do you think, Tom?”

“I say vote for whoever you want elected, no matter whether it’s you or another chap. Your vote’s as good as anyone’s and you might as well have it. If I were you I’d vote for Thompson and Vinton.”

“Honest?”

“Honest.”

“Well, I guess I will, then—that is, if I can find the other vote. If I can’t it won’t matter who I vote for.”

“Still shy one?” asked Alf. “Can’t you induce[68] any of Hiltz’s followers to change their minds?”

“I think plenty of them would like to, but Hiltz made them promise—cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die, you know—that they’d vote for him. Naturally they don’t like to break their promises.”

“Well, accidents have happened,” said Alf. “Some fellow may forget to show up, or be sick, or break a leg, or something on Wednesday.”

“Jake will see that none of those things happen to his voters. If any fellow breaks his leg I’ll bet it will be one of mine.”

“One of your legs?”

“Voters, you idiot.”

“What time does the election come off?” asked Tom, laying aside his book.

“Three to three-fifteen on Wednesday, Tom.”

“Polls close promptly at three-fifteen, do they?”

“I suppose so,” said Dan.

“You want to insist that they shall,” said Alf. “Unless, of course, one of your voters is late.”

“Who are some of the fellows promised to Hiltz?” continued Tom, looking dreamily out of the window. Dan ran over a dozen of them and Tom nodded now and then.

“Look here,” he said finally, “I want you to[69] promise me something, Dan. Promise me to vote for yourself whether you get that other vote or not. Will you? You see, you can’t tell until the count how many votes you’ve got, and you’d feel pretty sore afterwards if you discovered that you’d missed it by one vote that you might have given yourself.”

“That’s so, Dan,” agreed Alf. “You’d better do it anyway.”

“All right, I will.”

“And, Dan,” went on Tom sleepily as he took up his book again, “let me know Wednesday morning how things stand, will you?”

“Yes, if I don’t forget.”

“Just try and remember. I—I’m awfully interested in school politics and—er—elections and—” His voice died away. Dan smiled across at Alf, but Alf was regarding Tom with a puzzled, thoughtful expression on his face.