wed, Cowan grinning from ear to ear in anticipation of the
victim's discomfiture. In his eagerness he was the first to catch sight
of Neil's face. With a howl of surprise he sprang back, almost
upsetting Baker.

"What's the matter with you?" cried the latter. Cowan made no answer,
but stared stupidly at Neil.

"Eh? What?" Baker sprang forward and wheeled their victim into the
light. Neil turned and faced them smilingly. The four stared in
bewilderment. It was Baker who first found words.

"_Well, I'll--be--hanged_!" he murmured.

Neil turned placidly to the discomfited Cowan.

"You see, Cowan," he said sweetly, "one against a hundred isn't such big
odds, after all, is it?"

CHAPTER IX

THE BROKEN TRICYCLE

As soon as Livingston heard the kidnapers staggering down-stairs with
their burden he unlocked the bed-room door and stole to the window. He
saw Neil, his head hidden by the carriage robe, thrust into the hack and
driven away, and saw the conspirators for whom the vehicle afforded no
room separate and disappear in the gathering darkness. Livingston's
emotions were varied: admiration for Neil's harebrained but successful
ruse, distaste for the sorry part taken by himself in the affair, and
amusement over the coming amazement and discomfiture of the enemy were
mingled. In the end delight in the frustration of the sophomores' plan
gained the ascendency, and he resolved that although Neil would miss the
freshman dinner he should have it made up to him.

And so in his speech an hour or so later Fanwell Livingston told the
astonished company of the attempted kidnaping and of its failure, and
never before had Odd Fellows' Hall rang with such laughter and cheering.
And a little knot of sophomores, already bewildered by the appearance
of the freshman president on the scene, were more than ever at a loss.
They stood under an awning across the street, some twenty or thirty of
them, and asked each other what it meant. Content with the supposed
success of the abduction, they had made no attempt to prevent the
dinner. And now Livingston, who by every law of nature should be five
miles out in the country, was presiding at the feast and moving his
audience to the wildest applause.

"But I helped put him in the hack!" Carey cried over and over.

"And I saw it drive off with him!" marveled another.

"And if that's Livingston, where's Baker, and Morton, and Cowan, and
Dyer?" asked the rest. And all shook their heads a