.

"Hello there, Dink."

"Hello yourself."

"Come over to the Woodhull and meet my family."

"What!" said Dink in consternation.

"They're over for the game. Hurry up now and help me out!"

Dink tried frantically to call him back, but Tough, as though to shut
off a refusal, disappeared around the house. Dink returned to the room
in a rage.

"What's the matter?" said the Tennessee Shad.

"I've got to go over and meet a lot of women," said Dink in disgust.
"Confound Tough McCarty! That's a rotten trick to play on me. I'll
wring his neck!"

"Go on now, make yourself beautiful!" said the Tennessee Shad,
delighted. "Remember the whole school will be watching you."

"Shut up!" said Dink savagely, making the grand toilet, which
consisted in putting on a high collar, exchanging his belt for a pair
of suspenders and donning a pair of patent-leathers. "The place for
women is at home! It's an outrage!"

He tied his necktie with a vicious lunge, ran the comb once through
the tangled hair, glanced at his hands, decided that they would pass
muster, slapped on his hat and went out, kicking the door open.

At the Woodhull, Tough hailed him from his window. Dink went up, bored
and rebellious. The door opened, he found himself in Tough McCarty's
room in the vortex of a crowd of fellow-sufferers. Over by the
window-seat two fluffy figures, with skirts and hats on, were seated.
He shook hands with both; one was Mrs. McCarty, the other was the
daughter, he wasn't quite sure which. He said something about the
delight which the meeting afforded him, and, gravitating into a
corner, fell upon Butsey White, with whom he gravely shook hands.

"Isn't this awful?" said Butsey in a confidential whisper.

"Frightful!"

"What the deuce's got into Tough?"

"It's a rotten trick!"

"Let's hook it."

"All right. Slide toward the door."

But at this moment, when deliverance seemed near, Tough bore down and,
taking Stover by the arm, drew him aside.

"I say, stick by me on this, old man," he said desperately. "Take 'em
to the game with me, will you?"

"To the game!" cried Dink in horror. "Oh, Tough, come now, I say, I'm
no fusser. I'm tongue-tied and pigeon-toed. Oh, I say, old man, do get
some one else!"

But as Tough McCarty kept a firm grip on the lapel of his coat Dink
suddenly found himself, with the departure of the other guests, a
helpless captive. The first painful scraps of conversation passed in a
blur. Before he kne