bantering had fallen
flat.

"Oh, well," gaped Dowdell, gazing out of the window near which
he stood, "I know one important fact about the mystery."

"What's that?" asked half a dozen quickly.

"None of the five hundred is destined to come my way.

"That jest saddens a lot of us with the same conviction," muttered
Ted Butler, shaking his head.

"But this I _do_ know," continued Dowdell, "if the weather continues
cold there'll be some elegant skating before the week is out."

Gridley did not slumber over the nitroglycerine mystery. Len
Spencer, though he could gain no actual information, managed to
have something interesting on the subject in each morning's "Blade."
The people of Gridley talked of the mystery everywhere.

There was one other mild sensation this week that lasted for a
part of a day. Tip Scammon came up for his trial. He pleaded
guilty to the thefts from the High School locker room, and also
guilty to the charge of entering the Prescott rooms in order to
hide his loot in Dick's trunk. By way of leniency toward a first
offender the court let Tip off with a sentence of fourteen months
in the penitentiary. This sentence, by good behavior on the part
of Tip, would shrink to ten months of actual imprisonment.

In every way the police and the prosecuting attorney tried to
make Tip reveal the name of his confederate. But Tip, for reasons
of his own, maintained absolute, dogged silence on this head,
and went to the penitentiary without having named the person who
met him in the alleyway that evening when Tip himself was caught.

The promise of skating was made good. Wednesday afternoon it
was discovered that the ice in Gaylor's Cove was in splendid condition,
and strong enough to bear.

Thursday a series of High School racing contests were planned
for Saturday afternoon. There was so much money left over in
the Athletics Committee's treasury that it was voted to offer
a series of individual trophies for boy and girl skaters in different
events.

Moreover, in these skating events members of the freshman class
were to be allowed to compete.

"Now, see here, fellows," urged Dick, when he had gotten his partners
aside, "some of the freshman class ought to be winners of some
of the events. We want to give our class a good name. And, out
of the six of us, there ought to be one winner for something.
I wish you'd all do your best to get in shape. You'll all go
over to the cove with me this aft