growing interest and both knew just
where the coveted canes had been purchased by the duly authorized
committee and hidden till the time should arrive when they were to be
brought stealthily into the village. Their excitement became keener
still when on the evening of the day to which reference has been made
Peter John Schenck burst into Will's room with a report that instantly
aroused his two friends.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE RUSH TO COVENTRY CENTER

"The sophs have found out where the canes are," Peter John almost
shouted.

"They have? How do you know?" demanded Will.

"I was in my bedroom and I heard them talking with Mott in our study
room."

"Who?"

"Tucker, Spencer, and Goodman."

"What did they say?"

"They said the canes were over in Coventry Center, at the minister's
house there."

Coventry Center was a little hamlet about seven miles distant from
Winthrop, and the excited freshmen had indeed stored a part of their
canes in the house of the worthy old minister of the village. They had
frankly explained to him what their purpose was and he had laughingly
consented to receive the coveted possessions in his home and store them
there for the four days that intervened between the time and St.
Patrick's day. And the freshmen had been confident that their
hiding-place would not readily be discovered. No one would suspect that
the parsonage would be selected or the worthy minister would act as a
guard. To make assurance doubly certain, however, only half of the canes
had been entrusted to the minister, and even those were divided--a
bundle containing a dozen being placed in the woodshed and the remaining
being stored beneath the hay in the little loft of the barn. The other
half of the class canes had been taken to a farmhouse a mile distant
from the parsonage and there concealed in an unused well, the mouth of
which was filled with rubbish and the _debris_ of a shed that had been
blown down by a severe windstorm that had occurred a few weeks before
this time.

As the utmost care had been observed by the committee having in charge
the purchase of the canes, and they had stealthily in a stormy night
taken their precious burdens to the two places of concealment they had
been confident, over-confident now it appeared, that their actions had
not been discovered.

Will and Foster had both served on the committee that had purchased and
hidden the canes, and when Peter John brought his unwelcome tidings