ght was unbroken.
He was becoming chilled and he dared not remain longer where he was. At
last he decided to return to the place where he had left his own
classmates and report to them what he had seen.

Hastily withdrawing from his shelter he ran swiftly across the fields
until he came to the corner, and then whistling softly was rejoiced when
he perceived his friends rise from the ground in an angle of the crooked
fence and advance to meet him.

"Is that you, Will?" said Foster in a low voice. "We didn't know what
had become of you. What's up? What's wrong?"

Will hastily described what he had seen and then said, "I'm dead sure,
fellows, that that soph has been left in the barn to watch those canes."

"Why didn't you run away with the horse and sleigh?" inquired Hawley.

"I did think of trying it. But I made up my mind that even if I should
succeed in doing it, it would give the whole thing away. They'd know
that we'd found out where they had hidden our canes and there wouldn't
be much use in our trying to get them again. Now we know where they are
and the sophs don't even know that we know."

"You mean you think they don't know that we know," suggested Foster.

"I know it!" asserted Will positively. "Now what shall we do?"

"Put straight back to the barn, tie up the soph and take the canes away
with us," said Hawley promptly.

"I've thought of that," replied Will. "But do you think that's the best
plan? If we take the canes away we may lose them, for St. Patrick's Day
isn't till day after to-morrow, you know. If this soph, I don't know who
he is, has been left as guard he'll be relieved, and if they find he's
gone and the canes too, why it'll be all the harder for us."

"What do you suggest, Phelps?" inquired Hawley.

"How will this do? Some one of us can creep back there into the barn and
keep watch the same as the soph is doing. He can be relieved in the
morning and then some one else can take his place. If anything happens
in the barn he'll be pretty likely to know it, and if anything doesn't
happen then we can get up a good-sized crowd and go down there to-morrow
night and get the canes. We can distribute them among our fellows and
then the next morning every fellow in the class can march into chapel
with his cane."

"Good! Good! That's the idea!" said Hawley warmly. "Who'll go down in
the barn and be guard for the night?"

"Who's got the most cuts to spare?" inquired Will.

"I have," said Foster