This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
TOM IS KIDNAPPED
239

"Not as funny as what your uncle might have said," remarked Sid, who some time previously had planned to have his chums give this signal of disapproval the moment Ford mentioned his relative.

"Well, I guess it's all understood," went on Dutch. 'We'll have a sort of go-as-you-please affair until we get to the hall in Haddonfield."

"I hear Langridge isn't coming," said Ford.

"Who told you?" asked Sid.

"Why, he did. I asked him if he was going to be on hand, and I told him about a dinner where my uncle said——"

"I guess he doesn't want to come because he is afraid your uncle will be there," declared Tom with a good-natured laugh.

"More likely because the dinner isn't going to be sporty enough for him," was the opinion of Dutch. "Well, we don't want anybody that doesn't want to come. But I've got to go and at tend to some loose ends. Now mind, mum's the word, fellows, not only as regards talk, but don't act so as to give the sophs a clue. See you later," and he hurried off.

Few in the freshman class did themselves justice in recitations that day from too much thinking about the fun they would have at the dinner that night. Even Tom fell below his usual standard, and as for Sid, his rendering of Virgil was some-