CONCLUSION
It isn't all play in a High School. A vast amount of study has
to be mastered. There are nerve-racking examinations. It is
a tremendously busy life despite its sport.
So here we would better take leave of Gridley H.S. so far as this
volume is concerned.
It was soon known that, had not Dick & Co. taken their little
walk the robbers would have gotten away with one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars in cash.
As it was, however, all four men were in the police toils, and
they were presently sent to the penitentiary, where they are serving
long terms.
The bank directors _did_ vote to reward the H.S. boys as
individuals, but Dick & Co. and all the upper classmen refused
to accept anything for their own pockets.
In despair, the directors finally hit upon the scheme of subscribing
one thousand dollars to the funds of the Athletics Committee.
The catching of the bank robbers solved the nitroglycerine mystery.
One of the safe-blowing quartette was recognized by the police
as having been in Gridley at the time when that nitroglycerine
package was received at the express office. Had they gotten their
box in safety the robbers would have entered the bank that night,
and there might have been a different story---one of great loss
to the bank.
Fred Ripley? His further story belongs to the following volume.
Dick & Co. went through their freshman year with credit all around.
When next we meet them we shall find them sophomores, with all
the privileges of upper classmen. We shall meet these young sophomores
in a sparkling tale of High School life and doings, ambitions
and work, sports and pastimes. The next volume will be published
under the title: "_The High School Pitcher; or Dick & Co. on the
Gridley Diamond_." This will be a rousing story of baseball in
particular, but likewise replete with other situations of absorbing
interest to all high school boys and girls.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The High School Freshmen, by H. Irving Hancock