That night, as Tessibel slept and dreamed of Frederick, another girl
waited for her lover. Teola Graves watched for the approach of Dan
Jordan with strange emotions. When he was with her, his great strength
and constant assurances that everything would go rightly with them gave
the girl courage and confidence. But in the night-watches, when youthful
sleep refused to come, she was afraid--afraid!
She stood just outside the door, upon the veranda, shrinking from the
raw winter wind. Relievedly she noticed Dan's tall form, when he swung
around the corner.
"You should not stand in the night wind, dear," Dan chided, gently
kissing her. "There! now, I have come for a good chat. Teola, do not
look so sad--please."
The little drawing-room in the Rectory was partially dark when they
seated themselves on the divan.
"I am so unhappy Dan; so different from what I used to be. Then, life
was sweet and I was glad to live--"
"But you don't want to be dead now, sweetheart!--Think of it, Teola.
When I shall have finished college, I shall be of age. We will go away
from Ithaca, and no one will ever know--"
"But we shall know, Dan. If I had only been a good girl!"
Dan was visibly moved.
"Let's make a bargain," said he suddenly. "To-night we won't talk of
anything but the pleasantest of things. I have something funny to tell
you."
"I have something to tell you, too," breathed Teola.
"Is it pleasant?" demanded the boy, bending and forcing the lowered eyes
to his.
Teola shook her head.
"Then we will leave it until to-morrow," he exclaimed. "I'll tell you my
news. Shorts, Spuddy and Swipes are in disgrace at the fraternity. If
Shorts would keep away from those other two fellows, he might get
through college. It was really their fault Frederick was stolen."
"What have they done now?" asked Teola listlessly. She had little
interest in the boys of the society, for, nestled close to her heart,
was a secret she could not forget. She had a realization that something
unusual had fallen upon her of which she was afraid.
"Well, you see," explained Dan, "there is a comic opera playing here.
This afternoon, Swipes, Shorts and Spuddy took some of the chorus girls
to the house, when the other fellows were away. They might have known
the officers would have found it out. Sure enough, they did! The little
rascals were all drunk on champagne, and the girls had to be sent to
their hotels in carriages. The kids received a great beating, let me
tell you. They are all in bed, in the cupola prison rooms, trying to get
over big heads."
Teola wanted to smile, to be happy, but the smiles refused to come. Dan
turned the subject.
"Haven't they gathered a deal of money for Skinner?"
Teola nodded, and presently responded,
"Yes, and father thinks it is so strange. Mrs. Hall and Professor Young
were at the bottom of the plan. They think the Skinner girl is a great
marvel. I, too, think she is beautiful--and so does Frederick."
"She has a lot of courage," mused Dan, thinking of the girl who had
rescued the class president from the hands of his enemies. Teola knew
nothing of this episode, for Frederick had asked him to be silent upon
it.
"Your father does not wish the man liberated?" The question in Dan's
voice brought a flush to Teola's pale face.
"No; he thinks the tribe is a menace to the town, and he is sure the man
is guilty. They do tell dreadful things of them, and I can't help but
believe some of the tales, although I feel sorry for the girl. But her
coming to the toffy pull that night made a great deal of trouble for
brother and me."
"So I supposed. But I love you, Teola, for the manner in which you
treated her."
Teola straightened herself from her lover's arms, and was about to
speak. She would tell him, then, tell him her secret--tell all the fears
that weighed upon her heart, as if they were loaded with lead. He would
comfort, and tell her not to worry--cheer her, until she could smile
again and be happy.
* * * * *
Shorts, Swipes and Spuddy had broken the laws of the fraternity. Rather
than suffer the disgrace of leaving it, they had elected a severe
punishment.
"I'd rather be cut to pieces, boys," Swipes hiccoughed, turning upon the
grave seniors, "than let my mother know what a beast I've been. Go ahead
and lick!"
Afterward, the three little freshmen slunk to the rooms in the top of
the Society house, which were kept ready for young men whom the officers
reprimanded. They had been ordered to bed for three days, and were
thankful that the punishment had been no worse than it was.
Swipes demanded a cigarette.
"Go to sleep," ordered Shorts. "It was all your fault in the beginning,
and you're drunk."
"No such thing! I couldn't haul a whole bunch of girls up here alone,
could I, if I'm drunk! Could I, now? I wish there wasn't any such a
being in the world as a woman.... They bring heaps of trouble on us poor
men."
Saying this, Swipes tumbled into bed, and sank into a stupor.
* * * * *
The cry of "Fire!" rang out upon the night air, startling Dan Jordan and
Teola Graves. The volunteer fire companies were gathering from all parts
of the town, and Dan stepped on to the Rectory veranda as a hose-cart
rolled by. In an instant he was back in the drawing-room.
"Sweetheart, sweetheart," said he, with a strangling kiss upon Teola's
pale lips, "I am sure it's our fraternity house. I must go, dear. I
must, I must!"
He pressed her to him again, bounded through the door and was gone.
"Dan! Dan!" exclaimed Teola. "Dan, come back! I have something to tell
you ... I'm so--afraid--so afraid!"
* * * * *
Teola stood watching the yellow flames kiss the sky. The whole campus
gleamed under the lurid glare of the fraternity fire; the light in the
heavens told her that it was no ordinary conflagration.
Until the day of her death she would not forget that night. She was
longing to hear one word from Dan or Frederick. Her world seemed charged
with hideous forces hitherto unfelt. Teola sickened, and waited. If Dan
would only come back!
* * * * *
The very moment after he had fallen asleep, it seemed to Swipes, Shorts
was pulling him out of bed, and the room was full of smoke. Spuddy was
sleeping in the next chamber, and the first sound came to him in a
haze-like dream. He thought he heard a roar of thunder, and rain
descending upon the roof. Never mind. He was safe in bed, and had just
escaped expulsion from his fraternity. As he rubbed his aching head, a
dazed resolution took form in his brain. He would never get drunk
again--never--never! Then the fumes of the wine brought visions of
bright-colored dresses, of pretty faces and tender loving arms, such as
his father had told him to beware of. He would toss such joys from him,
if it brought him--Spuddy groaned, turned in bed, and tried to wake up.
But to wake up was to realize his disgrace. He groaned again, a sharp
pain ripping through his head. He heard the sound of voices--he was
dreaming, of course; the wine floated fantastic visions again through
his misty brain, relieving it of the effort of thinking. Then Shorts'
voice rang in his ear.
"For the love of God, Spud, get up! The house is on fire, and we're
boxed in this cupola like rats in a trap."
Spuddy sprang out of bed. The thunder he had dreamed of was the roar of
the fire in the walls of the great house. The rain descending on the
roof was the water being thrown from the long fire-hose. A strong stream
of ice-cold water suddenly broke the window, driving Swipes against the
wall. He whimpered drunkenly.
"Plagued fire! 'Course the house had to burn down on a night like this!"
Screams and cries from the crazed mob below came up to the boys through
the broken pane. The water ceased its flow, and Shorts, the most sober
of the three, crept to the opening. Spuddy had crawled back to bed. Far
beneath him, Shorts could see his fraternity brothers running wildly to
and fro, frantically waving their arms to him. He could hear orders
given in loud tones, and recognized the voices of Frederick Graves and
Dan Jordan. It all flashed upon Shorts in a moment how greatly he and
his chums were to blame for the disaster, for the fire must have started
in the dining-room. He thrust his head through the lurid gleam to
attract attention, and saw the men and boys in the yard bringing ladders
to rescue them. Now they were splicing them together, to make it
possible to reach the great height. Shorts made quick resolves.... If he
lived.... He turned with a groan, and dragged Spuddy from the bed to the
open window.
"Stay there, and be ready, if you don't want to die," he commanded
curtly.
Shorts saw the ladder rear upward, and a form dart from the shadows. Dan
Jordan was coming, hand over hand, toward him, the long ladder creaking
under his weight. Jordan's face appeared at the opening.
"Come out here," he commanded Shorts.
Shorts pushed Spuddy forward.
"Take him first, Captain," he said, with a twist in his voice. "He's
drunk."
Spuddy hung limp on the window-sill for an instant, and was then
gathered into Dan's long arms. Shorts' bleared eyes saw the little chap
handed safely to the earth, and the ladder again creaked under the
upward steps of the big freshman. Shorts pushed Swipes toward the window
as Dan called his name.... Now he was alone, and he leaned as far out as
he could.
"God! God!" he groaned. "The Captain's face is scorched brown.... God!
dear God, bless him!"
The crowds below were sending up cheer after cheer; myriads of sparks
shot rocket-like high into the air, dying in the snow as they fell.
Streams of water poured into the flaming windows. Jordan was coming up
again.
"Come out, Shorts," he heard Dan say, and he clambered over the sill.
"Slip into my arms, old man," the deep voice persuaded. "Come, now; let
go.... There, hang limper.... You're heavier than the others."
He felt Dan take a downward step, and his head whirled around and
around. They passed window after window, Shorts being carefully held
under Dan's arm. Flames licked at them greedily, touching and shriveling
their flesh. Smoke choked their nostrils cruelly. Shorts could feel the
trembling of Dan's body, as his burned fingers grasped each rung of the
ladder. To his mind the figures below looked like goblins dancing in the
light.
Suddenly, midway to the ground, the ladder creaked and groaned
hideously. Jordan halted.
"The ladder is bending, Shorts," he breathed hoarsely. He did not
finish his sentence, but shouted,
"Catch him!"
Little Brown shot into the air like a rubber ball.... A crashing sound
broke over the silent, gaping throng below. Then a giant form turned
twice in the air, shooting downward like a stone from a sling.... The
crowd parted, and Dan Jordan struck the frozen ground. His fraternity
brothers lifted up the unconscious boy, and the great roof above, with a
sickening din, sank into the fire.
The bitter frost hardened the streams of water pouring from holes in the
burning house into ropes of ice. Toward morning, the fire died, leaving
the huge frame, like an ice-covered palace, looming darkly against the
college hill.
* * * * *
In another fraternity house, Shorts was in bed, face and hands swathed
in bandages. Swipes and Spuddy, tear-stained and pale, stood by the
door, waiting.
"If only they would come and tell us something!" moaned Spuddy. "Boys,
if the Captain goes, I'm done for."
"We'll make it all right with him," came hopefully from Shorts. "He
can't die, fellows! He's as strong as a horse. If he hadn't thrown me
out into that snow pile, I would have been crushed under him. I'll never
forget that in all my life," he finished, with a shudder.
"Gad, but he looked dead when they picked him up," said Swipes in
despair. "I'm done for, too, if--if.... Here comes some one! It's
Teddy!"
He stepped aside, and Manchester, entering deliberately, closed the
door. Then he sat down dazedly.
"He's gone, boys. The Captain's gone." The words came in a stammer
through pressed lips.
"I wish it had been I," muttered Swipes brokenly, when they were alone
again. "It was all my fault." He burst into a wild sobbing. "I'd give my
very life to have heard--the Captain--say he had forgiven me."
"I was more to blame than you were," replied Spuddy. "My mother.... God!
look at that sun!"
Bright rays slanted golden through the window upon the three woful
little freshmen who had ruined the "Cranium" Society.