"Well, that"s funny!" exclaimed Frank.
"Isn"t it?" returned Page. "I got on to the thing wholly by accident.
When I was hanging up some of the things there I stumbled and caught hold of that little projection for support.
"The thing turned in my hand, and the first thing I knew the door was open. It opened a little hard, showing that the thing hadn"t been used for a long time."
"Didn"t the owner of the house speak of it?"
"I don"t think he knows anything about it."
"Have you told him?"
"Not much!"
"Why not?"
"Well, because it just struck me that such a place as this was a kind of a secret worth keeping. You can see for yourself that it was the evident intention of the person who set up this door that it should be a secret.
The hinges are perfectly concealed, and it has been fitted in and the edges painted in such a way that only the closest inspection would give a fellow a suspicion that there was any opening there."
At this moment there was a knock, and Browning came in.
"I thought you were coming next week?" exclaimed Page.
"Well, I found I"d nothing better to do than run down here. What"s that you"re looking at?"
The boys explained the matter to him, and in his slow way he admitted that if they were soph.o.m.ores it would be quite possible to utilize this secret door in the course of hazing freshmen.
"As we"re not in the hazing business now," he said, "I can"t see any use for the place, Page, except for you to hide in when your creditors call."
"Huh!" retorted Page, "it"s my habit to keep my bills paid."
"It"ll make you unpopular if the fellows know that."
"I was telling Page," said Merriwell, "that if I had the room I"d take down that door entirely, get some andirons and burn a log of wood on a winter evening."
"That"s a good scheme," returned Browning, "but if I should do anything of that kind I should never get a stroke of work done here; this room was never meant to study in, but it"s an ideal loafing place."
With this he threw himself upon one of the window seats and looked out.
The others took places on the other windows and for a few minutes their conversation turned upon college topics.
Then Browning, who was a little restless, as most students are immediately after a vacation, said he would have to be going. Page urged him to wait, but he shook his head.
"By the way," he said, with his hand upon the door, "I"ve got some news."
"Well?" said both the others together.
"I regret to say it isn"t pleasant news, but it may be important to you two; it certainly is to me."
"Spring it!" exclaimed Page.
"Cut the preface!" said Merriwell.
"Babbitt has announced an examination for juniors in mathematics."
"What!"
Merriwell and Page were so surprised that they sat down suddenly.
Browning remained standing by the door.
"It"s a fact," he said.
"But what can that mean?" asked Merriwell. "We had our regular examination last spring."
"I know we did, but Babbitt"s going to have another just the same."
"Where did you learn it?"
"On the bulletin board, of course. The notice was put up not more than an hour ago."
"When is it to be?"
"Three days from now."
Page looked blankly at Merriwell.
"I never was any good at mathematics," he said, "and after a summer without a thought of it I don"t believe I could do an ordinary sum in multiplication."
"Well," responded Frank, doubtfully, "it can"t be that the examination will have any serious consequences for us fellows if we pa.s.sed last spring."
"There"s no telling how serious Babbitt may make it," said Browning.
"The notice on the bulletin board, of course, doesn"t give any explanation, but I met Frost, the fellow who graduated a couple of years ago, you know, with high honors in mathematics, and who was made instructor in one of the lower departments of that course.
"I knew Frost quite well when he was a student, so I asked him if he knew anything about this."
"What did he say?"
"He smiled a little queerly and answered that Professor Babbitt had his own ideas."
"In other words, Frost wouldn"t tell?"
"Oh, no, that"s not it; Frost is a member of the faculty now, you see, and of course he has to speak very respectfully of the older men.
"I got a very distinct idea that Frost regarded Babbitt"s examination as all nonsense, but he did explain to me what Babbitt"s idea about it is."
"That"s what we want to know."
"It"s just this way," said Browning, sitting down. "It seems our cla.s.s is enlarged by the addition of quite a number of men who have graduated from or studied at other colleges.