"You mean what the college is going to do or what we"re to do?"
"Yes, that"s it. Both."
"I"ve telephoned home," said Foster quietly.
"You have?"
"Yes. I have just come back from the office."
"Did you telephone my father?"
"No. I telephoned my father and told him to ring up your house."
"And did he?"
"Of course he did."
"Did you hear anything--I mean--"
"Now, look here, Will," said Foster quietly. "Don"t get rattled. I know it"s bad, but there isn"t any use in losing your head over it. I"ve been down to see the dean and have talked it over with him."
"What did he have to say?"
"He said the report was true and the eight fellows were all down with the typhoid, and that every one of them had been taken to the infirmary."
"What else?" demanded Will, his excitement increasing in spite of his effort to be calm.
"That"s what I"m trying to tell you, if you"ll give me half a chance. He said the president had sent for the best experts in the country, and that everything that it was possible to do would be done. He said too, that they would deal absolutely squarely with the boys, and if it was discovered that there was the least danger of it spreading they would tell us, and if necessary they"d close for a while till the whole thing had been ferreted out."
"That"s square."
"Of course it is."
"What are you going to do, Foster?"
"Nothing, that is, for a day or two anyway. I"ve told my father, and if he thinks I"d better come home he"ll say so."
"But he may not know."
"He will in a day or two."
"What are you going to do now?"
"Study my Greek."
"I ought to, but I"m going out for a little while. I"ve got to cool off a bit before I can settle down to work."
"Don"t be gone long. You"ll only see the fellows and get stirred up all the more. I"d drop it and go to "boning." It"s the best cure."
"It is for a fellow like you, Foster. I can"t do it yet. I"ve got to get outdoors till I can get my breath again."
Seizing his cap Will went out into the night. He pa.s.sed by Leland Hall and glancing up discovered that there was a light in Peter John"s room.
Instantly he entered the building and bounding up the stairway knocked on his cla.s.smate"s door, and in response to the invitation entered and found Hawley within and alone.
"h.e.l.lo, Hawley. What"s the news about Peter John?"
"Oh, he"s got it. Temperature a hundred and four and a half and all that sort of thing."
"Any idea where or how he got it?"
"Not the least."
"Have you seen him?"
"Since he went to the infirmary? Yes, once; but I sha"n"t see him again till he comes out well or--"
"Is he the worst?"
"No. Wagner seems to be the hardest hit, but they told me you couldn"t tell very much about it yet. Have to wait a few days anyway."
"Mott says he is going home."
"Yes, there probably will be a lot of the fellows leaving by to-morrow."
"Are you afraid?"
"Some."
"Going to leave?"
"I"m going to wait a day or two and see what turns up before I decide just what I shall do."
On his way back to his room Will fell in with several others of his cla.s.smates, and the exciting conversation was repeated in each case until at last when he joined Foster, whom he found still poring over his lesson in Greek for the morrow, his feelings were so overwrought that he was almost beside himself.
"Everybody"s going to leave, Foster," he declared.
"Not quite, for I"m not going yet myself."
"But--" Will ceased abruptly as he perceived that a messenger boy was standing in front of his door. Quickly seizing the envelope he perceived that it was directed to himself and instantly tearing it open he read:
"If new cases develop within three days come home. Otherwise remain.
Wire me daily." The message was signed by his father.
"That settles it!" exclaimed Will, "I"m going to bed. Splinter will be easy on us to-morrow anyway."
Foster smiled as he shook his head and continued his own work, but his room-mate was not aware of either action.
In chapel on the following morning the president of the college reiterated the statement which the dean already had made to Foster, and after trying to show the students that a panic was even more to be feared than the fever, and promising to keep them fully and frankly informed as to the exact status of affairs, he dismissed them to their recitations, which it was understood were to be continued without interruption, at least for the present.