a good young man to bear punishment for your crime,
and you are now about to endanger the lives of two of your mates, who
are willing to take the risk in order to save the innocent. If you are
mercifully permitted to make good this wicked crime, arouse yourself,
Anderson, and resolve to be a different boy." He turned as though he
could say no more, and with a warm handclasp for each of the others,
closed the door.

"I bet he has been up all night," whispered Ernest.

They found a hot breakfast at the Grill, and just as the pitch darkness
gave way to a pale streak of dawn, they cut across the campus and
reached the hangar.

As they switched on the lights, Ernest's beautiful plane seemed to
sparkle with preparedness. He went over it bolt by bolt, nuts, screws,
wires, and wings passing under his careful and critical eye. He looked
at and tested the tension of the wires, the swing of the rudder, the
looseness of the ailerons. Satisfied at last that everything was
perfectly in tune, he turned and gave a critical glance at Frank.

"He is going to freeze," he said. "You go up to the gym and in my locker
you will find another coat and safety helmet."

Bill started on a run. It was growing light fast, and it was time they
were on their way. Frank suddenly found his tongue.

"You have got to tell me what you are trying to do with me," he said.
All the bluster had gone from his voice, and he watched Ernest with
worried eyes. "It is not fair the way you are acting. What are you going
to do?"

"You may as well know now," said Ernest. "I think myself it is fair to
tell you. We are going to fly to Fort Sill and save Lee from the trip to
Leavenworth. If we have good luck, we have just about time to make it.
That storm last night blew half the telephones down, and we are under
such strict quarantine that we couldn't get away from here any other
way.

"And if we could there is no time. Of course if we could telegraph, it
would fix things all right. But we have got to hurry. Mrs. Sherman
writes that your victim will never allow himself to go to Leavenworth.
The Indians are proud, you know, and we are making this flight perhaps
to save a life. I don't envy you when you get there, young chap!"

"I won't go!" said Frank in a low voice. "If you take me up, I will
spill us all out of the plane."

"You can't do it, you know," said Ernest, laughing. "This plane doesn't
spill as easily as all that, and if you go to talking like that w