,
plunging their dripping heads in the water.

Gradually the vertigo passed. Faint and weak they sat propped up
opposite each other, solemnly, sadly, glance to glance, while
unnoticed the rain spouted from the ends of their noses.

"Oh, Dink!" said Tough at last.

"Don't!"

"I thought I was going to die."

"I'm not sure of it yet."

"I had a lot I wanted to say to you," said Tough painfully, feeling
the opportunity was slipping away.

"You said I was smoking too much," said Dink maliciously.

"Ugh! Don't--no, that wasn't it."

"Shut up, old cockalorum," said Dink pleasantly. "I know all you want
to say--found it out myself--it's all in one word--swelled head!"

"Oh!" said Tough deprecatingly, now that Dink had turned accuser.

"I've been a little, fluffy ass!" said Dink, marvelously stimulated to
repentance by the episode which had gone before. "But that's over. My
head's subsiding."

"What?"

The two burst into sympathetic laughter.

"You--you didn't mind my sailing into you, old horse?" said Tough.

"Not now."

McCarty looked mystified.

"Tough," said Dink with a queer look, "if you had smoked that black
devil and I hadn't--all would have been over between us. As it is----"

"Well?" said Tough.

"As it is--Tough, here's my hand--let's swear an eternal friendship!"

"Put it there!"

"I say, Tough----"

"What?"

"Now, on your honor--did you ever smoke a cigar before?"

"Never," said McCarty. "And I'll never smoke another. So help me."

"Nor I. I say, what was that name?"

"Invincibles."

"That's where we should have stopped!"

"Dink, I begin to feel a little chilly."

"Tough, that's a good sign; let's up."

Arm in arm, laughing uproariously, they went, still a little shaky,
back toward the school.

"I say, Tough," said Dink, throwing his arm affectionately about the
other's shoulders. "I've been pretty much of a jackass, haven't I?"

"Oh, come, now!"

"I'm afraid I'm not built for a sport," said Dink, with a lingering
regret. "But I say, Tough----"

"What?"

"I may be the prodigal son, but you're the devil of a moral lecturer,
you are!"

XXI

One Wednesday afternoon, as Dink was lolling gorgeously on his
window-seat, sniffing the alert air and waiting for the moment to go
skipping over to the 'Varsity field for the game with a visiting
school, a voice from below hailed him:

"Oh, you, Rinky Dink!"

Stover languidly extended his head and beheld Tough McCarty