information
that the Chi Yis had a man named Smith, of Oak Park, at their house and
that every corner of the lawn was guarded by picked men!

When we got this news most of us went upstairs and bathed our heads in
cold water. Oak Park sounded even more suspicious than Chicago. It's a
solid mahogany suburb and everybody there is somebody or other. You have
to get initiated into the place just as if it were a secret society,
it's so exclusive. That meant there were three Smiths from Chicago in
school. We had only one Smith. We had a one-in-three shot.

We stuck the colors on the boys from the big prep school just to keep
our hands in and went to bed so nervous that we only slept in patches.
Still, two Chicago Smiths in other frat houses were better than one. It
meant that at least one frat wasn't sure of its man. Maybe neither one
was. Our scouts had reported that, from what they could pick up, neither
Smith had it on our Smith much in looks. That could only mean one thing:
there had been a leak in the telegraph office again. What show has a
guileless sixty-five-dollar-a-month operator against a bunch of crafty
young diplomatists? They had read our telegram and were after the same
Smith that we were.

By morning the suspense around the house could have been shoveled out
with a pitchfork. If one of the other frats had the right Smith and knew
it, and had pledged him during the night, there was positively no use in
living any longer. Petey, who had shared his room with our Smith,
reported that he was now like wax in our hands. But that didn't comfort
us much. It was too confoundedly puzzling. Maybe we had the heir to a
subtreasury panting to join us and maybe his freckles were his fortune.
All Petey had gouged out of him during the night was the fact that his
father wanted him to come to Siwash because it was a nice, quiet place.
Oh, yes; it was deadly calm!

It couldn't have been more than seven o'clock when the telephone rang.
Petey answered it. A relative of Smith's was at the hotel and had heard
the boy was at our house. Would we please tell him to come right down?
Petey said he would and then rang off. Then he grabbed the 'phone again
and asked Central excitedly why she had cut him off. Central said she
hadn't, but of course she rang the other line again.

"Hello!" said Petey blandly. "This is the Alfalfa Delt house?"

"No; it's the Chi Yi house," was the answer. Petey put the receiver up
contentedly and we all t