e walked forward and held out his hand.

"Who be you?" demanded Bill Cameron, and peered at the shipowner's son
curiously. "Well, I declare, if it ain't the young man as stopped the
runaway hoss fer my wife! Glad to see you!" And the ice-house man shook
hands cordially. "Up to some secret fun, I suppose."

"Yes, sir."

"I thought I heard a yellin' around the ice-houses, and I told my wife
I'd dress and come over and see what it meant. Hope you ain't done no
damage," the man continued, somewhat anxiously.

"We have done a little damage, I am afraid," answered Phil. "But we are
willing to pay for it."

"What did ye do?"

In as few words as possible Phil and some of the others explained the
situation. They were afraid Bill Cameron would be angry, but instead he
broke into a laugh.

"Ain't it the greatest ever!" he cried. "You ain't done no damage at
all. The carpenters put that wooden slide up wrong, and I told 'em
they'd have to take it down, and they started to-day. That's what made
them bracin's bust. The hull thing is comin' down,--so what you did
don't hurt, nohow."

"I am very glad to hear that!" cried Phil, and the others said
practically the same. Then they bade good-night to the ice-houses'
owner, and hurried in the direction of Oak Hall.

"It's a good thing, Phil, that you knew Mr. Cameron," said Dave, on the
way. "But you never told me about stopping a runaway horse for Mrs.
Cameron."

"Oh, it wasn't much!" answered the shipowner's son, modestly. "It
happened last June, just before we started for Star Ranch. The horse was
running along the river road, and I got hold of him and stopped him,
that's all. Mrs. Cameron was going to tell Doctor Clay about it, but I
got her to keep quiet."

"Phil, you're a hero!" And Dave gave his chum's arm a squeeze that made
Phil wince, but with pleasure.

Murphy, the monitor, was on the watch for them, and let them in by a
back door. All lost no time in getting to their dormitories and in
undressing and going to bed. Everybody in the crowd was satisfied over
the initiations but Nat Poole. His plot to expose Dave and his chums had
failed, and he was correspondingly sour.

"But I'll fix them yet," muttered the money-lender's son, to himself.
"Just wait till they start to play Rockville, that's all!" And the
thought of what he had in mind to do made him smile grimly.

It must be confessed that some of the football players felt rather
sleepy the next morning. Dave wa