bled, loosening himself from the grasp of his companions.

"Well, ju--just look at him," growled Spuddy in a disgusted tone; "he
ought to freeze stiff. Look how his le--legs wab--wabble! They lo--look
like four--four--"

"Shut up, Spud," cried Shorts. "He's only got--got two legs. What the
mat--matter with you?... You're as drunk as he is. Don't let him drop on
those stones!"

"I ain't drunk," retorted Preston. "What's the mat--matter with you,
yourself? I bet I can ge--get into--that--that fraternity without any of
the fe--fellows seeing me!"

"I don't believe you will," returned Shorts in a more sober manner.
"Look there, Spud, the whole house is alight. I say--Swipes--Swipes,
it's after midnight, and the fraternity is all lighted up."

"I--I--I don't care if it is," grunted Swipes in a low, thick voice.
"I--I want to go to bed. Tha--that's what I want to do."

He sank into a stupor again but the boys dragged him to his feet.

"Do you want Jordan and Graves to see you like this, Swipes?" demanded
Shorts stopping in the center of the carriage drive. "If you don't--you
take a mighty quick sneak up the back stairs, and--"

The sentence was never finished for the door opened and Dan Jordan's big
form loomed up before their dazed eyes.

"Is that you, Shorts?" called Dan.

"Yes."

"Where have you been for the last three hours?"

"Down there," mumbled Shorts in a smothered tone, desiring to hide their
plight if possible.

"For the love of all that's good, Shorts," groaned Spuddy, "let me get
into the house and change my clothes.... There goes Swipes again in the
snow. Get up, fool, here's the 'Captain.'"

"To--to the devil with the 'Captain,'" muttered Swipes.

But Dan's next sentence completely awoke the senses of all save Swipes.
He only grasped it dimly through the cobwebs of his drunken brain.

"Where's Graves?" demanded Jordan, coming to the top step.

The silence that followed was as grim as the falling snow. Spuddy and
Shorts were dragging the limp Swipes up the long steps.

"Graves?... We haven't seen him," interjected Shorty Brown, and Dan
Jordan answered gravely:

"Then the sophomores have captured him, that's a certainty! He hasn't
been here, and he hasn't been to the Rectory."

Shorts, now thoroughly sober, followed the big freshman into the
drawing-room, where a dozen or more downcast-looking boys were curled up
on divans. Swipes was being urged up the broad oak stairs, Spuddy now
and th