. The courted prize was his. For two weeks
not a cloud obtruded on the clear sky of his content. Dolly bullied and
bossed him. He did her errands. He fetched and carried. He served her
and no other goddess. And then tragedy arrived with the arrival of the
celebrated Hickey Hicks, who came down to spend a fortnight with the
Triumphant Egghead.

CHAPTER XXVII

HICKEY IN A DEADLY ROLE

HICKEY, be it remembered, had just severed his connections with the
Lawrenceville school after a display of pedagogical despotism which had
no parallel except in the case of the celebrated Captain Dreyfus. Just
because certain disturbing incidents had occurred in close succession,
beginning with the theft of the clapper; the disappearance of Tabby's
bed, when that inexperienced young master had dashed two miles down the
Trenton road in search of fictitious burglars; the famous Fed and
anti-Fed riots when a misdirected effort to inculcate the love of
politics had almost resulted in a recourse to the financial institution
which insures the school against destruction by fire or otherwise--the
head master, without an iota of evidence (he acknowledged it frankly),
had requested the Hon. Hickey Hicks to seek a wider field for the
admittedly fertile powers which were peculiarly his.

When Hickey with his resplendent social manner cast the eye of favor on
Dolly Travers, after having remarked her unquestioned superiority with
the light fantastic toe, Skippy felt exactly the way the Vicomte de
Bragelonne did when royalty appeared to claim the hand of Louise de la
Valliere. Hickey was in the heavy middleweight class while he was still
a bantam. Hickey was one of the princely figures of school tradition. He
came, he saw, he conquered. He was an athlete, whose arrival was
disputed by the three leading colleges. Sambones Bedelle himself,
captain of next year's Yale varsity nine, allowed himself to be seen
publicly with his arm resting affectionately over Hickey's shoulders.
With such a halo it was no wonder that Dolly in her early teens should
have yielded to the flattery of his preference. Skippy acknowledged so
much to himself as he stood on the fringe of the spectators and watched
Dolly with rapturous upturned face whirling about the room in the arms
of the great man.

"What ye doin' to-morrow afternoon, Skippy?" said Puffy Ellis, who
enjoyed the reversal of roles.

"I'm cleaning up the mitts. Want to come around?" said Skippy, with what