said, "you really don't need to come along. I can do--"

"Oh, go to blazes! I know you too well! Don't you worry about me! You've
got me going, and I'm in on this thing; so come along!"

Then Dunn grew firm. "Thanks, awfully, old man," he said, "but it's a
thing I'd rather do alone, if you don't mind."

"Oh!" said Martin. "All right! But say, if you need me I'm on. You're a
great old brick, though! Tra-la!"

As Martin had surmised, Dunn found Cameron in his rooms. He was lying
upon his bed enjoying the luxury of a cigarette. "Hello! Come right
in, old chap!" he cried, in gay welcome. "Have a--no, you won't have a
cigarette--have a pipe?"

Dunn gazed at him, conscious of a rising tide of mingled emotions,
relief, wrath, pity, disgust. "Well, I'll be hanged!" at last he said
slowly. "But you've given us a chase! Where in the world have you been?"

"Been? Oh, here and there, enjoying my emancipation from the thralldom
in which doubtless you are still sweating."

"And what does that mean exactly?"

"Mean? It means that I've cut the thing,--notebooks, lectures,
professors, exams, 'the hale hypothick,' as our Nannie would say at
home."

"Oh rot, Cameron! You don't mean it?"

"Circumspice. Do you behold any suggestion of knotted towels and the
midnight oil?"

Dunn gazed about the room. It was in a whirl of confusion. Pipes and
pouches, a large box of cigarettes, a glass and a half-empty decanter,
were upon the table; boots, caps, golf-clubs, coats, lay piled in
various corners. "Pardon the confusion, dear sir," cried Cameron
cheerfully, "and lay it not to the charge of my landlady. That estimable
woman was determined to make entry this afternoon, but was denied."
Cameron's manner one of gay and nervous bravado.

"Come, Cameron," said Dunn sadly, "what does this mean? You're not
serious; you're not chucking your year?"

"Just that, dear fellow, and nothing less. Might as well as be
ploughed."

"And what then are you going to do?" Dunn's voice was full of a great
pity. "What about your people? What about your father? And, by Jove,
that reminds me, he's coming to town this evening. You know they've been
trying to find you everywhere this last day or two."

"And who are 'they,' pray?"

"Who? The police," said Dunn bluntly, determined to shock his friend
into seriousness.

Cameron sat up quickly. "The police? What do you mean, Dunn?"

"What it means I do not know, Cameron, I assure you. Don't you?"

"The p