got my tickets, and now they are
telephoning for my passage."

Nickell-Wheelerson sat thinking hard. Then he rose and bolted for the
door.

"Wait!" called Zaidos. "I want you to help me pack, Nick."

But the big English boy had disappeared. In half an hour he returned,
looking triumphant. He flung his trim military jacket on the bunk.

"That's done for!" he cried. He jerked a trunk into the middle of the
floor and, opening it, commenced to turn out its cluttered contents.

"Come on, Nosey!" he cried. "As our American brothers put it, 'get a
move on!' We have about half a day to get packed."

"Are you crazy?" demanded the Greek, staring at him.

"Not crazy, Nosey, dear chappie! Not crazy; merely going home!"

"Home?" repeated Zaidos feebly. "_Home?_"

"Home!" said Nick jubilantly. "With you! At least on the same
steamer. So if they blow us up on the way over, we can soar hand in
hand, old chum!"

"Well, when you get through raving, I wish you would tell how you did
it."

"I simply reminded the Adjutant that the arrangement was that I was
remaining here at my own discretion, as per Pater's written agreement.
I said I had decided to go with you, although I had been thinking for a
week that I might leave at any time. They mentioned money, and I
showed my little roll. There is plenty. So I am going to-night with
you. They have telephoned about a stateroom. That's all! I'm going
to give all my stuff away. I won't come back."

_Nickell-Wheelerson never did come back. But that is another story._

There were a lot of poor marks made that afternoon. With the two most
popular fellows in the school going off, there couldn't be much
studying. Everybody tried to help, and everybody got in the way and
had to be stepped over or pushed over. But time passed, and good-byes
were said, and the night on the swift train passed, too; and when they
looked back, the following day in New York was a hurried whirl. And
then they smelt the unchanging smell of the docks; sea salt and paint
and tar.

They watched the last person down the gang-plank, a weeping woman it
was. Then they shouted farewell to the kindly shores, and the
steadfast Lady of Liberty on Governor's Island. She seemed to salute
the passing ship with her uplifted torch, and the boys felt that peace
and safety and prosperity lay behind them.

Then some nights and days went swiftly by, and one morning the boys
clasped hands and gruffly spo