ave very much to lose."

"It was all he had. It would have been the same if it had been seven
thousand instead of just plain seven. He was so set up by the attentions
of Mott that he was an easy mark. I never saw anything like it."

"Well, all I can say is that I hope I sha'n't again, but probably I
shall if he stays in college," said Will bitterly.

"It's in him, that's about all one can say," said Foster. "If it hadn't
been here it would have been somewhere else. And yet they say that a
college is a dangerous place for a young fellow to be in."

"I don't believe it."

"No more do I. There are all kinds here the same as there are pretty
much everywhere, and all there is of it is that a fellow has a little
more freedom to follow out just what he wants to do."

"Come on," suggested Will, starting toward the door. "We can't do
anything more for Peter John. He'll probably be around to see us
to-morrow."

As the boys approached the doorway they met Hawley and at his urgent
request turned back into the room with him. The big freshman glanced at
his sleeping room-mate and then laughed as he said, "Too young. Ought
not to have left his mother yet." As neither of the boys replied, Hawley
continued, "He'll have to quit that or he'll queer himself in the
college. I don't know that he can do that any more successfully than he
has done already though," he added.

Will was irritated that Hawley should take the matter in such a light
way and said half-angrily, "Do you suppose he'll be hauled up before the
faculty?"

"Not unless they hear of it," laughed Hawley, "and I don't believe they
will."

"Tell us about the game," interrupted Foster.

"My story is short and not very sweet," retorted Hawley grimly, glancing
at his arm as he spoke.

"How did that happen?"

"Nobody knows. It's done and that's all there is to it. I'm out of the
game for the rest of this season."

"That's too bad. Did Alden really have such a tremendous team?"

"Look at the score. You know what that was, don't you?"

"Yes, I heard. Come on, Will. We'd better be in bed. We'll get Hawley to
tell us all about the game some other time. Come on."

The two freshmen at once departed, but when they were in their own room
it was not the lost game which was uppermost in their minds and
conversation, but the fall of Peter John. And when at last they sought
their beds it was with the conviction that Peter John himself would seek
them out within a day or tw