," answered his cousin.

The crowd crossed the street and was soon interviewing the owner of
the moving-picture theater. He had seen the boys there a number of
times, and remembered them, and was keenly alive to anything that
might aid his business.

"Sure, my man can run you down to the school," he said readily. "Here
he is now." He turned to his colored chauffeur. "Joe, take these young
gentlemen to Colby Hall and then come back here just as soon as you
can."

The run to Colby Hall in the automobile took but a few minutes, and
the driver very condescendingly agreed to take them around to the rear
entrance of the building. The cadets paid him for his trip, and then
lost no time in sneaking what they had bought up a back stairway and
into the rooms occupied by the Rovers.

By this time the celebration over the defeat of Hixley High had about
come to an end. The cadets were disappearing in all directions, some
going to their rooms and others to the library of the school, a large
room which was often used as a general meeting place.

Word had been passed around to a number of others, so that a crowd of
about a dozen assembled in the Rovers' rooms to take part in the
feast.

"I'll tell you one thing we ought to do," said Randy. "We ought to
square ourselves somehow with Codfish. Otherwise he may be just mean
enough to give us away."

"I guess I can fix it for you," said Ned Lowe, who in the past had
been a bit more friendly with the sneak than any of the others
present. "Just give me a plate of ice-cream and a piece of cake, and
I'll go and smooth it over with the little sneak."

"Go ahead and do it, by all means, Ned," answered Andy quickly. "I
don't begrudge the little sneak a bit of something good. It will make
him forget how his thumb hurts."

Ned soon departed with the ice-cream and cake, and then the others
passed around the food which had been provided. They had brought along
some paper dishes and paper drinking cups, and likewise a few tin
spoons, and the boys made themselves comfortable on various chairs
and on the beds.

"It's all right," said Ned, when he returned. "Codfish was sitting by
the window in his room wondering what he was going to do. He was
suspicious at first, thinking there was some trick about the ice-cream
or the cake, but when he found it was all right he felt better, and he
has promised to keep quiet. But just the same, we'll have to keep
quiet ourselves in here, or we'll get into