"
To prevent this, and that he might see better, he grasped a low-hanging
limb and swung up into one of the elms.
"Fruit!" was being shouted everywhere, and the indications were that
scores of trophies would adorn the old elm the next morning, if some
stop was not put to the thing by the college authorities, which was not
likely. "Society week" is expected to be noisy, and things are winked at
which on ordinary occasions would bring reprimands.
Another person had invaded the branches of the elm but a minute before
the ascent of the Westerner. That other person was Donald Pike, who
looked down now on the man he felt instinctively to be his mortal foe
with a little shiver of dread. More than once Pike had regretted making
that revelation to Fairfax Lee, for the chances that discovery would
come and that Badger would fiercely summon him to answer, seemed very
great, when he gave himself time to reflect. And he feared Badger.
All might have gone well on this evening with Pike, however, if his fear
of discovery had not made him try to climb farther up the tree. The
Kansan heard the low scraping sound, in spite of the din in the campus,
and glanced upward, and when he did so he saw and recognized the man he
was looking for. A calcium-light was sending its rays through the higher
branches, and Pike's white, scared face was as plainly revealed to
Badger as if the two were facing each other in a lighted room.
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