"Let's go out and haze a couple of dozen freshmen," proposed Sid eagerly. "You bloodthirsty old rascal!" commented Phil. "Let the poor freshies alone. They'll get all that's coming to them, all right. Well, I'm off. Hold down the room, you two." Tom and Sid spent the evening in their apartment, after Phil had received permission to go to Fairview, Tom having entrusted him with a message to Madge Tyler. The two chums had a number of invitations to assist in hazing freshmen, but declined. "We don't want to do it without Phil," said Tom, and this loyal view was shared by Sid. Phil came back late that night, or, rather, early the next morning, for it was past midnight when he got to Randall College. "Your friend Madge sends word that she hopes you'll take her to the opening game of the football season," said Phil to Tom, as he was undressing. "Did you see her?" inquired Tom eagerly. "Of course. Ruth sent for her. She's all you said she was, Tom." "Oh!" spoke Tom in a curious voice, and then he was strangely silent. For Phil was a good-looking chap, and had plenty of money; and Tom remembered what friends Madge and Langridge had been. His sleep was not an untroubled one that night. Two or three days more of general excitement ensued before matters were running smoothly at Randall. In that time most of the students had settled in their new rooms, the freshmen found their places, some were properly hazed, and that ordeal for others was postponed until a future date, much to the misery of the fledglings. "Preliminary football practice to-morrow," announced Phil one afternoon, as he came in from the gymnasium and found Tom and Sid studying. "That's good!" cried Tom. "Are you going to try, Sid?" "Not this year. I've got to buckle down to studies, I guess. Baseball is about all I can stand." "I hear Langridge is out of it, too," said Phil. "His uncle has put a ban on it. He's got to make good in lessons this term." "Well, I think the team will be better off without him," commented Sid. "Not that he's a poor player, but he won't train properly, and that has a bad effect on the other fellows. It's not fair to them, either. Look what he did in baseball. We'd have lost the championship if it hadn't been for Tom." "Oh, I don't know about that," modestly spoke the hero of the pitching box. "Well, turn out in football togs to-morrow," went on Phil. "By the way, I hear that Langridge's new freshman friend--Gerhart--is going to try for quarter-back against me." "What! that fellow who was with him when we were moving our sofa in?" asked Tom. "That's the one." "Humph! Doesn't look as if he was heavy enough for football," commented Sid. "You can't tell by the looks of a toad how much hay it can eat," quoted Phil.