"A broken spring stuck me," explained Sid, who was too lightly clad to indulge in indiscriminate sitting about. "Oh, those freshies! What can we do to get square with them?" "That's more like it," said Tom. "We've got to pay them back in some way, and the sooner the better." It was an hour or more before matters had quieted down in the west dormitory. From various sophomores who came into their room to exchange notes, Tom, Phil and Sid learned that the freshmen had executed a well-organized fire scare by the simple process of burning in each corridor some of the powder extensively used on Fourth of July, or in political parades. "Well, there's no use talking about what they did to us," said Ed Kerr. "The question is, what can we do to them? They certainly put it all over us." "Dutch, you ought to be able to suggest something," said Tom. "You're always up to some trick. Give us one to play on the freshies." "Sure," agreed Dutch. "Let me think." Sid arose and turned out the light. "What's that for?" asked Dutch. "So you can think better. I can, in the dark. Go ahead, now. Let's have something good." Dutch was silent for a few minutes, and then he proposed a plan which was received with exclamations of delight. "The very thing!" cried Tom. "I wonder we didn't think of it before. We'll be just in time. Now, maybe we can make them laugh on the other side of their heads." The next morning there were triumphant looks on the faces of the freshmen. They had played a good joke on their traditional enemies, the sophomores, and felt elated over it. But, in accordance with a plan they had adopted the night after Dutch revealed his plan, the sophomores made no retort to the taunts of their enemies. And there was no lack of railery. Gathered on the walk about Booker Memorial Chapel, whence for many terms freshmen had, by traditional college custom, been barred, the first-year lads made all sorts of jokes concerning the scrabble that had ensued among the sophomores when the cry of fire was raised. "And we have to stand it!" exclaimed Tom, gritting his teeth. "For a couple of days," added Sid. "But it strikes me, old chap, that last term you played the rôle of the aforesaid freshies to perfection." "Oh, that was different. But let them wait. We'll put the kibosh on their fun in a few days. Has Dutch got the stuff?" "Hush!" exclaimed Phil. "The least hint will spoil the scheme of revenge! Revenge! Revenge!" he hissed, after the manner of a stage villain. "We will have our re-venge-e-e-e-e!" It was the night of the freshman dance, an annual affair that loomed large in the annals of the first-year students and their girl friends. It was to be held in a hall in Haddonfield, and many were the precautions taken by the committee to prevent any of the hated sophomores from attending, or getting to the place beforehand, lest they might, by some untoward act, "put it on the blink," as Holly Cross used to say.