Loring threw up his hands. “You’ll do, Wattles! Here, get me over to the gym. It’s eight o’clock already!” * * * * * It was nearly three hours later when Clif found Tom again. He might not have found him then if he had not withdrawn from the gymnasium for a breath of air. Tom was sitting alone on a step at the bottom of the flight. Clif called to him and he turned and answered dreamily: “Oh, that you, Clif? Great night, isn’t it?” “Yes.” Clif went down and seated himself at Tom’s side. After a moment, during which Tom seemed to have forgotten his chum’s presence in silent contemplation of a shining half moon Clif asked diffidently: “Is everything all right, Tom?” “Eh? What did you―― Oh, you bet! Listen, I’m to come back next fall, Clif, and right along until I’m finished, no matter if it takes ten years! He said so. And I’m to go to college, too! And next summer―― Say, it wasn’t bunk at all, about us getting together in Switzerland! It’s real! We’re going to do it, Clif! I’m going abroad with him; for all summer; France, Germany, Switzerland――hundreds of places! Gosh, isn’t that wonderful? Why, this morning I never expected to see anything all my life but just New Jersey!” “Gee, that’s simply corking!” cried Clif, thrilled. “And, I say, Tom, you didn’t――didn’t talk to him like you said you were going to, did you?” Tom shook his head. “I couldn’t do it. I don’t know just how it was when I was a kid and he went away, but he told me a little. You see, his father died――I forgot to tell you we’re pretty well off, he and I, Clif!――and he had to go across; back to England; and mother――well, she didn’t want to go; anyway, she wouldn’t. And father sent for her and――and she still wouldn’t go to him――I suppose folks don’t all get along very well together, even if they are married, Clif. Anyway, father didn’t see her again. He meant to. He meant to come back, but he went to Africa, and then the War broke out. Oh, I guess he was to blame, all right, but――well, a fellow doesn’t want to say anything against his mother, especially when she’s dead, Clif. And she was a mighty fine mother to me; and he says she was fine, too. Only――well, they didn’t seem to get along. He didn’t know she had died until a whole year after. And when he tried to find me he couldn’t for a long time. He wasn’t going to tell me about being my father yet, he says. He wanted to――to make sure that――that I wanted him, you see. He said to-night that it needn’t make any difference. That if I wasn’t ready to have him for a father he’d leave me alone until I was.” Tom paused and the music from the dance floor came out in a sudden flood of melody. The white moon, momentarily hidden by a fleecy purple cloud, sailed forth again. “What did you tell him, Tom?” asked Clif anxiously. Tom, staring up at the moon, grinned almost embarrassedly. “I told him,” he answered, “that he’d better stick around!” THE END