In the afternoon there was a period of idling beneath the trees, walks along shady and moss-grown paths, and trips about the lake in boats, until the declining sun warned the merry-makers that it was time to depart. Phil and Tom took the three girls to Fairview, but they had no further sight of Sid that afternoon, nor was any mention made of him, though Tom rather hoped the girls would say something that would enable him to defend his chum. For, somehow, in spite of it all, Tom felt that there was something he didn't understand in relation to Sid. He was puzzled over it, grieved deeply, too, yet he could not condemn Sid. But no mention was made of the little incident of the morning, and the two youths left, promising to come over again at the first opportunity. "It was awfully kind of you to bother with me," said Miss Harrison, as she shook hands with Phil and Tom. "I was rather in the way, I'm afraid, and I realize----" "Why, Mabel, what a way to talk!" interrupted Ruth. "If they hadn't taken you with us, we wouldn't have gone with them; would we, Madge?" "Of course not." "It's awfully kind of you," went on Mabel, as she turned into the college, leaving Phil and Tom to say good-by to their friends. "Well, what do you make of it?" asked Phil, when he and Tom were on their way back to Randall. "Hanged if I know what to say. Who was that sporty chap, anyhow?" "Search me. He seemed to take a good deal for granted. The puppy! I felt like punching him one, the way he leered at the girls." "So did I. Would have, too, only for Sid. He seemed to be friendly with the flashy chap." "Yes, and that's the funny part of it. He seemed somehow to have Sid under a spell." "It's just another phase of the mystery that seems to have been enveloping poor old Sid, of late," went on Tom. "I only hope one thing, and that is, that whatever it is that it doesn't interfere with baseball. We've got to depend a lot on Sid this season, as the other fellows aren't batting as I hoped they would, and this includes myself, but I never was much as a hitter. I never could get above two sixty-eight, but Sid won't have any trouble getting to four hundred, and he can bat both ways, placing a ball in either right or left field. But if this thing is going to keep up," and Tom shook his head dolefully, "I don't know what to do." "Losing that game to Fairview didn't do our standing any good," remarked Phil. "I should say not! But we play Dodville Prep school Saturday, and they're easy fruit." "That will help pull our average up some," admitted Phil. They made the rest of the trip back to Randall almost in silence, Tom making an occasional remark about baseball, and Phil replying, but the thoughts of both were more on the events of the day than on the great game.