Ridge, who was a good talker, and whom the fellows all liked, took Simms’s place and spoke for a few minutes. After that the football songs were practiced, the Banjo and Mandolin Club supplying accompaniment. Finally, with a last resounding cheer, the meeting broke up, the members clattering down the stairs and out of the building still singing. Then the cry for Vinton was renewed and was taken up by two hundred throats: “We want Vinton. We want Vinton! We want Vinton!” Presently the throng swirled over to the front of Clarke and the cry was hurled up at the lighted window of Number 28. But the football captain didn’t appear and a half-dozen fellows rushed up the stairs in search of him. But they were soon back, for the room was empty. So they cheered him instead, and finally the throng dissolved, the fellows seeking their rooms. Snatches of song, bursts of laughter, faint cheers floated from open windows for a while, and then one by one the lights went out and Yardley became silent. It is a good plan to celebrate in advance. One never knows what may happen. CHAPTER XX DAN IS KIDNAPPED They were still cheering in front of Oxford that afternoon when Dan left the gymnasium with Mr. Payson and set off up the hill. It was already twilight and the windows of the dormitories were becoming quadrangles of pale yellow. Both Mr. Payson and Dan were very silent on the way up the path, and it was not until the former paused in front of Merle Hall, where a footpath began that led him across the fields toward the village, that the silence was broken. “Still think you’d rather not take that vacation I spoke of?” Mr. Payson asked then. “I’d much rather not,” Dan answered. “All right. Good night.” “Good night, sir. I guess I won’t be down this evening.” “No, I’ll see you to-morrow.” Mr. Payson ran down the footpath and Dan continued around by The Prospect. He felt a little bit uncomfortable. Perhaps Payson was right and he ought to get away from the school for a day. Although he insisted to the coach that he was feeling all right, he fully realized that he was in a rather disordered condition. He hadn’t had a full night’s sleep for nearly a week, he had almost forgotten what it was like to be hungry and if someone had come up behind him and said “Boo!” he would have jumped a foot in the air. He dreaded Saturday more than he had ever dreaded anything in his life, and yet he would have given anything he possessed or hoped to possess if he could have had Saturday come to-morrow. The Broadwood game had taken on the aspect of a dozen visits to the dentist all rolled into one nightmarish lump! For the life of him he couldn’t see how it was possible for his team to win that game. Not one fellow played as he should, the plays Payson had given them were weak, and certain defeat stared them in the face. Dan wished he had never accepted the captaincy!