"I know that," answered the senator's son. "It seems that several years ago they were a little lax, and, as a consequence, some fellows slipped through that had no right to pass. Now they have jacked the examiners up, so that the test is likely to be fierce." "Oh, Dave! what are you going to do if you don't pass?" cried Jessie, when he was ready to leave home. "If I don't pass now, Jessie, I'll simply go at my studies again and keep at them until I do pass," he answered. The examination which was held in the city was divided into two parts, one taking place from ten to twelve in the morning, and the other from two to five in the afternoon. There were about thirty students present, and as far as possible each was separated from any friends he might have on hand, so that Dave sat on one side of the hall in which the examination occurred and the senator's son sat on the other. "Well, how did you make out?" questioned Roger of Dave, when the two went out for their midday lunch. "I don't know exactly, Roger," was the reply. "I think, however, that I answered at least seventy per cent, of the questions correctly. How about yourself?" "Well, I'm hoping that I got seventy per cent. of them right," returned the senator's son. "But maybe I didn't get above fifty or sixty per cent." The afternoon questions seemed to be much harder than those of the morning. The students were given until five o'clock to pass in their afternoon papers, and never did Dave and Roger work harder than they did during the final hour. One question in particular bothered our hero a great deal. But at almost the last minute the answer to it came like an inspiration, and he dashed it down. This question proved a poser for the senator's son, and he passed in his paper without attempting to put down a solution. Following that examination, Dave returned to Crumville. Roger journeyed to Washington, where his folks were staying at a leading hotel, Congress being in session and Senator Morr occupying his place in the Senate. There was a week of anxious waiting, and then one day Dave received an official-looking envelope which made his heart beat rapidly. "What is it, Dave?" cried his sister, when she saw him with the letter in his hand. "Is it your civil engineering report?" "I think it is, Laura," he answered. "Oh, Dave, how I hope you've passed!" "So do I," put in Jessie. Dave could not give an answer to this, because, for the moment, his heart seemed to be in his throat. Passing to the desk in the library, he slit open the envelope and took out the sheet which it contained. A single glance at it, and he gave a shout of triumph. "I've passed!" he cried. "Hurrah!" "Oh, good!" came simultaneously from his sister and Jessie. And then they crowded closer to look at the sheet of paper. "Does it say what percentage you got?" continued his sister.