"Well, if you have, how are you going to spot the gerund and the gerundive?" "I don't need to; I've learned 'em," said Dink, laughing. XVI The Kennedy House Educational Quick Lunch Institute broke up in wrath a week later when an innocent inquiry of Beekstein's for the passwords revealed the direction of the club's finances. Meanwhile, true to his resolve, Dink, with the assistance of Finnegan and the Tennessee Shad, had started the fad of souvenir toilet sets; which, like all fads, ran its course the faster because of its high qualities of absurdity and uselessness. Dink's intention of recouping himself by selling his own set of seven colors at a big advance was cut short by a spontaneous protest to the Doctor from the house masters, whose artistic souls were stirred to wrath at the hideous invasion. The subject was then so successfully treated from the pulpit, with all the power of sarcasm that it afforded, that the only distinct artistic movement of New Jersey expired in ridicule. Dink took this check severely to heart and, of course, beheld in this thwarting of his scheme to dispose of the abhorrent set with honor a fresh demonstration of the implacability of The Roman. He wandered gloomily from Laloo's and Appleby's to the Jigger Shop; where, after pulling his hat over his eyes, folding his arms inconsolably, he confided his desires of revenge on Doc Macnooder to the sympathetic ears of the guardian of the Jigger. "Why not get up a contest and offer it as a prize?" said Al. "Have you seen it?" said Dink, who then did the subject full justice. Al remained very thoughtful for a long while, running back dreamily through the avenues of the past for some stratagem. "I remember way back in the winter of '88," he said at last, "there was a slick coot by the name of Chops Van Dyne, who got strapped and hit upon a scheme for decoying the shekels." "What was that?" said Dink hopefully. "He got up a guessing contest with a blind prize." "A what?" "A blind prize all done up in tissue paper and ribbons, and no one was to know what was in it until it was won. It certainly was amazing the number of suckers that paid a quarter to satisfy their curiosity." "Well, what was inside?" said Dink at once. "There you are!" said Al. "Why, nothing, of course--a lemon, perhaps--but the point is, every one just had to know." "Not a word!" said Dink, springing up triumphantly. "Mum as the grave," said Al, accepting his handshake. Dink went romping back like a young spring goat, his busy mind seizing all the ramifications possible from the central theory. He found the Tennessee Shad and communicated the great idea. "I don't like the guessing part," said the Tennessee Shad. "Nor I. We must get up a contest." "A championship." "Something devilishly original." "Exactly." "Well, what?" "We must think."