"Perhaps he did," returned the Imp, "and perhaps he told me a lot more. However, I must say bye-bye for the present. I've got to go and study my lessons somewhere where I won't be disturbed!" She scrambled down and sailed out of the room, waving airily to them from the doorway. "Isn't she simply maddening!" exclaimed Sue. "The idea of saying she had to go and study! I never knew her to study a thing in my life. She seems to know her lessons by instinct." "But what _do_ you suppose Louis told her?" mused Carol. "Not much, or I miss my guess," returned Sue. "She's only trying to tease us. But it is strange that he stayed home to-day. Something serious must be the matter. He hasn't missed a day this term before." "But if it was serious," argued Carol, "why should he be out playing with the Imp?" At this moment the door opened and a tall, slender boy of seventeen or eighteen strolled in, his hands in his overcoat pockets, his cheeks and overcoat still wet with the driving rain. "Hello, girls!" he remarked, warming his hands by the blaze of the open fire. "Hello, Dave!" they replied. "Where did you come from?" "Been over to Louis's. Queer thing about it, too," he commented, dropping down on the vacant davenport. "What?" they gasped in breathless chorus. He looked at them inquiringly. "Why all the astonishment on _your_ part?" he demanded. "What do you know about it, anyway?" "Oh, a lot of queer things seem to be happening to Louis lately," explained Carol. "But go on! Tell us all about it." "Well, Father didn't need me to-night, so I thought I'd stroll over to Louis's and see if he wanted a little session with that higher mathematics course that he and I are working at together on our own hook. I rang at the front door several times, but didn't get any response. Then I tried the back door, with no better luck. There was a light in the parlor, too, but, on glancing in the window, I saw that no one was there. Mr. Meadows had evidently gone to bed. I had just started out to the barn, thinking that Louis might be in his work-room there, when I noticed a light in one of the cellar windows. I then felt sure that Louis was down there, clearing up or getting vegetables for his aunt, so I went over and peeped in, thinking to give him a surprise. It was _I_ who got the surprise, though!" "What did you see?" demanded Sue in an awestricken whisper.