“He said it must have been you, as you were in the bank a few days before cashing a check from the _Out Door Weekly_ for two hundred and fifty dollars, and dividing it with Hagner. He saw you give some of it to Hagner, and then Hagner deposited one hundred and twenty-five dollars to his own credit in the bank and he guessed you must have divided with him. That was the first time I got the idea that Hans might have been a real live person, because in the college news he is of course referred to as Hagner. We just guessed you probably had the one hundred and twenty-five dollars in your pockets, and so we arranged the practical joke to fit what we knew. Now is it a real story or not?” “Let’s go and ask Hans,” was all Hal would say. When they did get to Hans they made him tell the whole story over and McGrew said, “If you come to New York again let me know and I’ll lend you my auto.” Hal was happy. It meant a great deal to him to be recognized by these older graduates as their equal, and he had a right to be happy. It was recognition of his merit by those whose opinion was valuable, because they had enough practical experience of the world to enable them to recognize true worth. None of the other Freshmen on the team were let into the secret of how the old graduates were able to beat them so badly. They marveled at the fact that the old timers were on to every play that the boys attempted, and they had a great respect for the old crowd that licked the Varsity that day by the one-sided score of 11 to 2. But in the evening the old graduates’ club gave the team a little dinner at which this tradition of the university was explained for the benefit of the other youngsters, Hans, Ty, Tris and Radams, Ross and Huyler. Then they were all initiated into the mysteries of the Lowell O. K. Club, which meant that the team had been inspected by the old boys who had won laurels for Lowell in the past, and was good enough in their minds to go against Jefferson. CHAPTER XVII THE MAKING OF A FAN Hiram Parker lived in the house with Hal and Hans. He it was who had rented the third floor room at Mrs. Malcolm’s on the same day that Hans had moved in. He had not arrived until the day following Hans and, as said before, prepared his own meals in his rooms, and was such a quiet, serious fellow that neither Hans nor Hal got very well acquainted with him, or in fact saw him very often. Parker was a Senior. He was well thought of in the university, especially among the members of the Senior Class, who knew him for his earnestness.