Dick did so, and found the door locked.  Then he knocked again, this time louder than before.

“You’ll knock a long time to wake them up,” said a voice behind them, and turning they saw Frank Holden grinning at them.

“Hello,” said Dick softly.  “Why, what’s wrong?”

“Nobody in that room, that’s all,” answered the sophomore.

“Don’t Flood and Crossley sleep here?” asked Sam.

“Yes, when they are at college, but they got permission to go home yesterday, and they went, and they won’t be back until Monday.”

At this Dick whistled softly to himself.

“It’s all up, so far as finding out who used the wheels is concerned,” he said to his brothers.  “Whoever took them did so, most likely, without permission.”

“I guess you are right,” returned Tom.

“Anything I can do for you?” asked Frank Holden pleasantly.

“Nothing, thank you,” replied Dick; and then he and his brothers withdrew and made their way to their own rooms as silently as possible.  On the way they stopped at the doors of the rooms occupied by Koswell and Larkspur and listened.  The students within were snoring.

“No use,” said Tom softly.  “We’ll have to catch them some other way—­if they are guilty,” And his brothers agreed with him.

CHAPTER XVI

SOMETHING ABOUT A CANE

But if Koswell and Larkspur were guilty, they kept very quiet about it, and the Rover boys were unable to prove anything against them.  The bill for the cut-up tire came to Dick, and he paid it.

The college talk was now largely about football, and one day a notice was posted that all candidates for admission on the big eleven should register at the gymnasium.

“I think I’ll put my name down,” said Tom.

“And I’ll do the same,” returned Dick, “but I doubt if well get much of a show, since they know nothing of our playing qualities here.”

There were about thirty candidates, including thirteen who had played on the big team before.  But two of these candidates were behind in then studies, and had to be dropped, by order of the faculty.

“That leaves a full eleven anyway of old players,” said Sam.  “Not much hope for you,” he added to his brothers.

“They’ll do considerable shifting; every college team does,” said Dick; and he was right.  After a good deal of scrub work and a general sizing up of the different candidates, four of the old players were dropped, while another went to the substitutes’ bench.

It was now a question between nine of the new candidates, and after another tryout Dick was put in as a guard, he having shown an exceptional fitness for filling that position.  Tom got on the substitutes’ bench, which was something, if not much.  Then practice began in earnest, for the college was to play a game against Roxley, another college, on a Saturday, ten days later.