“Good for you Rover.”

“There she goes!” cried Tom a few seconds later, and in a moment more the door was opened and Tubbs stood in the hallway with the Rover boys.

Tubbs was about to say something, when Sam suddenly caught him by the arm.

“Hush!” he whispered.  “Somebody is coming!  I hope it isn’t old Grinder!”

CHAPTER IV.

Dormitory number two.

For the moment none of the three students knew what to do.  They felt that if the approaching personage should be Jasper Grinder there would certainly be “a warm time of it,” to say the least.

Yet the approaching man was not the teacher, but Peleg Snuggers, the man of all work around the Hall, a good-natured individual, well liked by nearly all the students.  Snuggers was in the habit of taking many a joke from the scholars, yet he rarely retaliated, contenting himself with the saying that “boys will be boys.”

“It’s Snuggers!” whispered Sam, after a painful pause.  “What shall we do?”

“Perhaps we can get him to keep quiet,” returned Tom, also in a low voice.  “He’s a pretty good sort.”

“Do—­don’t trust him,” put in Tubbs, in a trembling voice.  “If I’m put back in that cell I’ll die; I know I will!”

“I have it,” said Tom, struck by a sudden idea.  “Into the storeroom with you, quick!

“But he may be coming after me!” said Sam.

“Never mind—­I’ll fix it.  Be quick, or the game will be up!”

On tiptoe the three students hurried into the storeroom and Tom shut the door noiselessly.  Then he slipped the key he still held into the lock and turned it.

“Now groan, Sam,” he whispered.  “Pretend to be nearly dead, and ask Peleg to bring Grinder here.”

Catching the idea, Sam began to moan and groan most dismally, in the midst of which Peleg Snuggers came up.

“Poor boy, I reckon as how he’s nearly stiff from the cold,” murmured Snuggers.  “And this bread and water won’t warm him up nohow.  I’ve most a mind to bring him some hot tea on the sly, and a sandwich, too.”

The general utility man tried to insert a key in the lock, but failed on account of the key on the inside.

“Oh! oh!” moaned Sam.  “Help! help!”

“What’s the row?” questioned Snuggers.

“Is that you, Snuggers?”

“Yes, Master Rover.”

“I’m most frozen to death!  My feet and ears are frozen stiff already!”

“It’s a shame!”

“Tell Mr. Grinder to come here.”

“He won’t come, I’m afraid.  He just sent me with some bread and water for you and for Master Tubbs.”

“Water?  Do you want me to turn into ice?  Oh, Snuggers, please send him.  I know I can’t stand this half an hour longer.  I’ll be a corpse!”

“All right, I’ll fetch him,” answered Snuggers.  And setting down the pitcher of water and loaf of bread he had been carrying he hurried off.