CHAPTER XXIII

THE RUSH TO COVENTRY CENTER

“The sophs have found out where the canes are,” Peter John almost shouted.

“They have?  How do you know?” demanded Will.

“I was in my bedroom and I heard them talking with Mott in our study room.”

“Who?”

“Tucker, Spencer, and Goodman.”

“What did they say?”

“They said the canes were over in Coventry Center, at the minister’s house there.”

Coventry Center was a little hamlet about seven miles distant from Winthrop, and the excited freshmen had indeed stored a part of their canes in the house of the worthy old minister of the village.  They had frankly explained to him what their purpose was and he had laughingly consented to receive the coveted possessions in his home and store them there for the four days that intervened between the time and St. Patrick’s day.  And the freshmen had been confident that their hiding-place would not readily be discovered.  No one would suspect that the parsonage would be selected or the worthy minister would act as a guard.  To make assurance doubly certain, however, only half of the canes had been entrusted to the minister, and even those were divided—­a bundle containing a dozen being placed in the woodshed and the remaining being stored beneath the hay in the little loft of the barn.  The other half of the class canes had been taken to a farmhouse a mile distant from the parsonage and there concealed in an unused well, the mouth of which was filled with rubbish and the debris of a shed that had been blown down by a severe windstorm that had occurred a few weeks before this time.

As the utmost care had been observed by the committee having in charge the purchase of the canes, and they had stealthily in a stormy night taken their precious burdens to the two places of concealment they had been confident, over-confident now it appeared, that their actions had not been discovered.

Will and Foster had both served on the committee that had purchased and hidden the canes, and when Peter John brought his unwelcome tidings that the rival class was aware of the place where the canes had been stored, it was difficult for them to determine whether anger or chagrin was uppermost in their feelings.  At all events they both were greatly excited, and Will said as he hastily rose from his chair: 

“How did they find it out?”

“I don’t know.  I didn’t hear them say,” replied Peter John.

“Did they find out that you were there?”

“No, they left before I came out of my room.  The door was partly open and I didn’t dare stir hand or foot.”

“Lucky for you, Peter John.”

“Yes.  I know it.”

“What are they going to do?” inquired Foster, who up to this time had been silent.

“They’ve gone over to get the canes.”