The following day they started back for Putnam Hall, and on the way met Larry, Frank, Fred, and a number of others.  When Ithaca was reached a surprise awaited the crowd.  The weather was so cold that the ice impeded transportation, and the Golden Star was not making her usual trips to Cedarville and other points.

“Here’s a state of things!” cried, Tom.  “What’s to do —­ walk to Putnam Hall?”

“Well, hardly, seeing that it is a good number of miles and the weather is bitterly cold.”

“Well, if we can’t walk and can’t ride, how are we to get there?” came from Sam.

“That’s the conundrum, Brudder Bones,” laughed Larry, imitating a negro minstrel.  “I’se gib it up, sah!”

“It’s no laughing matter,” said Dick.  “We might stay in Ithaca over night, but traveling may be no better in the morning.”

“Let us send a telegram to Captain Putnam for instructions,” suggested Fred, and soon the following message was prepared and sent to the Hall by way of Cedarville: 

“Six of us are held up at Ithaca by the cold.  How shall we come on?”

This message was forwarded without delay, and while awaiting an answer Dick and his brothers took a walk through the town.

They were passing down the main street when Sam uttered a short cry.

“Hullo, there is Josiah Crabtree!”

“Where?” questioned Dick with deep interest.

“Across the way.  He has just entered the jewelry store on the corner.”

“Say, perhaps he’s buying a wedding ring,” blurted out Tom before he stopped to think.

“Tom, that matter is no joke,” came from Dick, as his face grew red.  “I sincerely hope, for Dora Stanhope’s sake, that he never marries, Dora’s mother.”

“Oh, so do I,” answered Tom readily.

“Why, he isn’t fit to be stepfather to a dog!”

“Let us look into the window and see what he is doing,” suggested Dick uneasily, for he could not get it out of his head but that his brother’s guess might be correct.

The window was broad and clear, and they looked through it into the shop with ease.  Josiah Crabtree stood at the counter, talking to a clerk, who presently brought forth a tray of plain rings.

“It is a wedding ring, as sure as you are born!” cried Tom.

“I’m going in,” said Dick in a low tone.  “Wait for me here,” and he entered the establishment.  There were counters an both sides, and he walked to a position directly opposite to that occupied by the ex-schoolmaster.

“I wish to see some cheap scarf pins,” he said to the clerk who came to wait on him, and the man hurried off to bring on the articles mentioned.

“And is this the latest style of wedding ring?” Dick heard Josiah Crabtree say in a low voice.

“Yes, sir, the very latest —­ and very tasty,” answered the clerk who was waiting on him.

“I wish two, one for the lady and one for —­ ahem —­ myself.”