Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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THE LOYOLA ANNUAL 15 Room 44. Come quick.” Burlington sank to the floor on his knees. ‘‘Oh, please lady, please let us go. It’s all a mistake. We were looking for a little boy to take him for a walk.” “Going to what?” she asked wildly. “Take him for a walk, that is, I mean, to haze him,” replied Burlington with little hope of mercy. “Haze a little boy? Oh, you cruel monsters. What is his name?” “Nelson,” he purred sadly. “My brother,” she gasped and fell back upon the bed. “Oh, what is the world coming to. How lucky I was to save the life of my poor little brother from a gang of ruffians. Oh, I hope every one of you will get a life sentence.” “Oh, please, lady, do let us go. We are innocent boys and we meant no harm” — ‘ What?. No harm with that rope?. Oh, you cruel, hard- hearted man. How can you tell a lie when you face the gal- lows?” “Oh, dear lady, if you let us go, we’ll go to our mothers and”— “I hear them coming,” she shouted joyously, and Burlington, the husky sophomore, listened while a big tear rolled down his face and into his open mouth. “This will ruin our characters forever,” he said sobbingly, and he wiped his eyes with a huge, febrile hand. Burlington then resorted to prayer, entreaty having failed. “Oh, what will your poor mothers say when they see this in the papers? Poor men!” and she wept, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Poor men! I feel something softening my heart tov ard you. Some prayer of yours is being answered.” At this Burlington poured heart and soul into his intercessions and raced over different litanies, waylaying all distractions.

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14 THE LOYOLA ANNUAL der, for Nelson had leaped into social popularity in a day and had even fluttered some immutable hearts that hitherto had remained unsusceptible to the gallantry of noble sophomores. Outside on the dew-moistened grass seven sophomores were sitting behind the hedge that encircles Chester Hall. “Are you sure his sister has gone?” inquired one. “Yes, dead cer- tain she took the 4.20 train this afternoon,” came an answer. Then followed a fracas of short duration which left them in doubt whether it was Nelson’s sister or the school teacher at Mountville who had taken the 4.20 train that afternoon. “Oh, let’s risk it,” said a burly sophomore, sizzling with expectation like the escape valve on a radiator. It was late and the corridor was as dark as the throat of a Numidian lion. “Room 44 at your command,” whispered a successful searcher who had been groping about and feeling the numbers on forty other doors. “Let’s go in one at a time all together,” said a humorously- inclined individual. “Oh, shut up and be serious,” growled one named Burlington, who was undoubtedly the ringleader. The window was up and the moon cast its beams on a luxuriant leopard-skin rug, giving the scene a weird effect. Over near the other end of the room was a bed and Burling- ton tiptoed slowly towards it. There on the bed lay a sleep- ing form with soft, effeminate features and arms as white as the pillow. He touched a hand and — it was a woman! At that moment she awoke with a cry of frightened alarm, bound- ed out of bed to the latchkey and rushed for the phone on the mantle-piece. The sophomores stood spellbound. “Hello, Exchange? Yes. Well, give me the police station, quick. It this the Captain? Well, I have seven burglars, what? Yes, seven, one, two, three, yes, seven, and I awoke and found them in my room this instant. One of them has a rope, evidently to lower my jewelry case. Yes, Chester Hall,

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16 THE LOYOLA ANNUAL “Now, unfortunate men, I will grant you a half hour ' s liberty to telegraph to your mothers a sad farewell. Extend to them my heartfelt sorrow, but tell them to bear up well as they will meet their sons in heaven. Now go. The patrol will call for you at the telegraph office in a half hour sharp.” It is true that they appeared at the telegraph office a half hour later, is it not? Yes, it is not. When those sophomores felt themselves in pure, unsophisticated liberty they struck out for their rooms like escaped convicts swimming for a foreign shore. “Gee, but this false hair came near falling off when I jumped out of bed,” said Nelson to himself as he closed the door. “But of all successful plots this was the greatest. Just to think that that telephone wire leads under that old Demos- thenes instead of into a police station. By the way. I ' ll have to sneak that back in the dean ' s office and connect it up again before dawn.” And he chuckled and laughed and felt proud. Did it get out? Why didn’t you ask if it was up to the North Pole by lo o ' clock? Why, it raced and raged around college like wildfire and students v rote home for cheques to treat Nelson, others fought for his company and fabricated all kinds of excuses just to be seen conversing with him. And the vanquished sophomores resolved never again to molest pink-cheeked boys with blue eyes and delicate, fair- skinned arms. Joseph J. Quinn, ' i6.