Nevertheless, now that the conflagration was over, it was thought best
by all the students to get back to the college, so a little later the
crowd was rounded up by Spud and Stanley, and all climbed into the
automobile. Sam ran the car, and the return was made without special
incident.

"Say, Tom, if that wedding is to come off so soon, perhaps I had
better be saving up for a wedding present," remarked Sam, dryly, when
the two brothers were retiring for the night.

"I wouldn't advise you to start saving up just now," answered his
brother. "Better get some sleep first." And then he playfully shied a
pillow at Sam's head.

The next day nearly all the talk at Brill was about the fire and what
Tom had done towards rescuing Miss Harrow. Many insisted upon it that
Tom had enacted the part of a real hero, and he was interviewed by a
local reporter, and a number of newspapers printed quite an item about
the conflagration and the part he had played.

But the students had little time just now for anything outside of
their final examinations. Many papers had to be prepared, and poor Tom
often wondered how he would ever get through with any satisfaction,
either to himself or his instructors. With Sam, the task seemed much
easier, for, as Dick had once declared, Sam was "a regular bookworm,"
and no studies seemed to worry him in the least.

"If I get through at all, I shall be lucky," vouchsafed Tom, after
passing in a particularly hard paper.