"Oh, don't bother yourself about that, Buster," remarked Jack
Eastwick, coolly, "for I'd already made up my mind to see her
home."

"You have? I've got half a notion--but, no, this once won't count.
It isn't often you get a show, Jack, so improve the shining
opportunity," answered Buster, from the stoop of the Shadduck
home.

Of course, as the crowd wended its way back to the hall where the
glee club had met for this one occasion, while the assembly room
in high school was being repaired, the talk was wholly upon the
late "unpleasantness."

"It certainly was that to those chumps," laughed Lanky. "Oh, how
much we missed in not being on the spot! All Buster's faults for
stumbling when he did, and letting go of the rope. Why under the
sun didn't he hold on with a death grip?" demanded Tom Budd.

"Hold on? Goodness gracious, that dog would have dragged him over
every rock and stump for a mile. A pretty sight he'd have been
after that. I think Buster showed the finest judgment of his life
in knowing when to _let go_!" said Lanky.

"Yes, that's so. They say a stitch in time saves nine. Think how
many stitches would have been needed to sew Buster up if he needed
mending," spoke up Sorreltop.

When finally they arrived at the hall, the girls, and those among
the boys who had failed to join in the hunt, were, of course, just