heads. Then of a sudden a delicate youth who looked like a girl arose in astonishment and held up his hands.
"Well, I declare!" he lisped.
"What now, Polly?" asked Phil.
"I wonder if it is really possible," went on Bertram Vane.
"What possible?" questioned Dave.
"Why, when I was coming through the hall a while ago I almost ran into Nat Poole. He had something in one hand, under his handkerchief, and as I passed him I really thought I smelt mince pie!"
"Nat Poole!" cried several.
"Oh, the sneak!" burst out Roger. "He must have been watching Dave. Maybe he heard us promise Murphy the pie."
"Bad luck to him if he stole what was coming to me," muttered the monitor. "I hope the pie choked him."
"If Nat Poole took the pie we'll fix him for it," said Dave. "Just you leave it to me." Then he got another portion of the dainty and handed it to the monitor, who disappeared immediately.
"What will you do?" questioned Roger.
"Since Nat has had some pie I think I'll treat him to some chicken salad," was the reply. "Nothing like being generous, you know."
"Why, Dave, you don't mean you are going to let Nat Poole have any of this nice salad!" cried Phil. "I'd see him in Guinea first!"
"He shall have some – after it has been properly doctored."
"Eh? Oh, I see," and the shipowner's son began to grin. "All right then. But doctor it good."
"I shall make no mistake about that," returned Dave.
While Shadow was telling a story of a little boy who had fallen down a well and wanted somebody to "put the staircase down" so he could climb up, Dave went to a small medicine closet which he had purchased during his previous term at Oak Hall. From this he got various bottles and powders and began to "doctor" a nice portion of the chicken salad.
"Say, Dave, that won't hurt anybody, will it?" asked Ben, who saw the movement.
"It may hurt Nat Poole, Ben."
"Oh, you don't want to injure him."
"This won't do any harm. I am going to give him what Professor Potts called green peppers. Once, when he was particularly talkative, he related how he had played the joke on a fellow-student at college. It won't injure Nat Poole, but if he eats this salad there will surely be fun, I can promise you that."
"How are you going to get it to him?"
"Take it to him myself."
"You! He'll be suspicious at once and won't touch it."
"Perhaps not – we'll wait and see."
When the feast was practically at an end, Dave put the doctored salad in a dessert dish, topping it with some that was sweet and good. On all he laid some fancy crackers which one of the boys had contributed.
"Now, here is where I try the trick," he said, and put on a sweater, leaving the upper portion partly over his face. Then, leaving his dormitory, he tiptoed his way to No. 13 and pushed open the door softly.
As he had surmised, Nat Poole had gone to bed and had just fallen asleep. Going noiselessly to his side, Dave bent over him and whispered into his ear:
"Here, Nat, is something I stole for you from that crowd that was having the feast. Eat it up and don't tell the other fellows."
"Eh, what? The feast?" stammered Nat, and took the plate in his hand. "Who are you?"
"Hush!" whispered Dave, warningly. "Don't wake the others. I stole it for you. Eat it up. I'll tell you how I did it in the morning. It's a joke on Dave Porter!" And then Dave glided away from the bed and out of the room like a ghost, shutting the door noiselessly after him.
Half asleep, Nat Poole was completely bewildered by what he heard. In the semi-darkness he could not imagine who had brought the dish full of stuff. But he remembered the words, "eat it up" and "don't tell the other fellows" and "a joke on Dave Porter." That was enough for Nat. He sat up, looked at the fancy crackers and the salad, and smacked his lips.
"Must have been one of our old crowd," he mused. "Maybe Shingle or Remney. Well, it's a joke on Dave Porter right enough, and better than taking that pie he left for Murphy." And then he began to munch the crackers and eat the salad, using a tiny fork Dave had thoughtfully provided. He liked chicken salad very much, and this seemed particularly good, although at times it had a bitter flavor for which he could not account.
Peering through the keyhole of the door, Dave saw his intended victim make way with the salad. Then he ran back to his dormitory.
"It's all right," he said. "Now all of you undress and go to bed, – and watch for what comes!"
CHAPTER V
WHAT HAPPENED TO NAT POOLE
The students of dormitories No. 11 and No. 12 scarcely had time to get to bed when they heard a noise in the apartment Nat Poole and some others occupied. First came a subdued groan, followed by another, and then they heard Nat Poole get up.
"What's the matter?" they heard a student named Belcher ask.
"Why – er – I'm burning up!" gasped Nat Poole. "Let me get a drink of water!" And he leaped from his bedside to where there was a stand with a pitcher of ice-water and a glass.
He was so eager to get the water that, in the semi-darkness, he hit the stand with his arm. Over it went, and the pitcher and glass fell to the floor with a crash. The noise aroused everybody in the dormitory.
"What's the matter?"
"Are burglars breaking in?"
"Confound the luck!" muttered Nat Poole. "Oh, I must get some water! I am burning up alive!"
"What's done it?" questioned Belcher.
"I – er – never mind now. I am burning up and must have some water!" roared the dudish pupil, and dashed out of the dormitory in the direction of a water tank located at the end of the hall.
Here he was a little more careful and got the drink he desired. But scarcely had he taken a mouthful when he ejected it with great force.
"Wow! how bitter that tastes!" he gasped. Then of a sudden he commenced to shiver. "Wonder if that salad poisoned me? Who gave it to me, anyhow?"
He tried the water again, but it was just as bitter as before. Then he ran to a bathroom, to try the water there. By this time his mouth and throat felt like fire, and, thoroughly scared, he ran back to his sleeping apartment and began to yell for help.
His cries aroused a good portion of the inmates of Oak Hall, and students came from all directions to see what was the matter. They found poor Nat sitting on a chair, the picture of misery.
"I – I guess I'm poisoned and I'm going to die!" he wailed. "Somebody better get a doctor."
"What did you eat?" demanded half a dozen boys.
"I – er – I ate some salad a fellow brought to me in the dark.
