Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/139

 one of the leading pall-bearers no longer able to hold in, laughed aloud.

"For shame!" thundered Jere. "You think this is a laughing matter? You will wish you had not laughed—mark my words." And then he launched out upon a really remarkable flight of oratory, showing the folly of their proposed action, the certainty of detection, and the awfulness of the penalty, concluding by beseeching them in the name of humanity, in the name of honor, and most of all for the fair name of the university, to stop before it was too late. At the end of his peroration he was standing before the bier with both hands raised in adjuration.

"Curfew shall not ring to-night," whispered one of the Seniors in the background, but they were all somewhat impressed with the oratory that had been displayed. They had not known him capable of it.

"Finally, for the last time," he cried in a tremulous voice, "will you turn back, or must we force you back?" He beckoned excitedly to the crowd to close in about the bier.