Young Stevens had no definite recollection of how he ever got to bed;
but he awoke next morning with a wretched headache and found himself in
a red coat, with the epaulets and gold lace of an officer. By degrees,
the whole thing came back to him.
Terrence came in a few moments later, a smile on his face, as he
remarked they were in "the divil's own scrape."
"Why?" asked Fernando.
"We should have taken the clothes back to the captain."
Fernando, who was in total ignorance of the manner in which the uniform
was procured, asked:
"How did you get them?"
Terrence told him the whole story, and Fernando, despite his wretched
headache, laughed until the tears coursed down his cheeks.
"That's not all, me foine boy. The whole thing is out. The papers
printed this morning are full of it. They say the captain was seen just
before daylight goin' down the street to his boat with a sheet wrapped
about him."
Again the youngsters roared. It was such a madcap frolic as students,
utterly reckless of consequences, might engage in; but, after all, it
was a serious affair. The clothes had to be returned; then the
perpetrators of the outrage would be known at the college, and they
might be expelled from the institution in disgrace.
The clothes were returned. That was a point of honor which Fernando
insisted upon, as he would neither agree to steal or wear stolen goods.
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