“Sure!” came the quick chorus.

“And I wouldn’t stand for any ill-treatment of my friends, or my class.  But I put the school above my own feelings, and my class next.  And you ought to, also, Tom.  If you feel that you have to take it out of Sam and Nick, do it—­er—­well—­say privately,” and Bruce whispered the word with a smile.

There was a murmur of understanding.

“But what’s the experiment?” asked Tom, curious to know what his friend would propose.

“It’s this,” answered Bruce.  “If I prove to you that you’d have trouble in rallying the whole Sophomore class under your banner, Tom, to take some action against Sam, will you agree to let the matter drop, for a time, at least?”

Tom did not answer at once.  He looked at Bruce, who returned his gaze steadily.  Then, somehow understanding that his friend had a deeper meaning than he had yet disclosed, our hero replied: 

“Go ahead; Bruce.  I’m with you.  Lead on to the experiment, as you call it.”

“Do you all agree?” inquired the older lad.  “Will you let this matter rest until you hear from Tom again?”

“Sure,” answered Jack and Bert, and the others chorused an assent.

“Then you wait until I send for you, Tom,” went on the post-graduate student.  “It may take a day or so to get the experiment in shape.”

There were murmurs of surprise as Bruce bowed himself out, and some were still rather in favor of taking summary action against Sam and Nick.  But Tom said: 

“No, I’ve passed my word, and that goes.  Bruce knows what he’s talking about, and we’ll wait and see what he has up his sleeve.  If his experiment doesn’t work, he’ll be the first one to admit it, and then he’ll say the bars are down, and we can do as we like.”

As he finished there came across the campus the sound of a bell ringing.

“Well, I know what I’m going to do right now, and that is get ready for grub!” exclaimed Bert.  “Sam and Nick can wait for all of me, but I’m hungry.”

Soon a merry party had gathered in the big dining room, for more students had arrived by later trains, or other conveyances, and Tom and his chums were kept busy renewing old acquaintances, or making new ones.

“There are a raft of Freshies,” commented Jack to his chum, as they lingered over the dessert.  “We’ll have our hands full hazing them, all right!”

“Oh, we can do it,” declared Bert.  “We always have.”

“Humph!  We’ve been Sophs such a terrible long time,” murmured Tom with a smile.

Discipline was rather lax that night, and there was much visiting to and fro in the rooms.  The proctor and the professors were kept busy registering new students and did not pay much attention to the older ones, including Tom and his chums, who made merry.

“Oh, you boys!” exclaimed Demosthenes Miller, or “Demy” as he was called—­the studious janitor.  “Oh, you boys!  Will you ever settle down?”