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“I guess I can rely upon you to keep my secret,” said Huggins, but it is hard to tell how he reached this conclusion. One single glance at that peaked, freckled face, whose every feature bore evidence to the sneaking character and disposition of its owner, ought to have satisfied him that his room-mate was not a boy who could be confided in.

“You may depend upon me every time,” said Lester, earnestly. “I’ll bring twenty good fellows to help you.”

“Oh, I can’t take so many boys with me,” said Huggins, looking up in surprise. “I couldn’t find berths for them.”

“Are you going off on a boat?”

“Of course I am. Some dark night, when all the rest of the fellows are asleep, I am going to slip out of here, take my foot in my hand and draw a bee-line for Oxford; and when I get there, I am going to ship aboard the first sea-going vessel I can find.”

“As a sailor?” exclaimed Lester.

“Certainly. I shall have to go before the mast; but I’ll not stay there, for I can hand, reef and steer as well as the next man, I don’t care where he comes from, and I understand navigation, too.”