Finally, from the lookout aloft came down the rousing hail:
"Here he comes! fellows! Here he comes! No---here _they_ come!
The whole crowd---Dick & Co.!"
A flutter passed through the crowd below, vet not one of the Gridley
H.S. boys stirred from the ranks just within the school yard gate.
Back on the main steps of the High School building nearly three
score of the young ladies were irregularly grouped. They were
silent, but expectant.
For "The Blade" had been read in many a Gridley home that morning.
The news had traveled fast over Gridley. Though the paper had
contained no announcement that Prescott would return to school,
every High School boy and girl had felt sure of that.
Down the street, three abreast, came Dick & Co., with proud, firm
stride. Very likely the partners were even more exultant than
was Prescott himself.
Then the freshman sextette came in full sight from the gateway.
"Who's this?" yelled Ben Badger in his loudest voice.
From the crowded tanks below welled up the chorus:
"Dick & Co.! Dick & Co.! Good old Dick! Bully old Co.!"
Prescott and his chums halted, thunderstruck by the volume and
force of that unexpected chorus.
Immediately on top of it rolled out lustily the complicated High
School yell, given with a vim never before heard off the football
field.
And then:
"What's the matter with Dick Prescott?" demanded Ben Badger, in
stentorian tones.
From one half of the H.S. boys came the roaring response:
"He's the whole cheese.
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