Tom arose reluctantly, and, as he did so, there came a knock on the door.
"If you please," he said, "Captain Woodhouse wants you gentlemen to come out on the gridiron at once, for practice."
"Of course!" cried Tom. "We were nearly forgetting that in the excitement over the chair. Tell the captain we'll be right out."
There was hard, snappy practice against the unfortunate scrub, and as it progressed the captain and coach looked more gratified than at any time that season.
"They're fit, all right," declare Kindlings, with sparkling eyes.
"I think they'll do," agreed Mr. Lighton, "but you've got the fight of your life ahead of you, old man."
Tom and his three chums returned from practice for a brief rest before the game. It was a holiday, with no lessons or lectures to mar the sport.
"First shot at the chair!" cried Tom, as he burst into the room. He threw himself into the big piece of upholstered furniture. There was a sudden cracking, breaking and tearing sound, and the whole bottom of the chair seemed to drop out. A cloud of dust arose. Tom was like a person who had sat upon a barrel, the head of which had collapsed.
"Oh, wow!" he cried, as he vainly struggled to get up. "I say, can't some of you fellows give me a hand?"
"What's the matter, hurt?" asked Phil, anxiously.
"No, but I'm wedged in here as if I'd sat on a drum."
They pulled him out, and through the settling cloud of dust gazed at the ruin.
"Now you have gone and done it," said Sid, reproachfully.
"I guess I have," admitted Tom, regretfully, as he moved the chair to one side. Several of the bottom boards were on the floor. On top of them, amid a little pile of dirt and splinters, was a folded paper. Tom picked it up. He knocked the dust from it and slowly and wonderingly read several lines of writing on the front, and, as he read, a look of bewilderment came over his face.
"Why--why, fellows!" he exclaimed. "Look--look here! A deed--an old deed given by Simon Hess to Jacob Randall, in consideration of--and so forth and so forth--for the purpose of--um--setting aside land on which to erect a college. Why, great Cæsar's grandmother's pumpkin pie!" almost yelled Tom, "this is the missing quit-claim deed that everyone is looking for! The deed on which the title to the college depends! It was in that old chair!"