We had been so stunned by this horrible finale to our dinner that I don\u2019t think anyone moved until Sally Folsom\u2019s hysterical giggle broke the spell. There followed a few moments of excited discussion, mostly in monotones, while some of the boys admonished Harlan to \u201cbuck up,\u201d while others winked and talked about \u201chis having had too much.\u201d The girls had gone for their wraps, since now it seemed impossible to resume frivolities.<\/p>\n
There was a small but comfortable ante-room off the studio that Professor Kalin had allowed the boys to fit up for use during the winter months, and we had often taken turns at spending the night there when we wanted to work late or get an early morning start on some particularly interesting subject. It had been good-natured \u201cChubby\u201d Collins\u2019 for that weekend, but he took Harlan there and offered it to him in embarrassed sympathy;<\/p>\n
\u201cGo to bed, you sap, and get some shut-eye. That\u2019s what you need. I gotta take Betty home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTerrible, wasn\u2019t it? Gave me such a nasty twist, I can\u2019t get it out of my mind. Well, it\u2019s only seven o\u2019clock, Andy,\u201d he concluded. \u201cShall we go out for a little cool morning air, before we have breakfast and brighten up the place?\u201d<\/p>\n
We were about ready to leave when Bob came in.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you happen to be up so early ?\u201d he asked. \u201cHave you heard, too?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHeard what?\u201d I asked quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had been so stunned by this horrible finale to our dinner that I don\u2019t think anyone moved until Sally Folsom\u2019s hysterical giggle broke the spell. There followed a few moments of excited discussion, mostly in monotones, while some of the boys admonished Harlan to \u201cbuck up,\u201d while others winked and talked about \u201chis having…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pulp-classics","tag-stephen-andrews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}