The Winning Touchdown: A Story of College Football
by Lester Chadwick · English · Gutenberg #41665 · 376,405 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Winning Touchdown: A Story of College Football
Author: Lester Chadwick
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[Illustration: HE RAISED THE BALL IN HIS ARMS, AND PLACED IT OVER THE
CHALK MARK.]
THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN
A Story of College Football
by
LESTER CHADWICK
Author of "The Rival Pitchers," "A Quarter-Back's
Pluck," "Batting to Win," etc.
Illustrated
New York
Cupples & Leon Company
* * * * *
BOOKS BY LESTER CHADWICK
=THE COLLEGE SPORTS SERIES=
12mo. Illustrated
Price per volume, $1.00 postpaid
THE RIVAL PITCHERS
A Story of College Baseball
A QUARTER-BACK'S PLUCK
A Story of College Football
BATTING TO WIN
A Story of College Baseball
THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN
A Story of College Football
(Other volumes in preparation)
_Cupples & Leon Company, Publishers, New York_
* * * * *
Copyright 1911, by
Cupples & Leon Company
THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A MYSTERY 1
II MORE BAD NEWS 8
III ON THE TRAIL 19
IV ANOTHER DISAPPEARANCE 26
V FOOTBALL TALK 36
VI IN PRACTICE 43
VII A NEW TIMEPIECE 53
VIII ANOTHER IDEA 61
IX A CLASH WITH LANGRIDGE 67
X THE BIG CALIFORNIAN 73
XI A NEW COMPLICATION 80
XII THE MISSING DEED 89
XIII THE FIRST GAME 98
XIV THE HAZING OF SIMPSON 109
XV THE MIDNIGHT BLAZE 120
XVI ANOTHER CLEW 129
XVII A CRASH IN THE GALE 136
XVIII WITH HAMMER AND SAW 141
XIX SUSPICIONS 150
XX THE CLOCK COMES BACK 158
XXI SEEKING EVIDENCE 167
XXII BASCOME DENIES 173
XXIII HALED TO COURT 181
XXIV DEFEAT 188
XXV BITTER DAYS 200
XXVI MOSES IN PHYSICS 206
XXVII THE DANCE CARD 213
XXVIII THE LEGAL BATTLE 225
XXIX ONE POINT LOST 233
XXX AN UNEXPECTED CLEW 240
XXXI AFTER THE CHAIR 249
XXXII "THIS ISN'T OURS!" 260
XXXIII A GREAT FIND 271
XXXIV THE EXCITED STRANGER 276
XXXV THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN 283
THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN
CHAPTER I
A MYSTERY
"Great Cicero's ghost!"
That was Tom Parson's exclamation.
"It's gone!"
A horrified gasp from Sid Henderson.
"Who took it?"
That was what Phil Clinton wanted to know.
Then the three college chums, who had paused on the threshold of their
room, almost spellbound at the astounding discovery they had made,
advanced into the apartment, as if unable to believe what was only too
evident. Tom came to a halt near his bed, and gazed warily around.
"It's sure enough gone," he went on, with a long breath.
"Somebody pinch me to see if I'm dreaming," begged Sid, and Phil gave
him such a vigorous nip on the fleshy part of his leg that the tall
youth howled.
"Turn over; you're on your back," advised Tom, as he got down on his
hands and knees to peer under the beds.
"What are you looking for?" demanded Phil.
"Our old armchair, of course. I thought maybe some of the fellows
had been in here trying to be funny, and had hidden it. But it isn't
here--it's gone."
"As if it could be under a bed!" exploded Sid, rubbing his leg
reflectively. "You must be getting batty!"
"Maybe he thought it could be reduced to fractions or acted on by
chemicals, like some of the stuff in the laboratory test tubes," went
on Phil.
"That's all right!" fired back the varsity pitcher, rather sharply,
"it's gone, isn't it? Our old armchair, that stood by us, and----"
"And on which _we_ stood when we couldn't find the stepladder,"
interrupted Phil.
"Oh, quit your kidding!" expostulated Tom. "The old chair's gone; isn't
it?"
"You never said a truer word in all your life, my boy," declared Sid,
more gravely.
"Sort of queer, too," declared Phil. "It was here when we went out to
football practice, and now----"
"Well, all I've got to say is that I'd like to find the fellow who took
it!" broke out Tom, dramatically. "I'd make a complaint to the proctor
about him."
"Oh, you wouldn't do that; would you, Tom?" and Phil Clinton stepped
over to a creaking old sofa, and peered behind it, brushing up against
it, and causing a cloud of dust to blow out about the room. "You
wouldn't do that, Tom. Why, it isn't Randall spirit to go to the
authorities with any of our troubles that can be settled otherwise."
"But this isn't an ordinary trouble!" cried the pitcher. "Our old chair
has been taken, and I'm going to find out who's got it. When I do----"
He clenched his fists suggestively, and began to strip off his football
togs, preparatory to donning ordinary clothes.
"It isn't back there," announced Phil, as he leaned upright again, after
a prolonged inspection behind the big sofa. "But there's a lot of truck
there. I think I see my trigonometry." Getting down on his hands and
knees, and reaching under the antiquated piece of furniture, he pulled
out not one but several books.
"Oh, come out and let the stuff back of the sofa alone," suggested Tom.
"We can clean that out some other time," for the big piece of furniture
formed a convenient "catch-all" for whatever happened to be in the way
of the lads. If there was anything they did not have any immediate use
for, and for which room could not be found in, or on, the "Chauffeurs,"
as Holly Cross used to call the chiffonniers, back of the sofa it went,
until such time as the chums had an occasional room-cleaning. Then many
long-lost articles were discovered.
"Yes, there's no use digging any more," added Sid. "Besides, the chair
couldn't be there."
"Some of the fellows might have jammed it in back of the sofa, I
thought," spoke Phil. "But say, this is serious. We can't get along
without our chair!"
"I should say not," agreed Tom, who was almost dressed. "I'm going out
scouting for it. Bascome, Delafield or some of those fresh sports may
have taken it to get even with us."
"They knew we cared a lot for it," declared Sid. "Ever since we had that
row about it with Langridge, the time we moved into these dormitories,
some of the fellows have rigged us about it."
"If Langridge were here we could blame him, and come pretty near being
right," was Phil's opinion. "But he's at Boxer Hall yet--at least, I
suppose he is."
"Yes, he's on their eleven, too, I hear," added Tom. "But this sure is a
mystery, fellows. That chair never walked away by itself. And it's too
heavy and awkward for one fellow to carry alone. We've got to get busy
and find it."
"We sure have," agreed Phil. "Why, the room looks bare without it;
doesn't it?"
"Almost like a funeral," came mournfully from Sid, as he sank into the
depths of the sofa. And then a silence fell upon the inseparable chums,
a silence that seemed to fill the room, and which was broken only by the
ticking of a fussy little alarm clock.
"Oh, hang it!" burst out Tom, as he loosened his tie and made the knot
over. "I can't understand it! I'm going to see Wallops, the messenger.
Maybe he saw some one sneaking around our rooms."
"If we once get on the trail----" said Phil, significantly.
"It sure is rotten luck," spoke Sid, from the depths of the sofa. "I
don't have to do any boning to-night, and I was counting on sitting in
that easy chair, and reading a swell detective yarn Holly Cross loaned
me. Now--well, it's rotten luck--that's all."
"It certainly is!" agreed a voice at the door, as the portal opened to
give admittance to Dan Woodhouse--otherwise Kindlings. "Rotten luck
isn't the name for it. It's beastly! But how did you fellows hear the
news?"
"How did we hear it?" demanded Tom. "Couldn't we see that it wasn't here
as soon as we got in our room, a few minutes ago? But how did you come
to know of it? Say, Kindlings, you didn't have a hand in it, did you?"
and Tom strode over toward the newcomer.
"Me have a hand in it? Why, great Cæsar's grandmother! Don't you suppose
I'd have stopped it if I could? I can't for the life of me, though,
understand where you heard it. Ed Kerr only told me ten minutes ago, and
he said I was the first to know it."
"Ed Kerr!" gasped Phil. "Did he have a hand in taking our old chair?"
"Your chair?" gasped Dan. "Who in the world is talking about your fuzzy
old chair?"
"Hold on!" cried Tom. "Don't you call our chair names, Kindlings,
or----"
"Tell us how you heard about it," suggested Sid.
"Say, are you fellows crazy, or am I?" demanded Dan, looking about in
curious bewilderment. "I come here with a piece of news, and I find you
firing conundrums at me about a chair that I wouldn't sit in if you gave
it to me."
"None of us is likely to sit in it now," spoke Phil, gloomily.
"Why not?" asked Dan.
"Because it's gone!" burst out Tom.
"Stolen," added Sid.
"Vanished into thin air," continued Phil.
"And if that isn't rotten luck, I don't know what you'd call it," put
in the pitcher, after a pause, long enough to allow the fact to sink
into Dan's mind. "Isn't it?"
"Say, that's nothing to what I've got to tell you," spoke Dan.
"Absolutely nothing. Talk about a fuzzy, musty, old second-hand chair
missing! Why, do you fellows know that Ed Kerr is going to leave the
football team?"
"Leave the eleven?" gasped Phil.
"What for?" cried Tom.
"Is that a joke?" inquired Sid.
"I only wish it were," declared Dan, gloomily. "It's only too true. Ed
just got a telegram stating that his father is very ill, and has been
ordered abroad to the German baths. Ed has to go with him. I was with
him when he got the message, and he told me about it. Then he went
to see Dr. Churchill, to arrange about leaving at once. That's the
rottenest piece of luck Randall ever stacked up against. It's going to
play hob with the team, just as we were getting in shape to do Boxer
Hall and Fairview Institute. Talk about a missing chair! Why, it simply
isn't in it!"
Once more a gloomy silence, at which the fussy little alarm clock seemed
to rejoice exceedingly, for it had the stage to itself, and ticked on
relentlessly.
CHAPTER II
MORE BAD NEWS
"And so Ed is going to leave," mused Tom, after a momentous pause. "It
sure will make a hole in the team."
"Oh, it's got me all broke up," gloomily declared Kindlings, who was
captain of the recently organized eleven. "I don't know what I'm going
to do to fill his place, and Mr. Lighton, while he says we'll make out
somehow, feels pretty bad over it. But it can't be helped, of course,
for Ed has to go."
For the time being, the news of the loss of one of Randall's best
football players overshadowed the matter of the missing chair. Tom had
changed his mind about going out to see if he could get on the trail
of who had taken it, and sat with Kindlings and his two other chums,
discussing what could be done to replace Kerr as right half-back.
"Bricktop Molloy might work in there," suggested Phil, "only he's too
good a tackle to take out of the line."
"Why can't you go there yourself, Phil?" asked Tom. "You've done some
playing back of the line."
"No, I need Phil at quarter," objected Dan. "We'll have to think of
something else. If I didn't need you at end, Tom, I'd try you in Ed's
place."
"Oh, I'm no good bucking the line," objected the tall lad who pitched
for the 'varsity nine.
"What's the matter with one of the Jersey Twins?" asked Sid.
"Both Jerry and Joe Jackson are too light," and Dan shook his head.
There were many suggestions, and various expedients offered, and, while
the discussion is under way perhaps a moment can be spared to make our
new readers a little better acquainted with the main characters of this
story.
In the initial volume of this "College Sports Series," entitled, "The
Rival Pitchers," there was told the story of how Tom Parsons, a rather
raw country lad, came to Randall College, made the 'varsity nine, and
twirled the horsehide in some big games, thereby doing much to help win
the pennant for Randall. He had an uphill fight, for Fred Langridge, a
rich bully, contested with him for the place in the box, and nearly won
out. There was fierce rivalry between them, not only in baseball, but
concerning a certain Miss Madge Tyler.
In the second volume, called "A Quarter-Back's Pluck," there was related
how Phil Clinton went into the championship game under heavy odds, and
how he won out, though his mind dwelt more on a fake telegram in his
pocket, telling him that his mother was dying, than on the game, and on
the players whom he at last piloted to victory.
A winter of study followed the games on the gridiron, and with the
advent of spring, longing eyes were cast toward the baseball diamond
whereon, as soon as it was dry enough, the Randall lads gathered to
prepare for the season.
In the third book of the series, called "Batting to Win," there was told
the story of how Randall triumphed over her rivals, though at first it
looked as if she would lose. A loving cup had been offered, to be played
for by members of the Tonoka Lake League, of which Randall College was a
member, and how it was won forms the subject of the story.
Incidentally, there was quite a mystery concerning Sidney Henderson, or
"Sid," as he was universally called. From the opening of the season his
conduct was peculiar, and there were many unjust suspicions regarding
him. It was not until near the end, when he had been barred from the
games, that the cause of his actions became known.
Then, at the last moment, when Randall was losing the final game of the
series, which was a tie between her team and that of Boxer Hall, the ban
was removed, Sid rushed upon the diamond, and batted to win.
The baseball season had closed, summer had come, and with it the long
vacation. Now that was passed, and from mountains, lakes and seaside the
students had come trooping back to Randall. All our old friends were on
hand, and some new ones, whom we shall meet from time to time. As the
weather became cool enough, the football squad had been put to work
under the watchful eye of Captain Dan Woodhouse, and the coach, Mr.
Lighton.
Before I go on with the story I want to add, for the benefit of new
readers, a little bit of history about the college.
Randall was located in a town of the middle west, and not far from the
institution ran Sunny River, a stream that afforded boating opportunities
for the students. It emptied into Tonoka Lake, which body of water gave
the name to the athletic league, made up of Randall, Boxer Hall, Fairview
Institute,--the latter a co-educational place of learning,--and several
other smaller academies. Haddonfield was the nearest town to Randall
College, and thither the lads went whenever chance afforded.
Venerable Dr. Albertus Churchill was the head of the college, and even
though he was privately dubbed "Moses" by the lads, it was not in any
spirit of disrespect, for they all loved and admired him. It was quite
the contrary with Professor Emerson Tines, the "Latin dreadful," and
when I state that he was called "Pitchfork," his character is indicated
in a word. Hardly less disliked was Mr. Andrew Zane, the proctor, who
seemed to have a sworn enmity against the lads. But they managed to have
fun in spite of him. There were other members of the faculty, some liked
and some disliked, and occasionally there were changes in the teaching
staff.
As for Randall itself, it was a fairly large institution. There was the
main building, at the head of a large campus. Off to the left was the
athletic field, and somewhat to the rear was Booker Memorial chapel, the
stained glass windows of which were worth going miles to see.
To the right of the college proper was Biology Hall, the endowment gift
of an old graduate, and not far from that was the residence for the
faculty. Directly in the rear of the main building were the dormitories,
the east one for the freshmen and sophomores, and that on the west for
the juniors and seniors.
As for the lads who attended Randall, you will meet more or less of
them as this story progresses. Sufficient to say that Tom Parsons,
Phil Clinton and Sid Henderson roomed together, being called the
"inseparables." Among their friends they numbered many, Dan Woodhouse,
Billy or "Dutch" Housenlager, "Bricktop" Molloy, Jerry and Joe Jackson,
dubbed the "Jersey Twins," because they came from some town in the
Garden State. Then there was "Snail" Looper, so called because of
his propensity to prowl about in the dark; Pete Backus, nicknamed
"Grasshopper," because he aspired to be a jumper; "Bean" Perkins, who
could always be depended on to make a noise at a game, and many more.
There were some students not so friendly to our heroes, notably Fred
Langridge, who, because of a serious scrape, had withdrawn from Randall
and was now at Boxer Hall. Garvey Gerhart, his crony, who appeared in
previous books, had also left, and Ford Fenton, whose uncle always
formed a subject of boasting with him, because of the latter's former
ability as a coach at Randall, was among the missing. For Ford played a
mean trick on his classmates, and there was such a row raised over it
that his relatives advised him to quit.
And now, I believe, you have met all, or nearly all the lads of whom I
propose to tell you more. Of course there were the girls, Miss Tyler,
and Ruth Clinton--Phil's sister,--and Miss Mabel Harrison, who attended
Fairview. I will introduce them more particularly in due season.
"Say, how can you fellows stand that?" asked Dan, after a pause, during
which they had all done much thinking.
"Stand what?" asked Tom, starting out of a day dream, in which thoughts
over the loss of the chair and the loss of Kerr on the football team
were mingled.
"That clock. It gives me the fidgets," and Kindlings grabbing a book,
made as if to throw it at the timepiece.
With a quick motion, Phil stopped him, and the volume fell harmlessly to
the floor.
"It doesn't give you a chance to catch your breath," went on the
football captain. "Always seems to want you to hurry-up."
"I wish it would make Sid hurry-up some mornings, when the chapel bell
rings," remarked Tom. "The frowsy old misogynist--the troglodyte--lies
abed until the last minute. It would take more than that clock to get
_him_ up."
"Slanderer!" crooned Sid, unconcernedly, from the depths of the sofa.
"No, but seriously," went on Dan. "I can't see how you
stand it. It gives me the fidgets. It seems to say
'hurry-up--hurry-up--hurry-up--no-time--no-time--no-time'! Jove! I'd
get one of those old Grandfather clocks, if I were you. The kind that
reminds one of an open fire, in a gloomy old library, with a nice book,
and ticking away like this: 'tick----tock--tick----tock.' That's the
kind of a clock to have. But that monstrosity----"
He simulated a shudder, and turned up his coat collar as if a wind was
blowing down his back.
"Oh, you're just nervous worrying about what's going to happen to the
football team," spoke Phil. "Cheer up, old man, the worst is yet to
come. Suppose you'd been robbed of the finest armchair that ever you sat
in----"
"Finest fiddlesticks!" burst out Dan. "That chair had spinal meningitis,
I guess, or the dink-bots. Every time you sat in it you could tell how
many springs there were in the seat and back without counting. Ugh!" and
Dan rubbed his spine reflectively.
"But it's gone," went on Tom, "and I'd give a five-spot to know who took
it. Come on, fellows, let's go scouting around and see if we can get on
the trail of it. I'm glad they didn't take the clock or the sofa," and
he gazed at the two remaining articles which formed the most cherished
possessions of the inseparables. They had acquired the clock, chair and
sofa some time before, purchasing them from a former student on the
occasion of their becoming roommates, and though they had since secured
many new objects of virtu, their affections clung to these three
originals.
Their room was a typical college lads' apartment, hung with sporting
prints, boxing gloves, foils, masks, baseball bats, fishing rods, and in
certain places, like honored shrines, were the pictures of pretty girls.
"Well, are you fellows coming?" asked Tom, as he started for the door.
"Where?" inquired Phil, who still had on his football suit.
"To hunt for the chair. It _must_ be somewhere around the college. I
think it was taken for a joke, and if it was by any freshmen I'll make
'em wish they'd never come to Randall."
"I'm with you!" cried Sid.
"Oh, let's stay and talk about what we're going to do for the eleven!"
begged Dan. "But, for the love of cats, first stop that blamed clock, if
you don't want me to go crazy!"
His objection was so evidently genuine, that Phil halted the ticking by
the simple process of jabbing a toothpick in the slot of the timepiece
regulator.
"That's better," observed Kindlings. "Now, about Ed Kerr, I think the
best we can do is to----"
He got no further, for the door of the room was fairly burst open, and
in came the Jersey Twins.
"Have you heard the news?" demanded Joe Jackson.
"The news?" echoed Jerry.
"Sure! We knew it first," said Phil. "You mean about our chair being
stolen."
"Oh, hang your chair!" cried Dan.
"It's nothing about chairs," said Jerry, with a curious look.
"Not a word," came the echo.
"It's worse," went on Jerry.
"Much worse;" the echo.
"Oh, you mean about Ed Kerr having to leave," spoke Dan. "How'd you hear
it so soon? It will be all over college to-night, I guess."
"Ed Kerr going to leave?" gasped Jerry.
"Ed Kerr?" also gasped the echoing brother.
"Yes. Is that what you came to tell us?" demanded Sid, as he got up from
the sofa, not without some rather strenuous gymnastics, for once you
sank into the soft depths, it was difficult to arise unaided.
"No, we don't know anything about Ed leaving," went on Jerry, as he
looked from one to the other, "but Bricktop Molloy just told us that he
was going to quit next week, and go to----"
"Bricktop going to leave!" gasped Dan. "More bad news! Will it never
stop raining!" and he clung heavily with his arms around Tom's neck.
"Say, is this straight?" demanded Phil, excitedly.
"Sure! Bricktop told us himself," answered Joe.
"Where's he going?" inquired Sid.
"To New York. Going to take a special post-graduate course at Columbia,
he said. He's got a chance to get in with some big mining firm, and he's
got to work up on a few special studies. Oh, Bricktop is going to leave
all right."
"Then what's to become of the Randall football eleven?" demanded Dan, in
a tragic voice. "Two of her best players going to leave, and hardly time
enough to break other fellows into their places before the big games!
Oh, fellows, this is sure beastly luck!"
CHAPTER III
ON THE TRAIL
Oppressive silence once more filled the room--a silence unbroken by
the ticking of the clock this time, for it was mute, because of the
toothpick. But its accusing face seemed to look at the three chums, as
though begging to be allowed to speak, even if it did but mark the
passage of time.
"Maybe we can prevail on Bricktop to stay until after the big game with
Boxer Hall," suggested Tom, hopefully.
Jerry Jackson shook his head mournfully.
"I've tried it," he said. "I knew it would be a bad loss, so I asked
Bricktop to stay, but he said his whole future depended on this chance,
and he wouldn't feel that he was doing right if he let it slip."
"Talk about futures," murmured Dan, "what of the future of Randall?"
"It does seem sort of tough for Bricktop to leave just when we've all
got so we play so well together," commented Sid. "And only to go to
another college, too! It isn't like Ed, who has to go with his sick
father. I tell you Bricktop isn't doing right! He's deserting in the
face of the enemy, for both Boxer Hall and Fairview are after our scalps
this fall, because of the walloping we gave them last season. Bricktop's
a deserter!"
"Oh, don't be ugly," begged Tom. "Maybe we don't know all the facts. I'm
sure Bricktop wouldn't do anything mean."
"Oh, of course not," Sid hastened to say, "but you know what I mean. If
Bricktop----"
"Who's takin' me name in vain?" demanded a voice at the door--a voice
with just the hint of Irish brogue--and into the room was thrust a shock
of auburn--not to say reddish--hair, which had gained for the owner the
appellation of "Bricktop." "I say, who's desecratin' me reputation, of
which I have but a shred left--who's tearin' down me character behind
me back?" and Molloy, with a quick glance at his friends, entered and
threw himself beside Sid on the sofa, thereby making the old piece of
furniture creak most alarmingly.
"Easy! For cats' sake!" cried Sid, in alarm. "Do you want to deprive us
of our only remaining consolation, now that the chair is gone?"
"Surely not," answered the Irish lad. "Captain, I salute thee," and
Bricktop arose and bowed elaborately to Dan. "I gather from what I
heard, as I made my entrance, that you have received the unwelcome
news, my captain," and, though Bricktop was smiling, there was a sober
look in his blue eyes.
"Yes, we've heard it," answered Kindlings, shortly. "Is it true?"
"It is, my captain, and it's infernally sorry I am to have to confirm
it. But I've got to go, and that right soon."
"Um!" murmured the captain. "Well, the sooner the quicker, I suppose.
Kerr goes this week, also."
"What! Kerr going?" Bricktop was manifestly surprised.
"His father's sick--Europe--Ed's going with him," disjointedly declaimed
Tom.
"Whew!" whistled the Irish lad. "Now I _sure_ am sorry I'm leavin'. Not
that I'm any better than any other player, my captain, but I know what
it means to take two men out of the team at this late day."
"You're not throwing any bouquets at yourself," spoke Dan. "It's the
worst blow Randall has had in a long time. We were just at the point
where we had begun to gain ground after the long practice, and now----"
he shrugged his shoulders.
"Is there no way you can stay on?" asked Phil, softly.
Bricktop shook his head.
"It means a big thing to me," he declared. "I know it looks like
desertin', as ye call it, but, fellows, believe me, I'm not. It--it goes
to me heart as much as it does to yours," and Bricktop swallowed a big
lump in his throat. When he was much affected he always "degenerated to
the language of his forebears of the Emerald Isle," as he used to say.
And he was much affected now--there was no doubt of that. "I wish I
could stay--but I can't," he concluded, brokenly.
"Well, Randall will have to do the best she can," spoke Dan, after a
pause, and with a heavy sigh.
"Isn't there plenty of good material in the scrub, and some in the
Freshman eleven?" asked Sid.
[Illustration: "ISN'T THERE PLENTY OF GOOD MATERIAL IN THE SCRUB?" ASKED
SID.]
"Oh, it isn't so much a question of material, as it is breaking them
in," answered the captain. "The great fault with some of our playing in
the past was that we didn't have team work. This season we have it, and
after a lot of grind we fellows were playing together like one. Look how
we walked away with Dodville Prep in the first game of the season. That
showed what we could do. Now the team's going to be disrupted--two of
the best men----"
"Thanks, captain," interrupted Bricktop, with a short laugh.
"I mean it," went on Kindlings, energetically. "Two of our best men
leave, and it's almost too late to get others to run with the team like
the perfect machine it ought to be. But, we've got to do our best. Come
on, Bricktop, we'll go see Mr. Lighton, and hear what he has to say."
"There are a couple of new fellows coming soon," remarked Joe Jackson,
as he and his brother arose.
"Who are they?" asked Tom.
"One is Frank Simpson. I heard Bascome speaking of him the other day.
He's played on some western eleven, I believe, and has quite a name."
"Yes, those western fellows are big and strong," put in Jerry Jackson.
"Oh, you can't tell anything about it," said Dan, despairingly. "A new
fellow can't be broken in at this late day. I'll have to depend on some
of the scrub. Who else is coming to Randall? Do either of you twins
know?"
"I heard Proc. Zane talking to Moses about some new students who were
going to enter," replied Jerry, "but Simpson is the only one whose name
I heard mentioned."
"Come on, then," urged Dan. "We'll go see the coach. Maybe he has
someone in mind, and you can stay on a few days and help break him in,
Bricktop."
"Sure, I'll stay as long as I can," agreed the Irish lad. "It ought to
be easy to get someone to work in at left guard, where I play."
"We can't get anyone to beat you," spoke Dan, sincerely. "Well, I'm
going."
"If you see our old armchair walking around the campus, send it home,"
requested Phil, earnestly.
"Sure!" chorused his chums.
"Seriously though, fellows," said Tom, when the delegation had left the
room, "we've got to do something. Let's go out and make some inquiries.
It was a nervy thing for anyone to do, to come in here and carry off our
chair. I don't believe it was any freshmen."
"Neither do I," agreed Phil. "Wait until I dress and I'll be with you."
"Same here," added Sid.
"Oh, I can't wait!" cried Tom, impatiently. "I'll go out and see what I
can learn. You fellows come when you get ready. We've got plenty of time
before grub."
Tom's first act was to seek out Wallops, one of the assistant janitors,
or messengers, about the college. From that youth he inquired whether he
had seen anyone taking the chair away, or whether he had heard of it
being removed in a joke.
"What, you mean that old big chair that was so--so----" and Wallops
hesitated, evidently in embarrassment.
"Yes, that's the one--the old rattletrap!" exclaimed Tom. "Don't be
afraid to say it, Wallops. The chair was pretty well bunged up, but we
think a lot of it, and we wouldn't have it lost for a good deal. Can you
give us a clew?"
"Well, Mr. Parsons, I didn't see any one take it, but there was a
second-hand dealer around the college to-day. He comes every once in a
while, to buy up the things the students don't want any more. He was
here, and he took away a wagon-load of stuff."
"He did!" cried Tom. "Why didn't you say so before? Was our chair on the
wagon?"
"I didn't see that one, though he had some small chairs, and a bureau."
"Who was he? Where's his place? I'll go see him at once!" cried the
pitcher. "I'll wager he sneaked in our room, and took it while we were
out. Who was he?"
"Isaac Komsky," replied Wallops. "He has a second-hand store on Water
street, in Haddonfield. But I don't think----"
"That's the fellow all right!" cried Tom, excitedly. "I'll make him give
that chair up, if we have to tear his shop apart!" and he raced back to
the room to tell his chums.
CHAPTER IV
ANOTHER DISAPPEARANCE
"Hello! What's up?" demanded Sid, as he and Phil, about to leave their
apartment, were almost hurled from their feet when Tom burst in. "What
in the name of the Gaelic Wars ails you, Tom? Has some one else left the
team; or is the college on fire?"
"Yes, why this unseemly haste?" came from Phil, as he sank back on the
sofa and endeavored to recover his breath, which was almost at the
vanishing point because of the suddenness of his chum's advent.
"Haste? I guess you'd be in a hurry if you just heard what I did!"
exploded Tom. "I'm on the track of our chair! What's the matter with you
fellows, anyhow? I thought you were coming out and help me get on the
trail of it."
"Oh, Sid had to look at Miss Harrison's picture before he could venture
out," replied Phil, with a mocking grin at his chum. And then he dodged
to escape a book, while Tom murmured:
"You old misogynist! And me working like a detective to get on the trail
of our beloved chair! What kept you in, Phil?"
"Couldn't get his tie fixed to suit him," responded Sid, thus getting
one in on the quarter-back, who was rather noted for his taste in neck
scarfs.
"Well, come on, now!" urged the pitcher. "We've got time enough to get
to town and back before the 'eats,' and if we go now Proc. Zane won't be
so apt to spot us."
"What's the game?" asked Sid.
"Second-hand Shylock has our chair," explained Tom briefly, as he told
of the information Wallops had given him. "We'll go talk to him like a
Dutch uncle, and make him tell how he dared come into our rooms while we
were at practice. Come on!"
"The nerve of Komsky!" cried Phil. "I'm with you," and the three lads
hurried from the college, crossed the campus, and were headed for a
trolley that would take them to the village. They saw the car coming,
and were about to sprint for it, when Tom became aware of the figure of
a small, fussy little man striding toward them from behind a row of
trees, holding up his hand as if to command a halt.
"Zane!" gasped the pitcher.
"The proctor," added Phil, in a whisper. "He hasn't any right to stop us
now!"
But whether the official had the right or not, he was evidently going to
exercise it, and our heroes thought it better to obey.
"Well, young gentlemen," began the proctor, as he strode up to the trio,
"you are evidently going to the village."
"Yes, sir," answered Tom, meekly.
"There goes the car," remarked Sid in a low voice. "There won't be
another for half an hour, and we'll sure be late for grub. Hang Zane,
anyhow."
"May I ask how long you intend to remain?" went on the obnoxious college
official.
"Not very long," answered Phil. "We are going on an errand. We didn't
know it was against the rules not to leave the college grounds in
daylight, Mr. Zane." It was a sarcastic reference to the many somewhat
childish rules the proc. was in the habit of framing up from time to
time.
"There is no rule prohibiting students from leaving the grounds in
daylight, Mr. Clinton," said the proctor, severely, "but the reason I
stopped you is that I wish to point out that if you go to town now you
will hardly be back in time for supper, and that means that you will
probably get a meal in Haddonfield. Also, there is no set rule against
that, but Dr. Churchill does not like it. Staying to supper in the
village might mean that you would stay later, and I need hardly point
out that there _is_ a rule about being out after hours. That is all,"
and the little proctor walked stiffly away.
"Well, wouldn't that get your goat!" murmured Tom, when the official was
beyond hearing.
"I should say so; and also frizzle your back teeth," added Sid.
"Shall we go?" asked Phil, doubtfully.
"Of course," asserted Tom. "And we'll fool Zane, too. It won't take
us long to have it out with Komsky. Then we can go to one of those
quick-lunch places, have a bite, and get back to college in plenty of
time before locking up. We can arrange to have an expressman bring back
the chair."
"Good!" exclaimed Phil. "I was afraid you'd propose that we lug it back
on the car, and while I'd do a good deal to get it again, I think we'd
look foolish toting it home in our arms."
"Afraid of meeting some girls, I suppose," sneered Tom.
"Say, supposing Komsky hasn't got it," suggested Sid, while Phil
blushed.
"Perish the thought!" cried the pitcher. "We've _got_ to get our chair
back, and if that Shylock hasn't it some of the other second-hand
dealers in town have."
They strolled along, talking of the chair, the chances for a good
football team, and many other college matters until the next car came,
when they hopped aboard, and were soon in Haddonfield.
"Vell, young gentlemans, vot is it? Somedings nice vor de college room,
ain't it? Yes! No? Vell, Isaac Komsky has it vot effer you like, und
cheap! So help me gracious, I lose money on everyt'ing I sell! Now, vot
it is?"
Thus spoke the old second-hand dealer, when our three friends entered.
Eagerly he had come forward, rubbing his hands and wagging his long,
matted beard, while from under bushy eyebrows he peered at them with
eager orbs.
"We're looking for a chair, Komsky," said Tom, brusquely. "A nice, easy,
soft, comfortable chair that we can sit in."
"Oh, so! An easy chair is it? Vell, I haf many, und cheap! It is a shame
about de cheapness. Look, here is one, vot is so--vot you call--easy,
dot it vould make you schleepy efen ven you looket at it, ain't it?"
He thrust forward a most uncomfortable wooden rocker, with gaudy cushions
on the seat and back. The cushions were in Randall colors--yellow and
maroon--and the chair had evidently been sold by some student, either
because he needed the money or because he could afford better furniture.
"No, that's not the kind we want," said Tom, whose eyes were roving
about the cluttered-up shop. He and his chums had decided on the course
of pretending to want to buy a chair, with the idea that if Komsky had
taken theirs, by hook or crook, he would be more apt to show it if he
saw prospective customers, than if he knew they had come demanding their
rights. "We want an easier chair," went on Tom.
"Oh, an easier vun? Den I haf it. See!" and he brought to light a big
Turkish rocker, that was in the last stages of decay.
Meanwhile Sid and Phil had been strolling about, leaving Tom to engage
Komsky in conversation. The two looked in many corners, and peered under
heaps of furniture, but they did not see their chair. Nor, if the dealer
had it, did he show any desire to produce it. Tom looked at rocker after
rocker that was brought out, and at last, convinced that his method was
likely to prove a failure, he boldly stated the case, and demanded to
know, whether by mistake or otherwise, the dealer had taken their old
relic.
The surprise of Mr. Komsky was pitiful to observe. He all but tore out
his beard, and called upon his ancestors as far back as the sixteenth
generation to witness that he had not even seen the chair. He was an
honest man, he was a poor man, he was a man born to poverty and under an
unlucky star, but never, never, _never_! not if you were to give him a
million dollars, would he take a chair from a student's room, without
permission.
"For vy should I, ven I can buys dem efery day?" he demanded, with a
pathetic gesture of his forward-thrust hands.
"Well, I guess it isn't here," spoke Tom, regretfully, when they had
exhausted all the possibilities. "Yet you were at college to-day,
Komsky."
"Vy, sure I vos at der college to-day. Nearly efery veek I am there,
ain't it? Yet I have not your chair."
It was evident that he was telling the truth. He did not have the chair
then, though he might have had it, and have sold it to some other
student, perhaps one from Boxer Hall or Fairview, for those lads also
patronized the second-hand dealers, and Komsky was one of the largest.
"Cæsar's grandmother!" cried Tom, in dismay, as this possibility
suggested itself, "just suppose Langridge or some of those chaps had our
chair! Say, maybe Langridge put up the game!"
"Hardly possible," asserted Phil. "Come on, we'll have a look in some of
the other shops, then we'll get grub and hurry back. I think I saw
drops of blood in Zane's eye."
"He sure _would_ like to get our names down in his little book," said
Sid.
But a round of the other second-hand dealers, where inquiries were made,
developed nothing. There were many easy chairs on sale, but that of our
heroes was not to be seen, and sorrowfully they returned to the college.
It was long past the regular supper time, but they had satisfied their
hunger in Haddonfield. And, in spite of their troubles--their worriment
over the chair, and the mix-up that was sure to result in the football
team--they had managed to eat a good meal.
They saw Proctor Zane, as they strolled up over the campus, and the
official glanced sharply at them.
"He's just wishing we were coming in late," declared Tom.
"I believe you," assented Phil.
They entered their room, stumbling in the darkness over books and
chairs, for they never took the trouble to put their apartment to
rights.
"I say, strike a light, some one!" exclaimed Tom, rubbing his shins
where they had come in contact with a chair.
There was a click as Phil turned the electric switch, and the
incandescent glowed. For a moment the three chums stood in the middle
of the room, gazing at each other.
"Doesn't it seem lonesome without the old chair," spoke Phil at length.
"Sort of makes the room look bigger though," declared Sid, as he threw
himself on the sofa. It was a poor consolation at best.
"I can't imagine what has become of it," said Tom, as he proceeded to
get into some lounging clothes.
"Well, now for some boning, and maybe we'll forget our troubles," went
on Phil, as he scattered a pile of books, looking for his own.
"Are you going to the football meeting to-night?" asked Tom, as he
finished a hurried toilet, for a session of the squad had been called
late that afternoon to consider the loss of Kerr and Molloy.
"I may come over later," spoke Phil. "I think the best thing we can do
is to----"
He paused suddenly, and glanced quickly toward the shelf that served as
a mantle. The gaze of his chums followed. The room seemed suddenly to
become oppressively still. They could almost hear each other breathing.
Then the same thought came to all three.
"The clock!" they exclaimed in a tragic chorus.
"It's gone!" gasped Tom.
"Vanished!" added Phil, staring at the vacant space as though unable or
unwilling to believe the evidence of his eyesight.
"Another mysterious disappearance," exploded Sid, and then Tom remarked
in significant tones:
"I guess we'll have to chain the sofa if we want to keep that!"
CHAPTER V
FOOTBALL TALK
"Fellows, there is just one thing about it," announced Tom, firmly, when
a hurried search of the room had only made it more certain that the
clock was nowhere in it, "either we are the victims of a practical joke,
or there is some mystery here that we will have to fathom."
"I'm inclined to think it's a joke," said Phil.
"Same here," agreed Sid, "only it's a pretty poor sort of a joke. First
thing we know we won't have anything left," and he looked down at the
sofa on which he was stretched out, as if to make sure that it would not
take wings unto itself, and fly out of the window.
"Was the room locked?" asked Phil.
"Sure," spoke Tom. "Whoever came in must have used a false key."
"They're taking lots of risks," was Sid's opinion. "How could they tell
but what we'd come back any minute and catch them red-handed?"
"Well, this is no joke," insisted Tom. "We've got to do something. It's
too much to have the chair and clock disappear the same day. I'm going
to post a notice on the bulletin board, stating that the person who took
them is known, and had better return them at once to avoid further
trouble. That's how the ladies advertise in the newspaper when they
don't know who took their best umbrella at a society meeting. I'll write
out a notice."
"No, don't!" urged Phil, quickly.
"Why not?"
"Because I think this thing is a joke on us, and the more fuss we make
over it the more they'll laugh at us. Bascome, or some of that crowd,
have had their fingers in this pie, and it's up to us to find out how
they did it, and what became of our things. Now, let's work around
quietly, get the evidence we need, get back the things if possible, and
have the ha-ha on them."
"Good idea," commented Sid.
"I believe you _are_ right," agreed Tom, after thinking the matter over.
"We'll keep quiet about it. Now let's get through with our boning, and
go to the football meeting. They'll expect us, and, really, it's a
serious matter. Randall has got to wake up considerably if she wants the
championship this year."
The meeting was held in the gymnasium, and was pretty well under way
when our three friends arrived. Ed Kerr was not present, as he had to
get ready for his trip to Europe, but Bricktop was on hand, and it
required all his Irish wit to stand off the many appeals that were made
to him not to desert in the face of trouble.
There were tears in the eyes of the big left guard as he announced that
his decision was final, and that he must leave for Columbia in two
weeks.
"I'd like to stay and play in the first big game against Newkirk
College," Bricktop said brokenly, "but it's impossible, me lads."
"Then we'd better get busy and consider how we're going to make up the
team," declared Dan Woodhouse, and when the captain thus gave up hope of
keeping Bricktop, his fellow players did likewise.
"Yes," said Mr. Lighton, the coach, "we have none too much time to get
at our team work in view of the changes. Now, Woodhouse, we'll hear what
you have to say."
"Wait until I make out a list, and do some thinking," spoke the captain,
and while he retired to a comparatively quiet corner to do this, the
coach gave the lads a little informal talk on the science of the game.
Mr. Lighton illustrated several points. He showed how the guards and
tackle could best work together to hold the line with the centre, he
impressed on the ends the necessity for speed in getting down the
field. To the backs he talked of the need for being ready to get into
action on the jump, to take advantage of the holes made for them.
"We have decided to play a game consisting of two halves instead of the
four quarters," said the coach. "It is more satisfactory, I think. Of
course, there is a certain advantage in three rest periods instead of
one, but I believe that a faster, snappier game can be played by halves
than by quarters. You don't run the chance of getting stiff, and you can
keep limbered and warmed up."
"What about the forward pass?" asked Phil Clinton.
"I don't know that we will work that so much as we did last year,"
said the coach, "but of course we will have to be guided by what our
opponents do in the games. That will be something for the captain and
the quarter-back to work out together. Of course we'll practice it."
"Onside kicks," came suddenly from Sid, who had been somewhat quiet.
"Are we going to do anything with them?"
"That is another matter that will have to be settled when you play the
games," declared the coach. "It will do no harm to try them. I'm for
straight football, as near the old-fashioned sort as we can get it under
the new rules. We have had some hard practice, and we'll have more, for
practice is what you will need in team work, especially if we have two
new players. Now has the captain anything to report?"
"Well," remarked Kindlings, coming from his corner, with a puzzled look
on his face, "it isn't so easy as you would think, and I just want to
say that I hope no fellows feel badly because I don't select them in
place of Kerr and Molloy."
"Sure not," came in a chorus.
"'Rah! 'rah! 'rah! for Randall!" yelled Bean Perkins in his loudest
grandstand voice. "Wow!"
"Can some of that, and save it for the Newkirk game," suggested
Woodhouse, with a grin. "Now I've thought it all over, and I've decided
that I'll put Sam Looper in Bricktop's place at left guard, and----"
"'Rah for the Snail!" shouted the irrepressible Bean.
"Oh, I can be quick enough when I want to," declared Sam, his face
shining with delight at the honor that had come to him unsought. He had
practiced hard on the scrub, and while he was not a bright and shining
light, he had grit and stamina, and was very strong. There were some
doubtful looks over his selection, but everyone was willing to admit
that while he was not as good as Bricktop, he might do after some
gruelling practice.
"And to fill Kerr's place I'll name Pete Backus," went on the captain.
"'Rah for Grasshopper!" cried Bean. "He'll jump over their heads and
make a touchdown."
"Quiet!" begged Mr. Lighton, for there was a pandemonium of yells and
laughter at this.
"And I want Pete to jump into plays when he has the ball," continued
Kindlings. "Do you approve of those selections, Mr. Lighton?"
"Certainly, Woodhouse. I only want to say that of course it all depends
on how these new candidates make out in practice."
"Oh, sure," assented the captain. "They've got to make good, or we'll
put some one else in. You understand that, Pete and Sam."
"Of course," they murmured, and each secretly determined to leave
nothing untried that would win for him the coveted honor of playing on
the 'varsity eleven.
"Then everybody be on hand for practice on the gridiron at three o'clock
sharp to-morrow," announced Kindlings. "We'll run through some hard
plays, do some passing and tackling, and play a fifteen minute half
against the scrub. Sharp work, everybody!"
"'Rah for Kindlings!" yelled Bean, and the shout that followed, if it
did not exactly raise the roof of the gymnasium, at least testified to
the regard in which the captain was held.
There was more talk from Mr. Lighton, who had worked out a new system of
signals for the present season, and he gave the lads a short drill in it
before the meeting adjourned.
Meanwhile Phil, Tom and Sid had been keeping their ears on the alert,
and their eyes open for any hint, in talk or action, that would give
them a clew to who had taken their chair and clock. But they were not
successful. If any of the football squad was guilty, the fact was
successfully concealed.
CHAPTER VI
IN PRACTICE
There was a crisping tang in the air. The wind had in it just the hint
of winter, but the sun shone bravely down and glinted on the green grass
of the football field--a field marked off in white lines, so meaningless
to one not familiar with the game, yet so full of meaning to a player.
Soon what a struggle there would be to cross those same white
lines--especially the last, whereon were the goal posts, and to gain
which every last ounce of strength, every atom of breath, every nerve
and sinew that could be urged to lend speed to the runner would be
called upon to do the utmost that the ball might be shoved over for a
touchdown.
Now, however, the gridiron of Randall College lay peaceful and quiet
under the October sun. The grass seemed to shiver in the breeze, as if
in anticipation of the struggles it would soon have to bear.
The silent grandstands were but waiting the cheering, yelling, singing,
sport-maddened and enthusiastic throngs that would shortly occupy them,
to cause them to sway as in a gale with the stress of their applause, to
echo to the thunder of thousands of stamping feet.
But now the gridiron was deserted. It was like a battle-field whereon
had taken place many a conflict, but which, like the arena of old, had
been swept and garnished with sand, effacing the marks of strife, that
those who came might not see them. It was all ready for the next battle
of brawn, practice for which would soon take place.
Out from the gymnasium came rushing a crowd of lads--in canvas trousers
and jackets, and in sweaters, the shoulders of which bulged with great
leather patches. Some of the warriors had on leather helmets, and others
swung rubber nose-guards from their arms by dangling strings.
"Line up! Line up!" came the cry.
"Come on for some punts!"
"Hey, Phil, send out some drop kicks!"
"Pass the ball!"
"Fall on it! Fall on it!"
The lads were racing about, leaping and jumping. Some were punting,
others sending the ball swiftly around by a quick arm and hand motion.
Still others, in the excess of their exuberance, were wrestling or
tackling.
For it was the first day of practice with the newly-organized team, and
everyone was anxious to see what the result would be. Kerr had gone from
Randall, after an affecting good-bye to his classmates, bearing with him
their sincere wishes that his father would speedily recover, and that Ed
would return.
Bricktop, for the first time since the season had opened, was without
his football togs, and he felt it keenly. But once he had made up his
mind, he decided to forget practice, though he consented to stay on
about a week, and help Mr. Lighton coach Snail Looper in his work behind
the line.
"Here you go, Tom!" called Sid, and he sent a puzzling spiral down the
field. The plucky left end was down after it like a flash, extending his
arms to gather it in. So swift was it, however, that it went right
through his grasp, and bounded on the grass. Tom, like a flash, fell on
it.
"Good!" cried the coach, who seemed to be watching every preliminary
play, though regular practice had not yet been begun. "That's the way to
do it."
There was some warm-up work, while Mr. Lighton and Dan Woodhouse
consulted, and while the captain of the scrub was getting his men
together. Then came the cry again:
"Line up! Line up!"
"We'll play a ten minute half," said the captain, and he glanced at a
list in his hand. "Here's how the 'varsity will line up," he added.
"Tom Parsons will play at left end, Bert Bascome at left tackle, Sam
Looper at left guard, Holly Cross at centre. Billy Housenlager will be
right guard. I'll play at right tackle, as usual. Joe Jackson will be at
right end, and his brother can try it at full-back, only I wish he'd put
on more weight. Phil, you'll go to quarter. Pete Backus will play right
half-back, and Sid Henderson at left half. Now, I guess that completes
the team. Get in line and see what we can do."
"And remember what I told you about fast, snappy playing," cautioned the
coach. "I'm going to have the scrub do its best to make a touchdown on
you, so watch out. Line up!"
The ball was placed in the centre of the field, and, as the 'varsity
wanted to get into offense as soon as possible, the scrub was to kick
off.
"All ready?" asked Ned Hendrix, who was captain of the scrub, as he
looked across the field to see how his own players were bunched.
"All ready," answered Kindlings.
Ping! That was the nerve thrilling sound of the toe of Hendrix's shoe
making a dent in the side of the ball. Straight and true it sailed, and
into the arms of Jerry Jackson it fell.
"Now, fellows, come on! Make up some interference for him! Don't let
them get through on us!" yelled the captain of the 'varsity, as the
Jersey twin tucked the ball under his arm, lowered his head and started
back with the pigskin.
Before him ran his fellows, and speeding toward them came the eager
scrub, thirsting for tackles. Jerry managed to run back twenty yards
before he was downed, and as the two teams lined up for the first
scrimmage, the coach shook his head rather dubiously.
"The scrub is a bit quicker than the 'varsity, I'm afraid," he
whispered. "I've got to whip them into shape. Well, now to see how they
tear through the line."
Phil Clinton was kneeling down behind Holly Cross to receive the ball.
He gave a quick glance behind him, and decided to try out the mettle of
Pete Backus.
"Seventeen--eighty-four--ready
now--twenty-two--four--sixteen--eighty-three," counted Phil, but before
he had called the last number he had given the signal for the ball to
come back.
It was for Pete to take the pigskin in between tackle and guard, and, as
he received the leather, Pete made a spring through the hole that was
opened for him. He gained two yards, seeing which the coach murmured:
"He's got the strength, but he needs to be a bit quicker. Well, we've
got time enough to get speed out of him, I guess."
The piled-up players slowly emerged from the heap, and Kindlings
whispered to his new man:
"Good work, old fellow. That's the way to tear through them."
Phil was already calling off the next signal. He had found that quick,
snappy work in beginning the signal, even though it was not quite yet
time for the play, had the effect of somewhat demoralizing the other
players, and also hastened the actions of his own men. Once more the
ball went to the Grasshopper, but he failed to gain, and was thrown for
a slight loss, for the scrub players were eager in breaking through.
"That won't do," objected the captain, gloomily.
"I--I didn't know he was going to give it to me so soon again," spoke
Pete, pantingly.
"You must always be ready," was the comment.
Phil was calling for a kick now, on the last down, and Joe Jackson
dropped back for it. The ball was sent out of danger, but coach and
captain shook their heads. The 'varsity had not gained as much ground as
they should have done.
"Better luck next time," said Kindlings hopefully.
"Your men need it," responded Mr. Lighton.
It was now the turn of the scrub to see what they could do, and they
quickly formed over the pigskin, while their quarter-back called off the
signals. At the sturdy line of the 'varsity, they plunged, trying to
tear a hole between the left guard and tackle. They had quickly found
the weakness of Pete, and Bert Bascome was not a tried warrior of the
gridiron. The scrub penetrated for a couple of yards, and then, seeing
what the danger was, the other players massed their strength there, and
stopped the advance of the man with the ball.
Again the scrub hurled themselves against the line, trying on the other
side this time. They could not gain, and Joe Jackson dropped back to
receive the kick he expected would come.
But the scrub's quarter gave the signal for a fake punt, and when the
'varsity had spread out, the right half-back was sent forward with the
ball. But they did not gain what they expected, for Kindlings, ever on
the alert for a play like that, was watching, and, cleverly dodging
through the interference, he downed the man with the ball in a fierce
tackle. The scrub had gained their distance, however, and still had
possession of the pigskin.
"Hold 'em this time!" begged the captain, as he got rid of some dirt
that had been ground into his mouth under his nose-guard.
And hold the 'varsity did after that. Not an inch could the scrub
gain, for the wall in front of them was like stone, and they were
relentlessly hurled back. Twice they tried it, and on the third down
they kicked--no fake affair now.
The 'varsity had the ball again. Phil did not try Pete this time, but
gave the leather to Sid, who, like an old time warrior, lowered his head
and plunged into the line for three yards.
"Come on! Come on!" yelled Phil, pushing and pulling on his chum to help
him through. There was a mass of crowding, struggling players all about
Sid. The scrub, with desperate energy, tried to stem the progress of the
human tide. Still Sid worked on, worming to get every inch, and he broke
through the scrub line, staggered on and on, and when he was finally
downed, with half a dozen of the players clinging to him like hounds to
a stag, he had gained three yards, through a hard defense.
"Wow! Wow!" yelled Bean Perkins.
"That's what I ought to have done, I suppose," murmured Pete,
regretfully, as he saw what a gain Sid had made.
"Oh, you'll do it yet," said Tom consolingly. "It takes a little
practice. Those fellows are out for blood to-day. A lot of them are
hoping to get on our team."
"Well, they won't!" declared Pete, and when he was given a chance with
the ball a little later, he tore through for a two-yard gain in great
fashion.
The 'varsity was now playing fiercely, and had the "measure" of the
scrub. Those unfortunate lads tried in vain to stem the human torrent.
The first team had the ball, and were not going to give it up. Down the
line they rushed, shoving the second lads to one side--bowling them
over.
"Touchdown! Touchdown!" came the cry when the five-yard line was
reached. "Touchdown!"
And a touchdown it was, Sid being pushed and dragged over the line. It
took eight minutes of play to make it, though, and the scrub felt in
their hearts that they had done good work, as indeed they had.
There was another line-up, after a kick-off, and the scrub had another
chance to show what they could do, but they failed to gain in two
trials, and kicked. Then the 'varsity once more had the ball, and in the
little while remaining to play, for the half had been lengthened to
fifteen minutes, they rushed it up the field. A forward pass was tried,
but did not work well, nor did an onside kick, and Mr. Lighton wisely
decided to defer these plays until the team worked together better in
straight football.
"Well, what do you think?" asked Kindlings, as he walked to the
gymnasium with the coach.
"It might be worse," was the non-committal answer. "But they all mean
well, and as soon as Sam and Pete get more confidence, they'll do
better. But--oh, well, what's the use of crossing a bridge until you get
out of the woods, as Holly Cross would say. We have a game with Newkirk
in two weeks, and if we can't beat them, even with the team we have----"
"We'd better go out of business," finished Dan.
"Exactly," agreed the coach, with a shrug of his shoulders.
CHAPTER VII
A NEW TIMEPIECE
"Anything on for to-night fellows," asked Tom Parsons, as he limped
along with Sid and Phil.
"No. Why?" inquired the quarter-back. "Are you going to see a girl? If
you are, I heard Ruth say that she and Madge had a date at some Fairview
affair, or something like that."
"No, I'm not going to see a girl," retorted Tom somewhat savagely, and a
spasm of pain shot over his face. "I'll leave that for you and Sid this
time. I'm going to lay off and bone."
"What's the matter?" asked Phil, anxiously. "Sick?"
"No, but I'm tired, and some one stepped on my ankle in that last
mix-up."
"By Hannibal! I hope you don't go lame," put in Sid. "The team is
crippled enough as it is."
"Oh, I'll be all right," asserted Tom. "All it needs is a rest and some
liniment."
"I wrenched my knee a bit," spoke Phil, "but it doesn't bother me now."
"And I'd like to get hold of the fellow who rubbed my nose in the dirt,"
came wrathfully from Sid. "I must have chewed up about an ounce of it."
"It's good for your digestion," asserted Tom, with a wry face. "But say,
fellows, doesn't it strike you as rather queer that we didn't get a hint
about our missing chair and clock?"
"It is sort of so-so," admitted Phil.
"You'd have thought," went on Tom, as he stopped for a moment in the
shadow of biology hall to favor his bruised ankle, "you'd have thought
that if it was some of the boys putting up a job on us that they'd have
given it away."
"Yes, such as asking what time it was, or if we rested well in our room,
or something like that," added Sid. "But there wasn't even a look to
give us a clew."
"Which means," declared the 'varsity left end, as he limped on, "that
either none of our fellows have had a hand in it, or that they can keep
a secret better than we fellows could. If this bunch had done anything
like that we'd be wanting to rig the victim. But I can't understand this
silence."
"It means something," declared Phil. "There's some mystery about this
that's deeper than we have any idea of."
And there was a curious mystery which was destined to have quite an
effect on Randall College.
"Well, let's forget all about it for a while," suggested Sid. "Maybe if
we do, it will be like one of those problems in solid geometry, and the
solution will come to us when we least expect it. Many a time I've
stared at the figures and letters until they did the Blue Danube waltzes
up and down the pages. Then I've just chucked it aside, taken up
something else, and, all at once, it's as plain as----"
"The nose on Tom's face," interrupted Phil, for Tom was well blessed in
that feature.
"Go ahead. Have all the fun you like," the pitcher invited, for his
ankle was beginning to pain him more severely, and he did not feel equal
to skylarking with his chums. "But as to forgetting about our chair, I
can't do it. Queer, isn't it, how you'll get attached to an ordinary
piece of furniture like that?"
"It wasn't an _ordinary_ piece, you sacrilegious vandal!" exploded Sid.
"There isn't another chair like that in college. I have it on good
authority that it was a family heirloom before we bought it of Hatterly,
the big senior. It belonged in the Hess family, which was quite some
pumpkins around here about the time of the wreck of the _Mayflower_."
"The _Mayflower_ wasn't wrecked, you chump!" cried Tom.
"Well, what of it? Something happened to it, anyhow. It was stranded, or
ran ashore, or else people landed from it. I never can keep those things
straight in my head. At any rate, the chair is quite a relic, and I wish
we had it back."
"I'm with you," declared Tom, feelingly. "I could just curl up in it in
comfort to-night."
"Only you won't," retorted Phil.
"Nor yet listen to the clock tick," added Sid. "Now, let's talk of
something else."
"Football," suggested Phil, quickly. "What do you fellows think about
our chances, anyhow?"
"Not much," asserted the end. "Sam and Pete aren't doing as well as they
used to do on the scrub."
"Stage fright, maybe," came from Sid.
"It's likely," admitted the quarter-back. "I remember when I first
played on the 'varsity, I couldn't seem to see straight, I thought I was
going to miss every tackle I tried for, and I was mortally afraid of
dropping the ball. They'll get over it."
"I hope so," spoke Tom. "I wish Bascome wasn't playing on my end."
"Why?" asked Phil, quickly.
"Well, you know he rather stood in with Langridge and Gerhart when they
were here, and, though he isn't as mean as they were, he isn't exactly
in our crowd. I can't play with him the same way I can go into a game
with the other fellows. I think I'll ask Kindlings to let me shift to
the other end."
"Don't you do it!" cried Sid, quickly. "Look here, Tom Parsons, the
surest way to have a team go to pieces is to have personal feelings crop
out among the players. We've got to play together, or----"
"'Play separately,' as one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence said," interrupted Phil, with a laugh.
"No, I'm serious," protested Sid. "If we're going to act that way, Tom,
we might as well give up the team now, and also all hopes of ever
winning the championship this year. It's bad enough to have Bricktop and
Ed off, without having you kicking up a fuss about Bascome."
"Who's kicking up a fuss, you old misogynist?" demanded the end, limping
along. "I only said I couldn't play with Bascome as well as I could with
Dan, and I'd like to shift."
"And if you do that it means that some one else will have to shift, and
that will throw the whole team into confusion. No, you stick it out,
Tom."
They walked on in silence for a few minutes, each busy with his own
thoughts. The sun slanted across the campus, and glinted through the
stained glass windows of Booker chapel, coloring the sward with a
wonderful combination of violet and red. Back of the main college was a
bank of purplish and olive tinted clouds, which Tom paused to gaze at in
admiration.
"Look, fellows!" he exclaimed, softly. "It's just like one of those
pictures of Venice, painted by what's his name."
"Yes, great artist," put in Phil. "Second cousin to 'who's this.'"
"No, but look at those colorings," protested Tom. "Did you ever see such
cloud masses? The only thing about them is that they tell of fall coming
on, and winter and leafless trees, and----"
"Oh, for cats' sake cut it out!" groaned Sid. "You must be in love
again. Got a new girl?"
"Shut up!" ordered Tom, peremptorily, as he started toward their
dormitory. "The next time I try to elevate the minds of you fellows by
pointing out the beauties of nature you'll know it!"
"All right, old chap," came in soothing accents from Phil. "Those clouds
_are_ worth looking at, for a fact. Sid has no soul for anything above
the commonplace."
"Neither would you have, if you'd been chewing on mud," declared the
other. "It strikes me that we are getting silly, or sentimental, in our
old age. Come on up and get into a bathrobe and we'll take it easy. I
have some imported ginger ale, and some prime cheese in the closet."
"You rat! And you never spoke of it before!" cried Phil, clapping his
chum on the back. "Come on, let's see who'll get there first, as the
wolf said to Red Riding Hood," and he started up the stairs on the run,
followed by Sid, while Tom limped on more slowly.
When the end reached their apartment he found the door open, and his two
chums standing on the threshold as though afraid to enter. It was dark
inside, for the shades were drawn. Tom looked at his two companions in
some surprise.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Snake in there? Why don't you go on in?"
"Listen!" exclaimed Phil, softly.
They stood expectantly. Through the stillness there came to them a
rhythmetic tick-tick, which floated out of their room and into the
corridor.
"The clock!" gasped Tom.
"Our clock!" whispered Phil, as though to speak aloud would break the
magic spell.
"It's come back," went on Sid, taking a step forward in a stealthy
manner, as if he expected to surprise a burglar in the act. "Fellows, to
all the gods that on Olympus dwell most everlasting praises be! Our
clock's come back!"
CHAPTER VIII
ANOTHER IDEA
Making ready as though to greet an old friend who had long been absent,
the three lads advanced to the middle of the room in the semi-darkness.
Louder ticked the clock, and it was like music to their ears. Tom
snapped on the electric lights, and the gaze of our three heroes went
together toward the mantle shelf.
Then there came three simultaneous gasps of astonishment, a starting
back in surprise, a catching of breaths.
"The clock!" spoke Tom, aghast.
"It isn't ours!" added Phil, gaspingly.
"They've brought back the wrong one!" exclaimed Sid.
Then, as they looked at the new timepiece, a smart one in a new and
dull-polished mahogany case--an expensive clock--one they never would
have thought of possessing, as they looked at it, there was a musical
tinkle of a bell, and five strokes rang out as if in welcome.
"A new clock!" went on Phil, in accents of horror. "A clock that
strikes!"
"'Come plump, head-waiter of the cock, to which I most resort. How goes
the time? 'Tis five o'clock? Go fetch a pint of port!'" quoted Sid.
"Oh, what are we up against?" cried Tom. "The plot thickens! There is
more of the direful mystery here! Talk about the Arabian Nights' tale of
new lamps for old! Some one has taken our old clock and left in its
place this new choice specimen of the art of the horologiographer."
"The art of whom?" asked Phil, in wonder.
"Clock-maker," translated Tom. "They say a fair exchange is no robbery,
but this was an unfair exchange. We don't want a striking clock."
"No, give us back our own fussy little alarm," begged Sid. "I say,
though, fellows, this is no slouch of a piece of horologiographic work,
though. It must have cost eight or ten bones, and it's brand new. Do you
guess some one's conscience smote 'em, after they'd made away with our
ticker, and they wanted to make amends?"
"I don't know what to think," admitted Phil.
"Me either," came from Tom. "But if they bring back one of those
new-fangled Turkish rockers in place of our old chair, I'll fire it out
of the window. We can stand the clock, though I'll be hanged if I like
that striking arrangement."
"Me, either," agreed Sid. "But maybe we can get some clew from this
clock. Let's have a look."
He turned the clock around on the shelf, thereby disturbing its
mechanism and stopping the ticking, but he little minded that. He was
looking for the maker's name.
"Say, was our door locked when you fellows got here?" asked Tom, who had
been a little in the rear of his companions, due to his injured ankle.
"Sure it was locked," asserted Phil. "I opened it with my key. Whoever
sneaked in here and left the new clock while we were at football
practice must have had a duplicate key. How are you making out, Sid?"
"The clock, according to a card pasted on back, was made or sold by Amos
Harding, of Chicago."
"Chicago!" cried Tom, in some excitement. "That's where Langridge came
from! Is it possible that he could have come over from Boxer Hall, and
played this joke?"
"It's possible, but not probable," declared Sid. "But we could write to
Chicago, and see if Mr. Harding could give us any clew."
"Oh, what's the use?" asked Phil. "Chicago is a big place, and it's
hardly likely that a dealer there would remember to whom he sold a
particular clock, when there are a whole lot like it. This clock is of
fairly common pattern, though it's rather expensive. I'm inclined to
think that we'll never get on to the game that way."
"What have you got to suggest?" asked Tom, as he prepared to bathe his
ankle, while Sid set the clock going again.
"I was going to say that we might post a notice on the bulletin board,
stating that we'd had enough of the joke, and would exchange clocks back
again."
"Say, I've just thought of something!" exclaimed Sid. "Maybe there's a
thief in college, and he's been going around snibbying things from the
fellows' rooms. He's been found out, and made to put the things back. He
got our clock mixed up with another, and the other chap has got our
ticker."
"Not a bad idea," assented Phil. "In that case a notice on the bulletin
board would be all right, and we'll wait about writing to Chicago. But
Langridge is out of it, I think."
"Well, I don't," declared Tom, half savagely, for his ankle hurt him
when he rubbed it vigorously. "You'll find that he's been mixed up in
this somehow. The clock is from Chicago, he comes from Chicago, and
there's some connection there, you can depend on it!"
"Well, maybe," admitted Phil. "But let's get at the notice, and then it
will be grub time. Might as well say something about our chair while
we're at it; eh, fellows?"
"No," came from Tom, "let that go. I think the clock and chair were two
different propositions. We'll work the chair ourselves."
After some talk his chums were inclined to agree with Tom, so Phil wrote
out a notice about the timepiece, while Sid interestedly examined the
clock, making various speculations concerning it, while Tom doctored his
ankle.
"There, I guess that will do for a while," he announced, with a wry
face, as he pulled on his shoe. "I hope I'm not lame for practice
to-morrow."
"Well, here's the notice," exclaimed Phil, a little later. "I'll read
it. 'For exchange: one mahogany-case clock, new; striking the hours and
half hours----'"
"Hold on!" interrupted Sid. "_Does_ it strike the half hours?"
"Sure, they all do," asserted Phil, and as if in confirmation of his
words, there tinkled out a silvery stroke at five-thirty. "What'd I tell
you?" he asked, in triumph. "Where was I?" as he looked at the piece of
paper. "Oh, yes: 'strikes the hours and half-hours. The undersigned
will give it back for their small nickel-plated alarm clock, rather
battered, but still in the ring. Doesn't strike at all.' How's that,
fellows?"
"All right," said the end, as he laced his shoe loosely, for he had
bandaged his ankle. "Let's have it, and I'll put my name down, then you
fellows can go down and stick it up. I'm going to stretch out;" and,
scribbling his name on the notice, Tom threw himself on the couch, with
due regard for its age and weakness.
"I'll fix it up," volunteered Phil.
CHAPTER IX
A CLASH WITH LANGRIDGE
In the meanwhile football practice went on, and the team seemed to be
getting into better shape, though there was much to be desired. Sam and
Pete did better, though they were uncertain, and there was much ragged
work, both in offensive and defensive plays, over which coach and
captain shook their heads.
"Randall has got to do better than that," said Mr. Lighton, "if she
wants to stay at the head of the league."
"Right!" agreed Kindlings. "Bricktop is coaching Sam all he can, but it
needs more than coaching to make a guard."
"Hope for the best," suggested the coach. "I wonder how our freshmen
will make out Saturday against Boxer Hall?"
"They'll win, of course," declared Dan, energetically.
The game between the two freshmen elevens of Boxer Hall and Randall was
quite an event, almost approaching the 'varsity struggles, and there
was a big crowd on hand at the Boxer Hall gridiron the following
Saturday when the contest was about to begin. Nearly all of the 'varsity
squad was present to lend moral and vocal support, and Bean Perkins was
in his element.
It was a hot battle from the very kick-off, and the two teams fought
each other up and down the field. There was considerable kicking and
open playing, but Randall depended on old-fashioned football, modified
by Mr. Lighton, and secured the first touchdown. Boxer Hall got
one before the initial half was finished, and then there was much
speculation during the intermission as to which side would win.
By tremendous efforts, ploughing through the line, bucking great holes
between their opponents, and by putting up a great defense, Randall
succeeded in getting another touchdown, and a goal from the field, while
Boxer Hall was unable to score in the last half. It was a glorious
victory, all the more so because Randall had lost the contest the
previous season.
The game was over. There had been cheers for the winners and losers, and
college cries and songs galore.
"Come on over this way," urged Tom to Sid and Phil, who had sat with him
during the game. "I think I see Madge, Ruth and Mabel. There are a lot
of Fairview girls here."
"Oh, trust you for seeing the lassies," half-grumbled Sid, yet he
followed, for he had more than a passing liking for Miss Harrison.
As the trio approached the three girls, who were standing together on
the side lines, Tom suddenly plucked his companions by their sleeves.
"What's up?" demanded Sid.
"There's Langridge and Gerhart going to speak to them," said the end.
"What?" cried Phil, and a red glow suffused the quarter-back's face as
he saw the former bully of Randall speaking to his sister. "I'll not
stand for that! I don't want Ruth to have anything to do with him!" For
Langridge was not the kind of a chap any fellow would want his sister to
associate with. In times past Langridge had been quite friendly with
Miss Madge Tyler, but when she had discovered certain things about him,
she had cut his acquaintance.
"Guess he's trying to get in with her again," suggested Sid.
"I'll put a stop to that!" exclaimed Phil, grimly, as he strode forward.
Then he called peremptorily: "Ruth!"
His sister looked up, caught his eye, blushed a little and, with a word
to Langridge and Gerhart, moved off. Her two girl friends followed, and
seemed glad of the chance to get away from the two sportily-dressed
lads.
Langridge swung around, and at the sight of the three lads who, more
than any others, had been instrumental in causing him to leave Randall,
his face turned a dull red.
"What's wrong, Clinton?" he called, sharply. "Do you think your sister
is too good to speak to me?"
"He evidently does," sneered Gerhart.
"Since you ask me--I do," replied Phil, calmly, and then he turned his
back on the angry Boxer Hall students and began to talk to his sister
and her friends, Tom and Sid joining in the conversation, not without a
little sense of embarrassment.
"Look here, if you think I'm going to stand for being insulted publicly
this way, you're mistaken, Clinton!" cried Langridge, hotly. He strode
forward, while Gerhart tried in vain to hold him back.
"Oh, Phil!" cried Ruth, reaching out her hand to halt her brother, but
in an instant he had gone beyond where she stood. She clasped her hands
in alarm, and Madge and Mabel, with heightened color, gathered close to
her.
Langridge and Phil faced each other with flashing eyes, and Gerhart
stood just behind the former bully of Randall, looking a bit alarmed,
for Langridge had torn from his grasp with considerable force.
"Look out, Phil," spoke Sid, in a low voice, but Langridge heard him.
"You keep out of this!" he snapped. "I'll settle with Clinton first, and
then if you or Parsons want anything, you know where you can get it."
"Yes, and so do you!" declared Tom, stung by the bully's words. More
than once had the plucky end proved his words, too.
"Oh, Tom!" breathed Madge, and she laid a gentle hand on his coat
sleeve. "Don't--don't let them--fight!"
Tom slowly turned his gaze from the flushed and angry face of Langridge
to that of the beautiful girl at his side. She was pale, but smiled
bravely. It was a tense moment. Phil and the bully still stood facing
each other, neither willing to give way. A little crowd, attracted by
the impending clash, was approaching.
Tom caught Sid's eye, and the latter, with a quick motion, indicated
that he and Tom must interfere to prevent an encounter, at least thus
publicly.
"You--you insulted me," mumbled Langridge, his fists clenched, as he
glared at Phil.
"Impossible," murmured Tom.
"I told you the truth, in answer to your question," retorted the
quarter-back. "You brought it on yourself."
"But why you should consider that my speaking to your sister was an
insult, I can't quite make out," declared Langridge, with a sneer.
"Neither she, Miss Tyler nor Miss Harrison resented it. But perhaps you
consider yourself the knight errant of all girls. If so----"
"That will do!" interrupted Phil, sharply. "Leave my sister and her
friends out of this discussion, if you please!"
"And if I don't please," sneered Langridge, "for I assure you that I do
not, and----"
Phil fairly jumped for the bully and Ruth uttered a little cry. In
another instant there would have been a scene which Phil, in his calmer
moments would have regretted as greatly as any one.
CHAPTER X
THE BIG CALIFORNIAN
Tom saw what was about to happen, and his ready hand fell on his chum's
shoulder.
"Not here! Not now!" he whispered into his ear. "Some other time, Phil.
Think of your sister--of the other girls. A crowd is gathering. Not now!
Not now!"
Phil made a motion as if to shake off the restraining grasp, and then
thought better of it. In the meanwhile, Sid had casually stepped in
front of Langridge. The left half-back motioned to Gerhart to call aside
his chum, and the bully's crony was only too glad to do this, for he was
somewhat of a coward, and he feared lest he, too, be entangled in the
quarrel which seemed imminent.
"Go away, Langridge," advised Sid, in a low voice. "If you want
satisfaction later I'm sure our friend will give it to you. But not
now."
"Yes, come on," urged Gerhart, linking his arm in that of his friend.
He swung him around, and Langridge, with a vindictive look at Phil,
allowed himself to be led away. At the same time Tom, with a forced
laugh, for the benefit of the crowd, walked Phil to one side.
"Say something!" he whispered, hoarsely. "Laugh, Phil, if you don't want
to make it unpleasant for the girls. The people are beginning to ask
questions."
The quarter-back at once rallied to save the situation. He clapped Tom
on the back, and exclaimed:
"That's pretty good, old fellow! Pretty good. You must tell that story
at the next frat. dinner. But it was a great game, wasn't it? Now, come
on, Ruth, and we'll all go and have something to drink. Hot chocolate
wouldn't be bad."
"Most delightful," chimed in Miss Harrison, with a grateful look at Sid
and Tom, as she gallantly threw herself into the breach.
"So good of you," murmured Ruth, smiling, though her paleness belied her
meaningless words, and she was trembling.
The three lads, each walking beside one of the girls--Tom with Ruth,
Phil with Madge Tyler, and Sid with Miss Harrison--strolled toward the
entrance gate of the football field.
"Nobly done, old chap," whispered Tom.
The crowd began to melt away.
"I thought there was going to be a fight," murmured one disappointed
lad, whose "loud" clothes bespoke his sporting proclivities.
"There was," answered a companion, "only something stopped it."
"Who are those three fellows?" asked another lad from Boxer Hall--a
freshman evidently.
"What--don't you know the three inseparables?" inquired the "sport."
"Not to know them argues yourself unknown."
The girls were more at their ease now, and Phil, who had started what
had so nearly been trouble, did not refer to it, to the great relief of
his sister. Really, the interview with Langridge had been unsought on
the part of the girls, and they had done their best to avoid speaking to
him, without being downright insulting.
Miss Tyler and Miss Harrison began a series of gay nothings, and Ruth
was soon drawn into the conversation, to which Tom, Phil and Sid
contributed their share.
"Oh, tell us about the clock and chair mystery, boys," begged Ruth, when
they had left the place where they had partaken of hot chocolate. "Phil
said something about it, but I had to drag it out of him like a lawyer
cross-questioning a reluctant witness."
"My! Listen to Portia!" cried Madge. "But we should dearly love to hear
about the queer happenings."
Thereupon the three young men together and separately, told of the
disappearance of their beloved chair, the missing clock, the appearance
of the mahogany timepiece, and their ineffectual search for clews.
"And if Langridge didn't have a hand in it, I'll eat my hat, saving the
presence of you ladies," declared Tom. "Only I can't get Sid or Phil to
agree with me."
"What about, eating your hat?" demanded the quarter-back. "Don't let us
interfere with that pleasure. Go ahead. If yours isn't enough, you may
have a couple of bites out of mine."
"Oh, you know what I mean," declared Tom, in a little huff.
"If you mean about Langridge, I _don't_ agree with you," put in Sid. "He
never had his finger in this pie."
"Right, Oh!" exclaimed Phil, and then the discussion started all over
again, and lasted until the girls declared that they must return to
Fairview.
"Well, what do you think of it, fellows?" asked Tom, some time later,
when the three chums were on their way back to their rooms. "Think
Langridge will start anything?"
"No," was Sid's opinion. "I guess he'll be glad to let well enough
alone."
"I suppose you think I didn't do exactly right to make the break I
did," ventured Phil, "but I couldn't stand it to see him talking to
Ruth."
"Me, either!" declared Tom, so heartily that the other two laughed, and
the little strained feeling that had manifested itself passed away.
As they strolled down the corridor the three lads nearly ran into a
youth who turned the corner of the hall suddenly.
"I beg your pardon, strangers!" he exclaimed, in a full, rich voice. "I
sure didn't see you coming, nor yet hear you. I guess I'm in the wrong
pew."
Tom and his chums saw confronting them a tall, well-built lad--big would
be the more proper term, for he was big in every way. Six feet if he was
an inch, and broad in proportion. He stood regarding them without a
trace of embarrassment, a stranger in a strange place, evidently.
For a moment Tom had a wild idea that the mystery of the chair and clock
was about to be solved. He had not seen the youth before, and he might
be a clever thief who had sneaked into the college.
"What did you want?" asked Phil, quickly.
"And who are you?" demanded Tom.
"I beg your pardon," went on the stranger. "I've just arrived at
Randall, and Mr. Zane showed me to my room. I left it and went outside,
but when I came in again, either someone took my apartment, or, as I
said, I'm on the wrong front stoop. Simpson is my name, Frank Simpson.
I'm from California, and I've been attending Leland Stanford University,
but father's business called him East permanently, and so I decided to
come to Randall. I've just arrived," he concluded.
"Simpson," murmured Phil, wondering where he had heard the name before.
"With a capital 'S'," put in the strange student, with a whimsical
smile.
"Oh, you're the fellow Jerry Jackson was speaking of," exclaimed Tom,
recalling the Jersey twin's reference to some new students who were due
to arrive at Randall.
"Much obliged to Mr. Jackson, whoever he may be," spoke the tall youth,
"but I haven't the honor of his acquaintance."
"Oh, you'll soon know him," added Sid. "And so you're from California,
eh?"
"Yes, but I think I'm going to like it here," was the response. "They
tell me there was a Freshman football game to-day. Did our boys win?" he
asked, eagerly. "You see, I'm making myself right at home, calling 'em
_our_ boys."
"That's the way to do," declared Tom, who, somehow, felt a sudden liking
for the stranger. "Are you interested in football?"
"I played--some--at Stanford," was the modest reply, "but I suppose
it's too late to get on the team here. You're all made up, I hear."
"Made and unmade," murmured Tom, in a low voice. "Jove!" he added under
his breath, as he took in the proportions of the big Californian, "what
a guard or tackle he'd make!"
CHAPTER XI
A NEW COMPLICATION
"Oh, hang it all!" burst out Phil Clinton, as he tossed aside his
trigonometry.
"What's the matter?" inquired Tom, looking up from his Latin prose.
"Have you got the dink-bots?" was Sid's gentle question, as he kept on
carefully mounting a butterfly, one of the specimens he had captured
during the summer, and had laid aside until a leisure moment to care for
properly.
"I don't know what it is, but I can't get my mind down to study," went
on the quarter-back.
"You never could," declared Tom, fortifying himself behind the sofa in
case Phil should turn violent.
It was the evening after the Freshman game, and the three chums were
in their study, after the meeting with the big Californian, as Frank
Simpson had at once been dubbed. He had been directed to his room, which
was on the floor above the apartment of our heroes, and he had gone off
thanking them warmly.
"What's the main trouble?" asked Tom.
"Oh, nothing in particular; but I guess I'm thinking of too many other
things. There's that little run-in I had with Langridge, seeing the game
to-day, worrying about the clock and chair mystery, and wondering how
our eleven is going to make out."
"It's enough to drive you to--cigarettes," admitted Tom. "But I----"
"Say, I'll tell you what let's do," broke in Sid. "Let's invite that
Simpson chap down here. He must be sort of lonesome, being a stranger
here. I saw him going off to his room after grub, and none of the
fellows spoke to him. Now, Randall isn't that kind of a college. True,
we don't know much about him, but he looks the right sort. It won't do
any harm to have him down here and talk to him."
"Sure not," agreed Phil at once.
"Good idea," declared Tom. "Shall we all go and invite him down, as a
committee of three, or will one be enough?"
"Oh, one," replied Phil. "You go, Tom, you're the homeliest. Have it as
informal as possible."
"I like your nerve!" exclaimed the end. "However, I will go, for I like
Simpson. I wish he was on the eleven. Wonder if he was any good at
Stanford?"
"Never heard of him setting the goal posts on fire," came from Sid,
"but you never can tell. If he has any football stuff in him Lighton
will bring it out. We can tell Simpson to get into practice, anyhow."
"Randall needs just such material as he looks to be," went on Tom, as he
arose to go to the room of the Californian. "I rather hope he makes the
'varsity."
Frank Simpson very much appreciated the invitation he received, and a
little later he was accorded a seat of honor on the sofa, and made to
feel at home by our heroes, who plied him with questions about his
native State, and what sort of a college Leland Stanford was. The
newcomer at Randall answered genially, and, in turn, wanted to know many
things. Particularly he was interested in football, and in response to
Tom's urging that he practice, he said that he would.
"You fellows have quite a place here," went on Frank, as his gaze roved
admiringly about the room. "Quite a tidy shack."
"You don't see the best part of it," spoke Sid.
"How's that?" inquired Frank.
"Our old easy chair was mysteriously taken, and in place of a clock
whose tick, while an aggravation, made us all feel at home, that timer
was left in its place," remarked Phil, before his chum had a chance to
answer. And then the story of the queer happenings was told again.
"Somebody's rigging you, I guess," was the opinion of the lad from
Stanford. "I wouldn't let 'em see that I was worried."
"Oh, we're not, but we'd like to get our chair back," replied Tom.
"Something like that happened out in our college, when I was a freshman,"
went on the newcomer, who, it developed, was in the Randall sophomore
class. "We fellows missed things from our rooms and made quite a row
about it, thinking a thief was busy. But it developed that there was a
secret society of seniors whose sworn duty it was to furnish up their
meeting-room with something taken from every fellow's apartment in the
college. Jove! But those fellows had a raft of stuff, every bit of it
pilfered, and when we got next to it we stripped their meeting place as
bare as a bone, and got our things back. Maybe that's what's happened
here."
"It's possible," admitted Phil, "but we haven't heard of any senior
secret society like that. It's worth looking up."
There was a knock on the door, and Holly Cross and Dutch Housenlager
entered. They were introduced to Frank, and the congenial little party
of lads talked of various matters, mostly football, until the striking
of the new clock warned them that it was time for the proctor to begin
his nightly rounds of discovery.
Frank Simpson began football practice with the scrub eleven the next
day, and though he was sneered at by some, Tom and his friends on the
'varsity at once saw that the Californian knew the game. Mr. Lighton did
not have to have his attention called to the work of the newcomer, for
he picked him out at once, and kept his eyes on him during the warm-up
play.
"I shouldn't wonder but what there'd be 'varsity material there," the
coach confided to the captain after the practice game was over, when the
scrub had rolled up two touchdowns against their mates.
"The land knows we need something to brace us up," replied Kindlings,
somewhat despondently. "Sam Looper is getting worse instead of better.
They tore big holes through him to-day."
"I know it," admitted Mr. Lighton. "And what will happen when Boxer Hall
tackles us can be more than imagined, unless there's a big improvement.
But I'm going to watch Simpson."
The big Californian was of a genial temperament, and he endeavored to
make friends with his fellows on the scrub, but, somehow or other, they
rather resented his advances, and turned the cold shoulder to him. Hurt,
but not despairing, Frank "flocked by himself" for a few days. He was
becoming known as a "dig," for he did well in the classroom.
Then Tom, and his two mates, seeing how the wind was blowing, made a
special point to invite the newcomer to their room more frequently. They
took him to their bosoms, and their warm welcome more than made up for
the coldness on the part of some of the others.
It was not an intentional slight by those who did not welcome Simpson.
Don't get that impression, for there was a warm school spirit at
Randall. Only, somehow, it took a little longer for a stranger to make
friends, coming in after the term had started, than it did before. Then,
too, the fact that he had not passed his freshman year there was a bit
against him. But Tom, Phil and Sid minded this not in the least, and
soon Frank was made to feel quite at home, for which he was duly
grateful.
"It's mighty white of you fellows, to treat me this way, like a friend
and a brother," he said, feelingly, one night, after a session in the
room.
"Oh, get out! Why shouldn't we?" demanded Sid.
"Of course," spoke Tom.
"Well, lots of fellows wouldn't go to the trouble, and I appreciate it,"
went on the lad from the Golden Gate. "All I want now is to make the
'varsity, and I'll be happy!"
"You may be nearer getting on than you think," murmured Phil, for in
practice that day Snail Looper had done worse than ever, while Frank was
a tower of strength to the scrub, which had almost beaten the first
team.
In spite of their work on the gridiron, our heroes did not forget to
look for clews to the missing chair and clock. Only none developed,
search and pry about as they did. The big Californian helped them
by suggestions, but there proved to be nothing in his theory of a
purloining secret society, and Tom and his chums did not know which way
to turn next.
The date for the game with Newkirk was drawing closer, and practice was
correspondingly harder. It was one afternoon, following a gruelling hour
on the field, that as Tom, his two chums, and Frank were walking toward
the gymnasium, they saw several members of the faculty entering the
house of President Churchill.
"Hello! What's up?" exclaimed Tom.
"Something, evidently," answered Phil.
"Have any of you fellows been cutting up?" asked Sid, with suspicious
looks at his companions. They quickly entered denials.
Clearly there was something extraordinary in the meeting that had
evidently been called, for the professors wore grave looks as they
entered the residence of the head.
"I hope none of the 'varsity crowd has been misbehaving himself, and
will get laid off the team," went on Phil, who felt that he carried the
weight of the eleven on his shoulders. "We're in bad enough shape now."
"Here comes Wallops, let's ask him," suggested Tom, and when the
messenger approached they plied him with questions.
"I don't rightly know what it is," answered Wallops, "but it is something
important and serious, so I heard Mr. Zane saying to Professor Tines,
when he gave him word about the meeting. It has something to do with the
title to the land on which the college is built. I believe some one has
laid claim to it, on account of a cloud on the title, but I really don't
understand legal terms."
"Do you mean that Randall College is in danger of losing some of the
property?" gasped Phil, as he looked around at the fine campus, the
athletic field, and the group of buildings.
"It's something like that," went on the messenger. "I heard Mr. Zane say
the land might be taken by the heirs of some old man who once had a
claim on it."
"Well, what would happen if he could make good his claim?" asked Sid.
"I don't know, but I suppose the heirs could say the college was theirs,
being built on their ground, or they could tear it down. But I don't
rightly know," concluded Wallops. "Probably it will be known after the
meeting."
"More trouble for old Randall!" groaned Tom, as he and his chums watched
the gathering of the solemn professors.
CHAPTER XII
THE MISSING DEED
Bad news, they say, travels fast, and certainly it must have made a
record trip throughout the length and breadth of Randall that afternoon.
Tom and the others had scarcely changed from their football togs into
ordinary clothes before half a score of their fellows demanded to know
if they had heard the rumors that were flying around.
"We sure have," replied Tom. "How much truth is there in them, Jerry
Jackson?"
"I don't know," replied the Jersey twin.
"We only heard as much as you did," echoed his brother.
"Prexy will make an announcement at chapel to-morrow morning, if there's
anything in it," declared Dutch Housenlager.
"Then I wish it was chapel time now," murmured Phil. "I don't like this
suspense."
"Me either," declared Sid.
"Well, there's one consolation," put in Frank Simpson. "If it's got
anything to do with the law there's no present danger that the college
will be torn down--not before the football season is over, anyhow."
"Why not?" demanded Tom.
"Because the law is so slow. If it's a question of title to land it can
go through several courts before it's definitely decided. I know because
my father's a lawyer, and he's had several cases of disputed titles."
"Well, there's something in that," declared Phil. "But I don't like to
think of old Randall being in any kind of danger. It makes me uneasy."
The talk became general, and there were many speculations as to what the
trouble really was, and what the outcome would be. The conversation
continued after our friends had gone to their room, whither flocked a
number of their chums to discuss the situation. For the time being
football was forgotten, and the trouble of Randall held the centre of
the stage.
"Well, there's no use worrying about a bridge, until you hear the rustle
of its wings," said Sid at length.
"What we fellows need to do is to get out and make a noise like having
some fun," opined Dutch Housenlager. "When the cat's gone on her
vacation, the mice eat bread and cheese, you know. Proc. Zane is
closeted with the bunch of highbrows, and so what's the matter with
cutting up some?"
"Dutch, I'm surprised at you!" exclaimed Tom, reproachfully.
"Why? What's the matter?" asked the fun-loving youth, innocently.
"Wanting to skylark at a time like this, just because the authorities
are in _statuo quo_," went on Tom. "Not on your life, Dutch! It's fun
enough to play some tricks when you're taking chances on getting caught.
Now it would be like taking pie from a baby in arms."
"I guess you're right," admitted Dutch Housenlager, contritely. "We'll
defer the operation," he went on, in solemn tones. "I think the patient
will survive until morning."
Seldom had there been such an attendance at service as greeted Dr.
Churchill when he stood on the platform in the Booker Memorial Chapel
the next morning. The early sun glinted in through the stained glass
windows, and seemed to pervade the room with a mystic light that added
to the solemnity of the occasion.
The Scriptural selection was from one of the Psalms of David--one of
those beautiful prose poems which are such a comfort in times of
trouble. And as the vibrant tones of the venerable president's voice
rose and fell, when he feelingly spoke the words, it seemed to the boys,
careless and happy-go-lucky as they might be ordinarily, that a new
dignity and depth of appreciation was theirs.
After the prayer, which was in keeping with the Bible reading, Dr.
Churchill arose, and came slowly to the edge of the platform. He stood
for a moment, silently contemplating the throng of earnest young faces
raised to his, and then he spoke.
"Men of Randall," he began, solemnly, "we are facing a crisis in the
history of our college. Men of Randall, it behooves us to meet it
bravely, and with our faces to the enemy. Men of Randall, we may be at
the parting of the ways, and so, being men together, I speak to you as
men."
The good doctor paused, and a sound, as of a great sigh, passed through
the assemblage. Usually when the doctor had any announcement to make, he
addressed the students as "young gentlemen." They felt the change in the
appellation more than any amount of talk would have impressed them.
"Doubtless you have heard rumors of the crisis in our affairs," went on
the president, after taking off his glasses, slowly wiping them, and
replacing the frames back of his ears, over which the white locks fell.
"Whatever you have heard I beg of you to disregard to this extent, that
you do not repeat it. In evil times words increase trouble. I will tell
you the truth as nearly as I and the gentlemen associated with me can
come at it.
"Randall College, as you know, was built many years ago. The land was
purchased from a fund left by a gentleman who had the good of the youth
of this land at heart. Other endowments enabled buildings to be put up.
In all these years no hint of trouble has come to us, but now we are
confronting a fact, not a theory, as your political science teaches you.
"The land whereon Randall and the various buildings stand, yes, where
there is laid out the fields for the pursuit of baseball and football,
and I think I am right in assuming this to be the football season?"
The president paused, and glanced questioningly at the proctor, whom he
evidently took for an authority on sports. For Dr. Churchill, while an
enthusiastic supporter of every team in the college, knew rather less
about the various terms, and times of games than the average baby. The
proctor nodded in acquiescence.
"Even the very football field is under suspicion," continued the
president, and there was another great sigh, mainly from that section of
the chapel where sat Tom and his chums. "In fact the entire ground on
which the college is built has been claimed by outsiders.
"The facts, in brief, are these: When the land was purchased there were
several persons who had interests therein. From them releases, in the
form of quit-claim deeds, were obtained, and then it was thought that
the corporation of Randall had a clear title. Now it develops that a
certain Simon Hess was one of the persons who gave a quit-claim deed,
after being paid for his share in the land.
"That deed, I regret to say, can not be found, and in the absence of it,
it is as if it never existed. Simon Hess is dead, but he left several
heirs, and they are now making a claim against the college. Perhaps
they might not be so eager, were it not for certain lawyers who are
apparently urging them on.
"An attempt was made to settle with them when they made their claim
known, but the lawyers insisted that their clients prosecute their
suits, and so the hope of compromise was abandoned. It seems that they
want the life's blood of our college, and, as you know, we are not a
wealthy institution.
"Yesterday I received from Mr. Franklin Langridge, the lawyer who
represents the claimants, a demand for a large cash settlement if their
claim was abandoned. I need hardly say that Randall is in no position to
pay a large amount in cash. I called a meeting of the faculty, and we
came to that conclusion. I have so notified Mr. Langridge."
At the first mention of that name there had been an uneasy movement
among the students. At its repetition, when it was whispered around that
this was the father of Fred Langridge, the former bully of the college,
the movement became more pronounced.
"Mr. Langridge," went on the president, when he was suddenly interrupted
by a series of hisses. Dr. Churchill started. Mr. Zane hurriedly
whispered to him, explaining that it was only the name of Langridge that
thus met with disapprobation. The venerable president raised his hand
for silence.
"Men of Randall," he said, solemnly, "that was unworthy of you."
The hissing stopped instantly.
"And so our college is in danger," continued the good doctor, after a
pause, "but we must face it bravely. We will not give way to it. We will
meet it like men! We will fight the good fight. We will----"
"Three cheers for Randall College and Dr. Churchill!" yelled
Bean Perkins, leaping to his feet and forgetting that he was in
chapel--forgetting that it was a solemn occasion--forgetting everything
save that he was wrought up to the point of frenzy. "Three cheers, and
the biggest tiger that ever wore stripes, fellows!"
Oh, what a shout there was! Every student was on his feet in an instant,
yelling at the top of his voice. Even some of the faculty joined in, and
Dr. Emerson Tines was observed to be wildly waving his hands. How the
cheers rang out! And then the tiger!
Dr. Churchill blew his nose violently, and wiped his glasses several
times, for there was a mist of tears on them. He tried to speak--to go
on--but he was too affected.
Slowly he turned, and walked back to his seat amid the faculty. And then
Bean Perkins did what forever covered him with glory, wherever, in after
years, the stories of Randall College were told.
Jumping up on one of the pews, he raised his hand for silence. Then, in
a voice that was singularly sweet and clear, he started that school
song: "_Aut Vincere, Aut Mori!_"
Welled out the strains from hundreds of throats--the song of songs--the
song that was always sung in times of victory, or when the teams on
diamond or gridiron seemed to be putting up a losing fight--the song
that had snatched many a victory from defeat.
Forth it rolled, deep-voiced and solemn, sung in the original Latin,
in which it had been composed years ago by a gifted graduate: "_Aut
Vincere, Aut Mori!_"--"Either We Conquer, or We Die!"
It was the rallying cry to the battle that confronted the college.
CHAPTER XIII
THE FIRST GAME
Silence followed what was probably the most remarkable scene that had
ever taken place at chapel in the history of Randall. A deep, heart-felt
silence, which was almost as impressive as the unexpected singing had
been. Some of the students were fairly panting from the emotion which
had racked them, for they had been stirred as they seldom were before.
Slowly Dr. Churchill arose from the chair, and again approached the edge
of the platform. His voice broke as he spoke a few words.
"Men of Randall, I thank you," he said impressively and simply. "You may
rest assured that nothing will be left undone to save the old college,
which has no more loyal supporters than yourselves, and, I may add, than
the gentlemen associated with me on the faculty."
He paused a moment, as if he would say more, and then, with a motion of
his hand, dismissed the assemblage. In silence the students filed out,
and it was not until they were some distance away from the chapel,
broken up into little groups, that they began discussing the situation.
Even then it was in hushed voices, as if the enemies of Randall might
be hiding about, listening for something of which they could take
advantage.
"Wallops wasn't far out," remarked Tom, who, with Phil, Sid and some
other friends, was walking slowly along.
"No," came from the quarter-back, "but wouldn't it get your Angora,
though? To think of there being a flaw in the title all these years, and
someone only just now taking advantage of it!"
"I wonder what can have become of the missing quit-claim deed?" ventured
Sid.
"No telling," remarked Holly Cross.
"Prexy said it was given by a Simon Hess," went on Tom. "I've heard that
name before, somewhere, but I can't recall it."
"I was telling you about our chair having been in the Hess family,"
explained Sid. "Don't you remember, I said it was one of the Hess
heirlooms when we bought it of Hatterly, the Senior."
"That's right," agreed Tom. "Fancy that now! Maybe next they'll be
accusing us of having the missing deed, because we have some of the Hess
property."
"We _haven't_ got it, you mean," put in Phil. "Our chair is still in a
state of _non est_."
"Haven't you located that venerable piece of architecture yet?" asked
Dutch Housenlager, with a sly putting forth of his foot, in an effort to
trip Tom. Dutch was always up to some horse-play.
"No, we haven't found it, and I guess we're not likely to," went on the
end, as he spoiled the efforts of Dutch by hitting him a playful blow in
the side. "The mystery of the clock is still unexplained. Our offer to
trade back hasn't had any takers."
"Oh, you fellows make me tired, always talking about your old relics!"
broke in Kindlings. "You had much better be considering some new
football plays, or how to help Randall out of the hole she's in."
"Out of the hole some rascally lawyers _got_ her in, you'd better say,"
corrected Holly Cross. "This trouble never would have developed, if it
hadn't been that some legal sharps stirred it up, for the hope of a fat
fee, I presume."
"And Langridge's father, of all lawyers!" put in Sid. "You'd have
thought that since his son once went here, he'd have had the decency not
to appear in the case, and would have left it for some one else."
"Maybe he's doing it on purpose, just because his son had to leave
here," suggested Tom.
"Shouldn't wonder a bit," agreed Captain Woodhouse. "But, say, don't
let this trouble get on your minds, fellows, so that you can't play
football. We're going up against Newkirk day after to-morrow, you know,
and while we'll probably roll up a big score against 'em, we can't take
any chances. Hard practice this afternoon. We want to wipe up the field
with the scrub."
"We'll be on hand, captain!" promised Phil, and the other players shouted
their assents. The students went to their various studies, still talking
over the scene of the morning, and what it portended.
It was learned, later in the day, that the best legal talent possible had
been engaged to fight the claim of the Hess heirs for the Randall land,
and that a vigorous search would be made for the missing quit-claim deed,
without which the college could not prove a clear title to the property.
It also was hinted that Mr. Langridge was not altogether actuated by
purely legal motives in prosecuting the claim against the college. When
it became known that the father of Garvey Gerhart was associated with
him in the law business, there were few students who did not believe
that the two men were acting as much out of revenge because their sons
had been forced from Randall, as from any other motive.
"But it will take some time to get the land away from the college
trustees, even if they lose the case," explained Frank Simpson, "so
there won't be any football games cancelled."
He was in his uniform, and was walking out on the field with Tom and the
others to the practice.
"I only wish he was going to be in the game with us against Newkirk
instead of the Snail," mused Tom, as the scrub and 'varsity lined up.
"We'd stand a better chance to pile up a big score."
But Sam Looper seemed to do better that afternoon, and was complimented
by the coach for some good tackles he made, as well as for his ability
in breaking through the scrub line.
"Oh, maybe he won't be so bad," conceded the captain, hopefully.
The practice was hard and gruelling, but it brought out a number of weak
spots, which were impressed upon the players, that they might avoid
them. Also some faults in plays were discovered, and measures taken to
correct them.
There was more hard practice the following day, when the scrub, mainly
through the fine playing of the new member, Frank Simpson, came
perilously near scoring, which they had been prevented from doing of
late. The big Californian was showing up wonderfully well, and he was
making more friends by his sterling character.
At last came the time for the first regular 'varsity game of the
season, and though Newkirk was considered a sort of second-rate rival,
there had been a marked improvement in her playing of late, so that the
Randallites understood they were to have no walkover.
The grandstands were filled with a motley crowd of students, men and
women spectators and pretty girls galore, for nearly all the feminine
contingent of Fairview Institute was on hand, shrilly cheering, or
singing for their favorite team, and waving the colors of their own
college, intermingled with those of Randall or Newkirk. It is no
exaggeration to say that the yellow and maroon of Randall predominated,
and when Tom, Phil and Sid looked toward a certain section of grandstand
A, which location had previously been brought to their attention, they
saw three particularly pretty girls, waving the colors that meant so
much to them.
"Madge, Ruth and Mabel are there," announced Tom, as he followed his
mates into the dressing room.
"Glad of it," remarked Phil. "It sort of makes you feel as if you could
play better when----"
"Your sister is looking on--or some one's else sister, eh?" broke in
Sid.
"Oh, dry up!" exclaimed Phil, as he looked to the shoulder pads on his
canvas jacket.
Out on the gridiron trotted the Newkirk players, to be received with a
salvo of cheers from the contingent of supporters who had accompanied
them to the Randall grounds.
Then the home team followed, and Bean Perkins leaped to his feet, wildly
brandishing a cane with the college colors streaming from it, while he
led the cheering, and then added his powerful voice, as the students
broke into the song: "We're Going to Wallop 'Em Now!"
It was announced that the game would be played in two halves, and when
Captain Woodhouse had conferred with Billy Bardeen, who ran the Newkirk
team, they tossed for choice. Dan won, and elected to defend the north
goal, which gave him and his men the advantage of a little wind. Newkirk
was to kick off, and when Bardeen had teed the ball on a little mound of
dirt in the centre of the field, he gave a glance to see if his men were
ready. He gave the signal to the referee, and that official, after a
confirmatory nod from Captain Woodhouse, blew his whistle.
With a little run, Bardeen planted his toe in the pigskin, which,
straight and true, sailed to Randall's ten-yard line, being caught by
Sid Henderson, who rushed it back fifteen yards before he was downed by
a fierce tackle by Ed Denton. There was wild cheering by Perkins and his
mates at this, for it seemed to indicate that Newkirk was not as strong
as she had been rated.
Sid slowly arose and planted his foot on the ball until Holly Cross came
up.
"Line up!" yelled Phil, stooping down behind the big centre, and then he
began calling the signal: "Fourteen--eighty-seven--one hundred and
six--forty-two----"
He snapped his hands, and the ball came back to him. Like a flash it was
passed to Joe Jackson, who hit the line for all he was worth, and tore
through for two yards, the Newkirk players seeming to crumple to pieces
under the smashing attack. There were more cheers at this, and when Sid
Henderson tore off three yards more around left end, the Randall crowd
went wild.
"Walk it up for a touchdown!" yelled Bean Perkins.
It did look as though the ball might be steadily advanced up the field
for the coveted point, especially when Pete Backus managed to wiggle
through between left guard and tackle for three yards more.
But then Newkirk took a brace, and held against the rushing tactics of
her rival, so that, after getting the ball to within ten yards of the
goal line, Randall tried for a field goal, and lost because the pigskin
struck the post.
Once more Randall, after some scrimmages during one of which Tom got the
ball, began the rushing tactics, and this time with such fierceness and
energy that inside of five minutes his mates had shoved Sid Henderson
over the line for the first touchdown. Holly Cross kicked the goal, and
there was a wild riot of cheers.
"That's the way to do it; eh, Kindlings?" cried Tom, capering about in
delight.
"We'd ought to have done it twice over in this time," was the somewhat
unsatisfactory response. "If we don't look out, they'll score on us."
But there was no danger of that in the first half, when Randall got
another touchdown and goal, and ended up with a field goal. Then indeed
did Bean Perkins and his cohorts let loose, singing wildly, though they
did not give the "Conquer or Die" song. There seemed to be no need for
it.
Newkirk was downcast, but would not give up. When the second half was
resumed, with some new players lining up against Randall, there was a
moment when it seemed as if her rivals might menace her goal line, for
they rushed the ball up with disheartening speed. The gains were mostly
made through the unfortunate Sam Looper, who could not seem to hold, and
Bert Bascome, his tackle, was not playing at his best.
"Put in Simpson," suggested Tom to Kindlings, during the time taken out
to enable the Newkirk players to try to get some wind back into their
plucky quarter-back.
"I don't like to put him in over the heads of men who have been on the
scrub all season," objected the captain.
"It will be worth while," insisted Tom.
"Well, we'll see," promised Dan, and then play was resumed. Once more
there was a gain through Sam, and partly because of a fear that his team
would be scored upon, and partly in exasperation, Dan signalled for
Frank to jump in.
There was a joyful look on the face of the big Californian as he took
his place in the line, and the Snail rather ruefully retired.
"I guess I need more practice, or--something," he admitted.
"Principally 'something,'" agreed one or two of the scrub players.
Randall did not exactly need new life, for she practically had the fight
won, but the advent of Simpson was good. He was a powerful player, knew
the game and its tactics to perfection, and tore open great holes in the
other line, through which the Randall backs plunged for substantial
gains.
It looked to be easy sailing from now on, and when several more points
had been scored for Randall, Captain Woodhouse gave orders for easier
playing, as he wanted to save his men. It nearly cost them something,
however, for Joe Jackson made a fumble, and the ball went to Newkirk.
Then, wild to score, those players tore things loose, and shoved back
the Randallites until it looked as if their goal line would be crossed.
There were many anxious hearts when the ball was on the twenty-yard
mark, and when a trial for a field goal was made by Newkirk, there were
prayers that it would fail. It did, and then the leather was quickly
booted far enough away to preclude the possibility of further danger.
Before Newkirk could rush it back five yards, the final whistle blew,
and the first game of the season was over, with a score of thirty-two to
nothing, in favor of Randall.
CHAPTER XIV
THE HAZING OF SIMPSON
"Three cheers for the Newkirks!" commanded Bean Perkins, as he swung his
gaily decorated cane, and the yells bore ardent testimony to the warm
feeling felt for a defeated rival.
"Now, then, sing: 'Though We Walloped You, We Love You'!" again ordered
the cheer leader, and the song welled forth.
In turn, the Newkirk players cheered for their opponents, and though
there was the bitterness of defeat in their hearts, none of this
betrayed itself in their yells.
The big crowd scattered from the grandstands, and, pausing only to get
rid of the worst of the dirt that marked them, our three heroes were
soon walking side by side with Phil's sister and her two companions.
"Oh, wasn't it great?" demanded Miss Tyler, of Phil.
"Splendid!" cried Ruth Clinton.
"You certainly rolled up a great score against them," was Miss
Harrison's contribution to the trio of opinions.
"We ought to be ashamed of ourselves," declared Phil. "Newkirk isn't in
our class, and we only play them to sort of open the season, and for
practice. Yet they nearly scored on us."
"Oh, we didn't do so bad," was Tom's opinion.
"I think we showed up pretty well, for a team that had to be patched up
after we lost two of our best players," came from Sid.
"Well, you fellows didn't play so awful," conceded the quarter-back,
"but if Sam had been in much longer there'd have been a different story.
Pete Backus is making out all right, and his practice in jumping does
him good. But Sam----"
"Simpson helped a lot," said the end.
"Yes, better than I thought he would. He didn't get gridiron-fright
because he was on the 'varsity, and his head seems to be about the same
size as before, barring where he got kicked over the eye," went on Phil.
"Understand, I'm not knocking the team!" he explained quickly, for he
saw the girls looking at him rather oddly. "Only I know, and so does
Kindlings and Lighton, that we've got to do heaps better when we play
Fairview and Boxer Hall."
"Oh, our boys are going to beat you!" exclaimed Miss Tyler, with a
mischievous glance at her chums.
"Yes, you have to stick up for Fairview," declared Phil, "but wait and
see." He spoke confidently, yet there was an uneasy feeling in his
heart. Both Boxer and Fairview had stronger teams than ever before.
The little party walked on, laughing and chatting, discussing the game
at intervals. Phil had a chance to speak to his sister away from the
others for a moment, and took advantage of the opportunity, to ask:
"Langridge hasn't been pestering you with any of his attentions lately,
has he, Ruth?"
"Indeed he hasn't!" she exclaimed vigorously. "And if he does, Phil, I
hope you won't do as you did before, and make the other girls and me
ridiculous."
"I didn't mean to do that," replied the quarter-back, "only I'm not
going to have him mixing in with anyone I care for."
"And I presume that is intended as much for Madge as it is for me!"
whispered Ruth, with a laugh at her brother's blushes, which were
visible under the bronze of his tan.
"Oh, don't----" he began, and then the others came up.
"Well, what about us, fellows?" asked Tom, when the inseparables were in
their room that night, rather sore and tired from the game.
"We can't pat ourselves on the back, and vote ourselves gold medals,"
declared Phil. "I hear that Lighton and old Kindlings are having a
consultation, and there may be a shift of some of the players."
"I hope he puts me on the other end," exploded Tom. "Bascome didn't
support me at all to-day."
"Now, don't get to feeling that way over it!" cautioned Phil, quickly.
"That spirit makes a team go to pieces sooner than anything else."
"Oh, I'm not going to disrupt the team!" declared Tom. "I think,
though----"
He stopped suddenly, and appeared to be listening. Phil sat up on the
old sofa, and Sid looked questioningly toward the door.
"Someone's out in the corridor," he whispered.
"Yes," and Tom nodded. "Maybe they think we're out, and they're bringing
back our chair."
"Or the clock," added Phil.
Tom arose, and tiptoed toward the portal. Before he reached it, there
came a cautious knock on the panel.
"Shall we answer it, or pretend we're not in?" he breathed to Sid. Then,
without giving the latter time to answer, a voice called, in a hoarse
whisper:
"I say, Tom, are you and the bunch in there?"
"It's Dutch!" spoke Phil, in his natural tone. "Come on in, you old
scout! What's all the secret society business about, anyhow?"
Tom opened the door, and Billy Housenlager and Holly Cross stood
revealed.
"Don't yell so!" cautioned Dutch. "We're going to haze that big
chap--what's his name?" and he turned to Holly.
"The one from California," explained the centre rush.
"Oh, Simpson," supplied Tom. "Haze him--what for? The hazing season is
over."
"Not for him," explained Dutch, with a chuckle. "You see, he arrived
late, and he didn't get what was coming to him in his freshman year. So
he has to take it now. Do you lads want to be in on it? If you do, don't
make any noise. He's in a room nearly above you fellows, and he may
suspect something and listen. Want to have some fun?"
"I don't know--do we?" and Tom turned to his companions.
They hesitated a moment, and then Phil, with a long yawn, exclaimed:
"I don't know as I care to. Too tired. You fellows can, if you like."
"Not for mine!" came quickly from Sid. "I've got some butterfly specimens
to mount."
"Oh, you fellows make me tired!" declared Dutch, in accents of disgust.
"Why don't you be sports? Have some fun! Come on, Tom!"
"No; if Phil and Sid are going to stay in to-night, I'll be with them.
You and Holly can go ahead with the hazing. What's it going to be?"
"Oh, it isn't Holly and me alone," explained Dutch, quickly. "A lot of
the lads are in on it, but I suggested you chaps, and now you back out."
"We never backed in," replied Phil. "What are you going to do to
Simpson, anyhow?"
"Make him swim Sunny River," declared Dutch, with a chuckle. "That is,
we're going to chuck him in, and he'll sink or swim."
"That's taking chances," remarked Tom, quickly. Somehow, he did not like
the idea of hazing the Californian. They had become too friendly with
him, and Tom was glad his chums had declined to have a hand in it.
"No chances at all," denied Dutch, vigorously. "We'll be ready with a
boat and ropes, in case he can't swim. But I think he can."
"I didn't mean about that part of it," went on the end. "But he may take
cold."
"Oh, piffle!" cried Holly Cross. "If he can't stand a little wetting
he's no good. Besides, it's warm to-night. Come on, Dutch; we'll go back
and tell the crowd that this bunch is doing its knitting, and can't
come." His voice showed his contempt.
"Tell 'em anything you like," retorted Sid, "and maybe before you're
through you'll wish you'd stayed home and learned your lessons."
"Aw, rats!" fired back Dutch, as he and his chum went down the corridor.
"Say, maybe there's more truth than poetry in what you said," commented
Phil, after the door had been closed.
"In what?" asked Sid.
"About those fellows being sorry. You know, Simpson is a husky lad, and
he may put up more of a fight than they give him credit for."
"By Jove!" cried Tom, suddenly. "I believe you're right, Phil. Those
hazers are going to stack up against trouble, and what's the matter with
us seeing the fun?"
"How?" asked Sid.
"Go down to the river, and watch 'em throw Frank in."
"Sure!" cried Phil; and a little later three figures stole cautiously
out, crossed the campus, and took position well concealed in the now
leafless shrubbery that lined the bank of the stream.
"Here they come!" suddenly exclaimed Tom, who had constituted himself a
lookout. "And they've got him, too!"
"How can you tell?" demanded Phil.
"He's the biggest fellow in the bunch."
"I didn't think he'd let them take him out of his room," said Sid.
"Maybe he's in a blue funk."
"You don't know him," declared Tom, quietly. "If I'm not mistaken,
there'll be some fun soon."
"Keep quiet, or they'll have the laugh on us if they see us," cautioned
Phil.
The hazers and their victim came nearer, and the voice of Dutch
Housenlager could be heard declaiming in triumph:
"Now, then, fellows, we'll initiate Mr. Simpson into the mysteries of
the Mermaid Society. I believe you never were a member of that, were
you, Mr. Simpson?" he asked, mockingly.
"Never, and I don't want to join now," came from the big Californian,
who seemed strangely gentle in the hands of his captors.
"Oh, but you must, you know," explained Holly Cross.
"Sure," asserted Bascome. "You ought to have joined as a Freshman, but
it's not too late. Is the water nice and warm, Dutch?"
"Yes; I had it heated to seventy-two degrees this afternoon," replied
the fun-loving Housenlager.
"What! You're not going to put me in the river to-night, are you?"
demanded Simpson, in almost tragic tones.
"That's our intention," mocked Dutch.
"But I may catch cold. You oughtn't to do a thing like this, boys,"
pleaded Frank.
"Oh, listen to him!" mocked Bascome. "Let's take him back to his mama!"
and he imitated the crying of a baby.
"Oh, but, fellows, just consider," begged the intended victim. "I--I may
be drowned," and his teeth seemed to chatter. "Please--please let me
go!"
"Oh, yes--with bells on!" cried Holly, with a laugh.
"Say, I thought you said he'd make mincemeat of 'em?" whispered Phil.
"Why, he's a coward!"
"Maybe," admitted Tom, somewhat puzzled. "I didn't think he'd beg off
like this."
"Pshaw! It's going to be a fizzle," declared Sid.
"Now, then, all ready?" asked Dutch of his chums. "Get good holds, Holly
and Bascome, and pitch him in."
"Oh, let me go! Please let me go!" begged Simpson.
"Aw, cut it out! Be a sport!" urged Dutch. "It won't hurt you, and if
you can't swim, we'll pull you out. You've got to take your medicine,
and you might as well make up your mind to it. In with him now,
fellows!"
"Let her go!" cried Holly.
"No! Don't! Stop!" cried the Californian, and his voice broke. "Please
let me go--consider, fellows--you may regret this!"
"Regret nothing!" cried Dutch. "In with him!"
There was a struggle on the bank of the river, a series of surprised
grunts and exclamations. Then a dark body went sailing through the air,
and fell with a splash into the stream, while the shout that followed
ended in a gurgle.
"There he goes!" cried Phil. "He's in!"
Another dark body shot from the bank into the water.
"Why--why!" gasped Sid. "They're hazing two! Who's the other lad, I
wonder?"
The second body made a great splash. Then, before it came to the
surface, a third form hurtled through the air and made a great noise in
Sunny River.
"Julius Cæsar's grandmother's cat's kittens!" yelled Tom, careless of
who heard him. "Simpson isn't in the water at all, fellows! Look! look!
There he is! He's throwing the others in! He's throwing 'em all in!"
[Illustration: "SIMPSON ISN'T IN THE WATER AT ALL, FELLOWS! HE'S
THROWING THE OTHERS IN."]
Phil and Sid stood beside their chum, and gazed on the scene, which was
now partly illuminated by a half moon. They saw the big Californian
standing in the midst of his would-be hazers, knocking them down right
and left as they rushed at him, and then, as the hidden ones watched,
they saw the new student grasp Holly Cross around the waist, and, by a
wrestler's trick, toss him over his back, and into the stream, where
three forms were now swimming toward shore--three wet, miserable
forms--three very much surprised lads--and Holly Cross joining them by
the most direct route--by an air line, so to speak.
Into the water Holly fell with a splash, and after him went Dutch. Then,
seeing their two ringleaders thus summarily disposed of, the other
hazers ceased their attack on Simpson.
He stood in the midst of the throng, many of whom were just arising from
some terrific left-handers.
"I told you that you might be sorry," came in calm tones from the
Californian.
"For the love of mustard, who are you, anyhow?" demanded Bascome, as he
crawled dripping and shivering up on the bank. "Are you a champion
strong man, or an elephant trainer?"
"Oh I spent one vacation traveling with a circus, and learned to do some
throwing tricks," modestly explained Simpson. "And now, gentlemen, I'll
bid you good-evening," and before the crowd could stop him, had they
been so disposed, he walked away.
That's how Frank Simpson was hazed. Ask any old Randall graduates to
tell you about it, and hear what they say.
CHAPTER XV
THE MIDNIGHT BLAZE
Dripping, shivering, very much chagrined, and somewhat bruised and lame
from their encounter with the student they had expected to haze so
easily, Holly Cross, Dutch Housenlager and the others gathered in a
little disconsolate group.
Tom, Phil and Sid, hiding in the bushes, and trying to stifle their
snickers of mirth, looked at the scene, which was thrown into partial
relief by the moon.
"I wonder how they feel?" came from Tom.
"Don't let them hear you," cautioned Phil, "or they'll vow and declare
that we were in on the game, and knew how it was going to turn out."
"That's right," agreed Sid.
But now someone in the group of hazers spoke. It was the puzzled and
dubious voice of Dutch Housenlager.
"I say, does anyone know what happened?" he asked.
"We must have been struck by a cyclone," declared Holly.
"Or a waterspout," added Bascome. "Bur-r-r-r-r! But it's cold! I'm going
to cut for college!"
"Who said he was easy?" demanded Holly Cross. "Was it you, Dutch?"
"Who, me? No, I never said such a thing! Perish the thought! Easy!"
"The hardest proposition I've stacked up against in a long while," said
another, rubbing his elbow. "Jove! how he did hit out!"
"And so _sudden_!" commented Dutch.
"Well, did you think he was going to send word on ahead when he was
going to land on you?" asked Jerry Jackson. "Come on. We've had enough."
"Too much," added his brother. "I suppose this will be all over Randall
in the morning."
"Not if I have to tell it," insisted Bascome. "But Simpson may squeal."
"He'd be justified," asserted another. "He has one on us, all right."
"I believe he's too square to say anything about it," spoke Jerry.
And so it proved. The next morning, when the big Californian met his
classmates, there was a calm smile on his face, but neither by word nor
action did he refer to what had taken place.
But, somehow, the story leaked out. Perhaps it was because Tom, Phil and
Sid could not refrain from publicly asking Dutch and the others how the
hazing had resulted.
"Did you duck Simpson?" inquired Tom, as they were on their way to
chapel next morning.
"Why didn't you come and help with the fun, if you're so anxious to know
about it?" inquired Dutch, non-committally.
"Oh, we don't care for baths in the river this time of the year,"
remarked Phil, with a laugh, and then Dutch knew that the story was
known, though Tom and his two chums said nothing about having been
concealed where they had a grandstand view of the whole performance.
There were now busy days at Randall, for football was in full sway. As
a result of the Newkirk game, several shifts were made by coach and
captain, and hard practice was called for. The California lad was given
a chance on the regular against the scrub, and there was talk that he
would permanently replace Sam Looper. It was felt that Randall had not
done herself much credit thus far on the gridiron, and there were many
anxious hearts in consequence. But the members of the eleven made up
their minds to do or die, and they went against the scrub so fiercely
that several members of that unfortunate contingent had to go to the
hospital for repairs, or else report disabled. Then the coach and
captain smiled grimly, and were not so worried about the result of the
Fairview and Boxer Hall games.
It was practice, practice, practice, early and late, until some of the
members of the 'varsity felt like falling on the exacting Mr. Lighton
and tearing him limb from limb. But they knew it was for their good, and
that they needed it.
Our three friends were in their room one evening, talking of various
matters, and incidentally speculating on the loss of their clock and
chair. They had not had much time, of late, on account of football, to
seek for clews, and they had about given up hope of recovering their
possessions.
"Well, it will soon be time to go up against Fairview," remarked Tom, as
he looked critically at a big leather patch he had sewed on the shoulder
of his canvas jacket. "I do hope we win."
"Same here, old man," added Phil, who was inspecting a new leather
helmet he had just purchased. "I think----"
He was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Come in!" cried Sid, who was trying to study, but making little headway
at it. Frank Simpson entered.
"Well, you fellows are nice and cozy here," he remarked. "Am I
intruding?"
"Not a bit! Come on in, and make yourself at home!" called Tom, heartily,
shoving a pile of miscellaneous articles off one end of the sofa, to
make room for the visitor.
"Just sit down sort of easy, please," cautioned Sid, as he motioned
toward the couch. "One of the bottom boards is loose, and it may come
down, especially----"
"As I'm not exactly a featherweight," finished Frank. "I'll be careful.
I got through with my stuff, and didn't have anything to do, so I
thought I'd drop in."
"Yes, we live by the river; when you're down that way, drop in," said
Phil, and there was a laugh at the joke and reference.
"I didn't see you fellows out there," remarked the lad from the West,
with a motion of his head toward the stream.
"No, we had another engagement," remarked Tom.
"Speaking of engagements, reminds me of something!" exclaimed Phil,
pulling a note from his pocket. "Ruth wrote me yesterday to come over
to Fairview to-night, and bring you fellows. There's some sort of
doings--giving a Greek play, or something like that, and a feed after
it. I forgot all about it."
"Say, you're a nice one!" cried Tom, jumping up and looking at the new
clock.
"I should say yes!" added Sid. "Is it too late to go now?"
"Guess not," drawled Phil. "If you fellows think we can escape the eagle
eye of Proc. Zane, I'm willing, are you?"
"Sure we are!" cried Phil and Tom, eagerly. "We can pull on our best
duds, and catch the next trolley. Zane can go hang! I guess we can slip
in all right!"
"I reckon I'd better be off then," spoke Simpson, as he arose to go.
"You haven't any too much room to get dressed, all three at once."
"No, don't go," begged Phil. "That is go and get togged up, and come
back. Go along with us over to Fairview. My sister said she'd like to
meet you. I was telling her about you."
"Do you mean it?" asked the Californian earnestly, for he liked social
pleasures, and he had not met any girls, as yet.
"Sure, come along!" urged Tom and Sid. "We can fix you up with a girl, I
guess."
"Kind of you," murmured Frank. "I believe I will go."
A little later, the four caught a trolley car for Fairview Institute,
where they were met by Phil's sister and the other young ladies, who
were glad to see them. There was a little amateur theatrical, followed
by a dance and supper, and Frank Simpson was made to feel very much at
home, for the girls took to him at once.
It was long past midnight when our four friends alighted from the car,
and stood for a moment, before starting toward their college.
"What'll we do if we're caught by Zane?" asked Tom, for there was every
likelihood of that happening. They had known it all the while, but did
not like to think of it when the fun was at its height.
"If he nabs us, we'll have to put up with it," said Phil.
"It's easy enough to say," commented Sid, "but you know Prexy made quite
a talk about it the other day, and said that anyone who was caught out
late would be severely dealt with. It might mean being barred off the
team."
"Jove! You don't want that to happen," remarked Frank. "Isn't there some
back way we can sneak in?"
"Proc. Zane knows 'em all," asserted Tom. "We might try it around by the
chapel, though. He isn't there quite so often as he is around the court
and campus."
"Go ahead," urged Phil, grimly. "Might as well be killed for a lobster
as a crab."
They stole silently forward, looking cautiously around for a sight of
the proctor. They had almost reached the chapel, and were hoping that
the remainder of the way would be clear, when Tom, who was in advance,
suddenly uttered a hiss.
"What is it?" whispered Phil.
"Zane--right ahead there."
Pausing in the shadows, they peered forward. There stood the proctor
directly in the path they must cross to get into college.
"Just our luck!" groaned Sid, dismally.
They hesitated a moment, not knowing what to do. To be caught, just
after the president's solemn warning, might mean severe punishment.
"Can't we----" began Tom, and then Frank Simpson, who was a little in
the rear, suddenly uttered an exclamation.
"Fellows, look!" he called, in a hoarse whisper. "There's a fire!"
Startled, they looked to where he pointed. Through the windows of the
chapel could be seen little tongues of flame, leaping up inside. The
building was ablaze.
For a moment, the boys did not know what to do. Then Tom called:
"Come on, fellows! We've got to put that out! There are extinguishers
right in the vestibule, and we can break down the door. Lively! We've
got to fight the blaze, and give the alarm! Ring the bell!"
They needed no other urging. Without another glance at the proctor,
who had turned back toward the college, the four lads rushed silently
toward the chapel. It was the work of but a moment for their sturdy
shoulders to break in the outer door. Then, catching up several chemical
extinguishers, they sprang in through the swinging inner portals. There
was a lively blaze in the floor, just over the furnace.
"Douse it! Douse it!" yelled Tom, making a jump for it. "Someone ring
the bell! Maybe we can't control it!"
"I'll do that!" yelled Simpson, and a moment later the deep, solemn
tones of the great bell boomed out on the midnight air, while the hungry
tongues of fire leaped higher and higher.
CHAPTER XVI
ANOTHER CLEW
With a hissing sound, the chemical streams from the extinguishers
spurted upon the blaze. The fire died down around the edges of the big
hole that had been burned in the floor, but in the centre there was hot
flame.
"Can we get it under?" panted Sid, who, having emptied one extinguisher--a
small one--ran after another.
"We've got to!" declared Phil, trying to shield his face from the fierce
heat.
"If we can only keep it down until the fellows come with the hose, we'll
do all right," gasped Tom, choking from the smoke. There was a high
pressure water service maintained at the college, hose being connected
with a big tank, for the buildings were so far from town that the fire
department could not easily get there.
Again and again the alarm boomed out from the big bell, rung by the
vigorous arms of the Californian. The others kept playing the streams
on the fire, retreating as it got hotter, and rushing in on it as they
gained a momentary advantage.
"Aren't they ever coming?" gasped Tom. The college lads had formed an
amateur fire brigade, and had frequent drills.
"They've got to--pretty soon!" choked Phil.
"Here they come!" cried Frank, and he hastened down from the organ loft,
where he had been pulling on the bell rope, catching up an extinguisher
as he came. Soon he was adding his stream to the others.
Outside could be heard excited yells and shouts, and the rumble of the
hand hose carts as the students rushed them toward the chapel.
In a short time Tom and his chums were being assisted by scores of their
mates, who, in all sorts of nondescript garments, formed a strange
contrast to our four heroes, in their immaculate dress suits--no, not
immaculate any longer, for they were dripping from the chemicals, they
were dirty and smoke begrimed, and Tom and Sid's garments were scorched
in several places by the sparks.
"Say, did you fellows stop to tog up before you came to the fire?"
demanded Holly Cross hoarsely, as he directed a stream of water into the
very heart of the blaze.
"Of course," answered Tom, for he saw Proctor Zane coming up with two
pails of water to dash on the embers.
"Well, I'll be----" began Holly, and Sid quickly stopped him with a
punch in the ribs.
The fire, which had been discovered soon after it broke out, could not
stand the combined assault of the water and chemicals, and, soon after
the arrival of the student brigade, it was practically extinguished. It
had started from an overheated flue, and had burned quite a hole in
the floor, but, aside from that damage, the destruction of some pews,
cushions and hymn books, the loss was comparatively slight. The valuable
stained glass windows had not been harmed, though some of the delicate
fresco work on the side walls was smoke-begrimed.
"Well, I guess that's out," remarked Dutch Housenlager, as he looked
down into the basement through the burned hole in the floor.
"And very efficient work you young gentlemen did, too," complimented the
proctor. "If it had gotten much more headway, the chapel would have been
consumed. May I ask who discovered the fire."
There was a moment's hesitation. Our friends realized what it might mean
to tell just _how_ they had discovered it. Their chums, among whom the
story had quickly circulated, kept silent.
"I heard the alarm bell ring, and I jumped up," said Jerry Jackson,
innocently.
"So did I," echoed his brother.
"Who rang the bell?" the proctor wanted to know.
"Could the heat waves have done it?" suggested Professor Newton, who was
much interested in science. "It is possible," and he looked up in the
direction of the belfry, and shivered slightly, for he was only partly
dressed.
"I rang the bell," admitted Frank Simpson, in a low voice.
"Ah, then we have to thank you for discovering the fire and giving the
alarm," went on the proctor. "It was----"
"We all discovered the blaze at the same time," remarked Tom,
desperately, and he indicated his companions.
"That's right," agreed Sid and Phil. They made up their minds that they
were in for it now.
"Oh, you saw it from your window, I presume," went on Mr. Zane, "and you
came out----"
Then, for the first time, he seemed to realize that the quartette were
attired in dress-suits--wet, bedraggled, chemical-marked and scorched
evening clothes--but still dress-suits.
"Oh, ah, er--that is----" he began.
"We were coming home from a dance over at Fairview," said Phil,
doggedly, "and we saw the blaze."
"Oh," exclaimed the proctor, illuminatingly, and then, unconsciously
perhaps, he looked at his watch, and noted the lateness of the hour.
"You four young gentlemen will call at my office to-morrow--this
morning," he hastily corrected himself.
"Yes, sir," answered Tom, with a grim setting of his jaw.
An examination showed that there were no sparks left, and the students
were ordered to return to their rooms. The janitors were sent for, to
remain on guard and place boards over the hole in the floor.
"Don't you think he has nerve, to tell us to report to him, after what
we did?" asked Tom, when, following a rather restless night, he and his
chums were on their way to services the next morning. The chapel was not
so badly burned, but that it could be used.
"Zane? Oh, he's _all_ nerve!" declared Sid. "I almost wish we'd let it
burn!"
"Shut up, you anarchist!" cried Phil. "We'll take our medicine."
But there was none to take. The proctor met them on their way to chapel,
and smiled as genially as was possible for him.
"Young gentlemen," he said, "you need not report at my office.
Personally, I wish to thank you for the service you rendered to Randall
College last night--or, rather, this morning," and he smiled grimly.
"Had it not been for you, we should have had no chapel in which to
worship to-day. I thank you most sincerely," and then Proctor Zane did
an unheard-of thing. He shook hands with Tom and his chums.
"Well, what do you know about that?" gasped Phil, when the proctor had
passed on.
"He didn't say a word about our being out late," came from Sid.
"Pinch me--I think I'm dreaming!" begged Tom, but they were all too
interested in other matters to comply with his request.
Dr. Churchill referred to the fire in his remarks that morning, and the
words of praise he bestowed on our heroes made them wish they were
sitting over the hole in the floor, that they might sink through out of
sight, and so hide their blushes.
Dutch Housenlager started to whistle, "See, the Conquering Hero Comes,"
when he saw the four approaching, but Tom upset him with a quick tackle,
and Dutch subsided.
The fire and football furnished fruitful topics for conversation among
the students for some days to come, so much so that our heroes had
little time to think about their missing chair and clock, until an
unexpected happening brought the matter forcibly to their attention
again.
They had been out together to a meeting in the gymnasium one night, and
on their return, Phil, who was ahead, had some trouble opening the door.
"One of you fellows left your key in it when you went out," he said, as
he removed it, and inserted his own.
"Not me," asserted Tom.
"Me either," declared Sid. "I've got mine."
"So have I," added the end.
Phil said nothing until he had entered the room, followed by his chums.
Then, turning on the light, he examined the key he had taken from the
door.
"Fellows, look here!" he exclaimed. "Here's a clew to our mysterious
visitor and thief. This key is a false one, and has been filed down from
some other kind. This thing is getting serious."
CHAPTER XVII
A CRASH IN THE GALE
Curiously, Phil's chums crowded close to him, looking over his shoulder
at the odd key. As he had said, it was one apparently filed down from a
larger one of different pattern, so that it would open their door.
And fit their lock it did, as they soon demonstrated, for, though crude
in finish, it threw back the catch as easily as did one of their own.
"Worse and more of it!" murmured Phil, as he tried the key. "The fellow,
whoever he is, must have been just going in our room when we came along
the corridor, and frightened him."
"In that case, we ought to have seen him go past us down the stairs,"
said Sid.
"No, he could use the back flight, that goes down into the janitors'
apartments," suggested Tom.
"Say!" cried Sid. "I have it. Maybe he was here some time ago, and
when he went out, he forgot his key. Let's look and see if he took
anything."
"The sofa's here, at any rate," spoke Tom, with a sigh of relief. "But
maybe something else is gone."
"There are too many 'may-bees' for this time of the year," declared
Phil. "The fellow might have run away as we came up; he might have
taken his time ransacking our rooms, for we were long enough in the
gym; he may be here now; he may have brought back our chair and alarm
clock--only he hasn't," he added, after a quick glance about the room.
"But, as I said, what's the use of speculating on what _might_ be. We've
got to get busy and solve this puzzle. We've got some sort of a clew in
this key."
"Not much, though," from Tom.
"I think a lot," asserted Phil. "In the first place, it shows that it's
been made by an amateur, and by someone who knows a little about making
keys. Therefore, as we say in geometry, we must look for a fellow who
knows how to use a file and a hack saw, and who understands locks."
"Are there any such in college?" demanded Sid.
"There may be."
"Let's put it up to Zane," suggested Tom. "He's friendly with us now, on
account of the fire."
"No!" exclaimed Phil, quickly. "Let's work it out ourselves. I believe
we can do it."
"How?" Sid wanted to know.
"By keeping our eyes open."
"We've been doing that a long time, and haven't gotten any nearer to the
mystery than we were at first."
"That's because we didn't look in the right direction," spoke Phil. "It
has narrowed down now--the inquiry has, I mean. Before, we had to
suspect every fellow in college. Now we need only look for one who has a
mechanical turn of mind."
"Frank Simpson has!" spoke Sid, quickly. "I saw him making a new kind of
cleat for his football shoes the other day."
"You're a hot detective!" exclaimed Phil, with a laugh. "Our clock and
chair were taken before Simpson came here."
"That's right," agreed Sid, ruefully. "I wonder if the unknown visitor
did anything to our new clock?" he went on, as he walked over to examine
the timepiece. "Perhaps he left a note of explanation in it."
But there was nothing, and the clock chimed out the time as cheerfully
as ever, as though urging the new owners to never mind the mystery,
since they had a better recorder of the hours than before. But the boys
wanted their first love.
Our heroes were up early the next morning, to indulge in a practice run
with the football squad--a little jaunt along the river, proposed by the
exacting coach, with the idea of improving the wind of his men.
"Jove! but it's getting cold!" remarked Tom, as rosy and glowing with
health, he and his mates turned into the gymnasium for a shower, and
vigorous rub before breakfast.
"Regular football weather," agreed Sid. "Well, I feel as if I could
tackle Boxer Hall and Fairview together now."
"Keep on feeling that way," urged the coach, grimly, as he passed by.
"We all need it."
An unexpected storm blew up that night, putting a stop to practice on
the gridiron, and the squad had to be content with indoor work. The
weather grew worse, and by night there was a gale blowing.
"Old King Winter isn't far off, by the sound of that," remarked Tom,
who, with his chums, was in the room, studying or making a pretense of
so doing. He arose, and, going to the window, where Sid was, looked out.
There came a sharp dash of rain against the glass.
"It's a peach of a night!" exclaimed Sid, as he turned back with a
shiver to his comfortable nook on the old sofa.
"Yes, but we're snug and cozy here," murmured Phil. "This is one of the
best rooms in the college."
"If we only had our old chair," remarked Sid, rather sadly. He seemed to
miss it more than the others, for it was his favorite place for study.
"Well, it won't come back to-night, at any rate," observed Tom. "Whew!
Hear that wind!"
There came a sudden burst of fury on the part of the storm, that seemed
to rock the very college. In the midst of its rage, borne on the wings
of the wind and darkness, there came to the ears of the three lads a
mighty crash.
It seemed to vibrate through the air, and then the echoes of it were
swallowed up in the louder roar of the wind.
"What was that?" whispered Tom, in an awesome voice.
"Some building collapsed!" gasped Phil. "Come on, fellows, we must see
what it was!" and he reached for his raincoat, the others following his
example.
CHAPTER XVIII
WITH HAMMER AND SAW
Out into the storm they raced, to find that the alarm of the crash had
been general, and that students from all the dormitories, and also a
number of members of the faculty, were hurrying from their rooms to
learn what was the trouble.
"What was it?"
"Did you hear it?"
"Is it another fire?"
"I heard it was the gymnasium that had blown up."
"Somebody told me that Prexy's house was destroyed by a bomb."
Questions and statements like those were heard on all sides, as the lads
gathered in a group outside the college, or stood in the pelting rain on
the campus.
The wind still blew with great violence, and the downpour was in keeping
with it. Anxious eyes looked up to the sky to detect the shimmering of
flames, and were relieved when no glare met their gaze, though in that
rain it would have been a big fire indeed that could have kept on
burning.
"The noise was over that way," declared Tom Parsons, pointing toward the
gymnasium.
"No, it was over there," and Phil indicated the river. "Maybe it was one
of the boathouses."
"I think it was out on the athletic field," asserted Sid.
"Let's go have a look," proposed Holly Cross. "It was a great old crash,
whatever it was."
"Yes, it woke me up," said Bert Bascome. "I was dozing over my Latin
prose, and I dreamed we were playing Boxer Hall. I was making a
touchdown, and smashed into a goal-post--that woke me up--or, rather,
the racket did."
"Well, make a real touchdown when we play Boxer, and we'll forgive you,"
put in Kindlings, joining the group of football players. "Come on, let's
investigate."
As the students reached the gridiron they saw, even in the darkness, the
cause of the crash. One of the largest grandstands had collapsed. The
supports, weakened by the rain, had been unable to stand against the
force of the wind, and had tilted over, letting the whole structure come
slantingly to the ground, like some cardboard house upon which a heavy
weight has fallen.
"For cat's sake, look at that!" cried Phil.
"It's a ruin!" added Sid, in despair.
"The biggest grandstand, too!" remarked Tom.
"Come on, fellows!" cried Holly Cross. "Maybe we can prop it up so
it won't go down any farther," for part of the structure was still
standing.
Holly started toward it, but had not advanced more than a few feet, when
there came another sudden burst of fury on the part of the wind, and
there was a second crash in the splintered and broken timbers.
"Come back!" yelled Dan Woodhouse. "You'll be hurt! It's going to fall
apart!"
There was an instinctive retreat on the part of the throng of students,
but the stand, after settling forward a little more, became stationary,
and, aside from the flapping of a few loose boards, the wind seemed
incapable of doing any more havoc.
"Well, wouldn't that jar you!" exclaimed Dutch, as he carefully held
Holly's umbrella over his own head. "We'll have to hustle to have that
raised again."
"Yes, and the game with Canton Military Academy comes off soon," added
Phil. "The carpenters will have to get busy in the morning. Where's
Kindlings?"
"Here I am."
"Say Dan, we'll have to have a meeting of the athletic committee right
away, and take some action on this. If we can't use that grandstand for
the Canton game, we'll lose a lot of money, and, goodness knows, we need
the coin this year."
"That's right," came in a chorus from the others. Mr. Lighton, the
coach, came up just then, and agreed that immediate action was
necessary, late as it was.
The students were walking about the ruined stand, oblivious to the
pelting rain, and they might have stayed there a long time, had not Mr.
Zane bustled up to inspect the wreck.
"Now, then, young gentlemen," he said, "you had better all get back to
your rooms. There is nothing more to see, and there might be some
danger. The wind is increasing."
"I hope no more stands blow down," murmured Tom.
"Mr. Zane, we want to have a meeting of the athletic committee, to take
measures for rebuilding the stand," spoke the football captain. "May
we?"
"To-night?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, I'm going to make a report of this to Dr. Churchill, and you may
come, if you like. Also Mr. Lighton, and two or three members of the
committee."
"Come on, Phil and Tom," urged Dan, and the end and quarter-back
followed. The other boys, finding the storm most unpleasant, now that
the excitement was over, moved toward their rooms.
Proctor Zane stated the case to the president, and then Kindlings made
his appeal.
"We want to arrange for the rebuilding of the stand at once," he said,
"as we expect a big crowd at the Canton game, and we need all the seats
we can get."
"Yes," remarked Dr. Churchill, musingly. "I presume the athletic
committee has the funds available to pay for the work."
"No, we haven't, Dr. Churchill," answered Holly Cross, who acted as
treasurer, "but we thought the amount could be advanced from the college
treasury, and we could pay it back, as we did once or twice before.
We'll need quite a large sum, I'm afraid, for the stand is one of the
big ones, and is flat on the ground."
"Yes," again mused the president. "Well, young gentlemen, I would be
very glad indeed to advance the money from our treasury, but, I regret
to say, that it is impossible."
"Impossible!" repeated Holly.
"Yes, for the reason that there is no money in the treasury."
"No money!" The students looked at each other aghast.
"No," went on Dr. Churchill. "This legal complication regarding the
missing quit-claim deed, and the lawsuit that has been started against
the college, has made it necessary to spend considerable cash in the
way of preliminary fees and court expenses. This has left the college
without a running balance. In fact, Randall is poorer to-day than ever
before. I might add that even money to pay the salaries of the faculty
is lacking, and----"
There was something like a gleam of hope in the eyes of the youths, but
it died away when the president, with a grim smile added:
"I will state, however, that the gentlemen of the faculty regard the
financial difficulty as only temporary, and are willing to continue on
without pay for a while, so you see there is no excuse for not attending
lectures," and the president's eyes twinkled. "But that is why," he
continued, "I can not advance any sum for the rebuilding of the collapsed
grandstand. I am very sorry, but it will have to stay down for the
present."
"Then we'll lose on the Canton game," spoke Sid in a low voice, "lose
money, I mean."
"It's too bad we can't have it put up," came from Phil, as the lads
filed from the president's room, where the conference had taken place.
"No use in having a meeting, if we can't get the money."
"Yes, there is too!" cried Tom Parsons, suddenly.
"Do you think we fellows can raise enough cash by ourselves?" demanded
Kindlings. "I wish we could, but we can't."
"We can raise enough for what I am going to suggest," declared Tom.
"And what's that?"
"Enough for hammers and saws and nails."
"And let the grandstand rebuild itself?" asked Phil, incredulously.
"No!" cried Tom, eagerly. "We fellows can rebuild it ourselves! I know
how to handle tools, and I guess lots of the other fellows do, also. We
can do it if we try. We haven't got the money to hire carpenters, so
we'll be carpenters ourselves! We'll build that grandstand!"
"Hurrah for Carpenter Tom!" cried Dutch Housenlager, doing a Highland
fling down the long dormitory corridor.
"I don't know the difference between a beam and a joist, and a
two-by-four is as illuminating to me as a Greek root would be to a
baby," said Kindlings, "but I'm with you, fellows!"
"So am I!" cried Frank Simpson. "I worked in a lumber camp once,
and----"
"Say, is there anything you didn't do?" asked Holly, as he thought of
the hazing. "You're all right, Simpson. You can carry the two-by-fours
for Kindlings."
"Make him carry the beams and joists," suggested Phil. "He'll do for
that, all right."
Eagerly talking of the new idea, the boys gathered in the room of our
heroes, and such a lively meeting was in progress that Proctor Zane was
forced to call an adjournment, though he was very decent about it, and,
hearing of the plan announced that he would amend some of the college
rules, to enable the amateur carpenters to work at night, by means of
powerful arc lights.
"Hurrah!" cried the lads, and Proctor Zane was cheered for one of the
few times in his life. He seemed to like it, too.
A meeting of the athletic committee was called for early the next day,
and the plan of having the lads do the carpenter work was discussed in
all its details. There was some money available for tools, and it
developed that, as Tom had said, many of the students were handy with
them, some even having done carpenter work in their vacations to earn
tuition money.
One of the janitors had once been a builder, and he offered to show the
boys how to do the work properly, so that it would be safe.
"It will be almost as good as football practice for us," declared Tom,
when he and his chums went to town to buy the tools and nails.
"It will keep us on the jump, if we get it done in time for the Canton
game," declared Phil.
CHAPTER XIX
SUSPICIONS
"Has anyone seen my hammer?"
"Where the mischief did I put those nails?"
"Hey, Tom, give us a hand setting this joist, will you?"
"I say, Phil, should this two-by-four go in with the big side out, or
the narrow?"
"Simpson, look out, or you'll saw my finger. You're too close to me."
"Wow! Ouch!" and Holly Cross dropped the hatchet he was using in place
of a hammer, and held his thumb in his mouth. "Jerusalem crickets!" he
cried. "I'll never be able to practice football if I keep on this way!"
There was a riot of sounds: hammering, planing, and chiseling, and
sawing; and, mingled with them, the clatter of the lads' voices, in
entreaties, commands, appeals for help, asking for advice, or, as
Holly's was, raised in agony over some misdirected blow.
Work on rebuilding the grandstand was in full swing. On examination of
the wrecked structure after the storm, it was found that nearly all the
material in it could be used over again. All the new lumber that would
be needed would be some heavy joists, to take the place of those broken
in the collapse.
They were quite expensive to buy, but a lumber dealer who heard of the
boys' plight agreed to let them have the timber, and to wait as long as
they liked for his pay. He even furnished a couple of men to raise the
heavy pieces into place, and the boys voted him a first-class "sport,"
and sent him a season complimentary ticket to all the games.
It was not as easy as it sounds, nor as simple as the boys had expected,
to rebuild the structure, but they went at it with hearty good will, and
a determination, in the path of which nothing could stand. The several
janitors gave them all the aid they could, but the boys did most of the
work, after they were told just how to do it.
Frank Simpson was of great help, for he was probably the strongest and
biggest lad in college, and the way he could shoulder a beam, and walk
off with it to where it was needed in the work was something to look at
and admire.
"But you fellows needn't stop work to watch Frank," said Tom Parsons,
who, because of his knowledge of carpentry, and because he had proposed
the scheme, was, by common consent, made a sort of foreman. "Get busy,
and do some of the lifting yourselves," he advised.
"I say, Tom," demanded Sid, "what makes these boards split every time I
try to nail them on these four-by-fours? I must be a hoodoo, for I've
split half a dozen."
"Those aren't four-by-fours," declared Tom. "They're two-by-fours, or
scantling, and there are a lot of reasons why you split the boards."
"Give me one, and I'll be satisfied."
"Well, you're using cut nails, and you ought to use wire ones there, as
the boards are old and dry. Then you have to nail so close to the edge
that they split easier than they would if you could put the nails nearer
the middle. But use wire nails."
"You mean those round ones?"
"Yes. The cut nails are those black, square-headed ones, and when you do
use them, drive 'em with the widest part of the end at right angles to
the grain of the wood."
"What's that, a lesson in geometry, young gentlemen?" asked a voice, and
the students turned quickly, to observe President Churchill observing
them with an amused smile.
"No, sir," answered Sid. "Tom was telling me how to drive nails."
"Ah, yes, a very useful accomplishment, I believe," remarked the doctor.
"Though I never could do it without hitting my thumb. A very useful
accomplishment, very."
He looked at the grandstand, which was nearing completion, and, as he
passed on, with a book of Sanskrit under his arm, he remarked:
"You are doing very well, young gentlemen--very well. Randall has reason
to be proud of her resourceful students."
"Prexy looks worried," remarked Sid, as the good doctor passed on out of
hearing.
"Yes, I shouldn't wonder but what that legal business is bothering him,"
admitted Tom. "It's a blamed shame it had to happen, but it's just like
the Langridge breed to want to stir up trouble. Now, Sid, put plenty of
nails in when you fasten two scantling together, and use the big cut
ones. We don't want this stand to come down with a lot of pretty girls
on it."
"I should say not!" and Sid plied his hammer with renewed energy, as
though to prevent any such catastrophe.
Tom went on with what he was doing, on another part of the stand, until
he was called by Frank Simpson, who wanted his opinion on a certain
point.
"I think if we run these cross-pieces the other way," suggested the big
Californian, "it will brace the stand better."
"So do I," agreed Tom, after an examination. "Go ahead, do it that way,
Frank. Want any help getting that beam up?"
"No, I can do it alone." Which the strong lad did, to Tom's admiration.
And thus the building work went on. True, not every joint was as even as
regular carpenters would have made them, and a number of boards were
sawed very crookedly, but this did not interfere with the strength of
the stand, and little was cared for looks in the emergency.
President Churchill was not taking any chances, however, and he privately
sent for an architect friend of his, who examined the rebuilt structure,
and assured the worried doctor that it was perfectly safe.
Record time was made with the task, for three hundred willing lads can
accomplish wonders, even if they lack the training of a trade. As the
date for the Canton game approached, it was seen that the stand would be
very nearly finished on time. It was necessary to stop work sometimes to
get in football practice, but the boys were developing unused muscles,
and hardening others by their labors, so that they were in fine physical
trim.
"It's the best thing that could have happened," said Holly Cross to
Captain Woodhouse, at the close of work one afternoon. "We'll wipe the
ground up with Canton."
"Well, we ought to," declared Dan.
"Don't be so sure," retorted Mr. Lighton; "they have a pretty good
team."
"Ours is improving," asserted Kindlings, proudly, and, in a measure,
this was so, though there were still some weak places in the line.
It was within two days of the Canton game, and the boys were working
eagerly to get the stand in shape. They had put in several nights on it,
laboring in shifts, by the light of some flaming arc lamps rigged up by
the college electrician.
Tom, in virtue of his position as foreman, was going about and doing as
much as he could, when, as he passed near Phil, who was nailing down
some of the seats, the quarter-back called to his chum:
"I say, Tom, when you have a chance just take a stroll over where that
Lenton chap is working."
"You mean Henry Lenton--the freshman?"
"Yes, the chap who flocks by himself so much, and always seems to be
tinkering with something in his room. See what he's doing?"
"Why; is he doing it wrong?"
"No, but you remember the queer key we found in our door that night?"
"Sure."
"Well, just think of that when you see what Lenton is doing."
Wondering what motive Phil could have, Tom did stroll over to where,
down in the front part of the stand, the odd student was screwing some
hinges on the doors of a row of boxes, the seats in which sold for
higher prices than the ordinary ones. Lenton was a strange lad. He was
bright in his studies, and his taste ran to matters scientific. He was
eager in the physics and chemistry classes, and had made a number of
ingenious machines and pieces of apparatus to illustrate the forces of
nature.
As Tom approached he heard the shrill scraping of a file, and at once
what Phil had said about the key came into his mind.
"I wonder what Lenton is filing?" thought the end. Not wishing to seem
to sneak up on him, yet desiring to solve the mystery, if there was one,
Tom called:
"What's the matter? Don't those hinges fit, Lenton?"
"Some of them do, and others don't," was the reply. "Or, rather, the
hinges are all right, but the hasps that hold the doors shut aren't
true. I have to file some."
"Oh," said Tom, and then he noticed that the lad had rigged up a small,
portable iron vise on the rail near which he was working. The vise held
a piece of metal, and this the lad was industriously filing.
As Tom noticed the manner in which Lenton handled the tools, working
with files of several different sizes, the same suspicions that Phil had
entertained came into his own mind. As for the files, Tom knew that none
had been bought for use on the stand.
"Where did you get 'em?" he asked, picking up one.
"Oh, they're mine," answered Lenton. "I've got quite a few tools in my
room," and then he drew the file back and forth over the metal, making
such a noise that conversation was difficult. Tom watched him a few
minutes, and then turned away.
"Phil was right," the end murmured. "There is something expert in the
way he uses a file, and perhaps he did make the false key. We'll have to
do some investigating."
CHAPTER XX
THE CLOCK COMES BACK
They worked on the grandstand even during the morning of the day when
the Canton Military game was to be played, and then the tired but
satisfied students laid aside their hammers and saws, picked up the
scattered nails, and sighed with relief.
"It was a big job--bigger than I thought it was when I proposed it,"
spoke Tom, "and I'm glad it's over."
"So am I," added Holly. "We'll take in some money, now. I hear there's a
big crowd coming."
"We may have to take some of our funds for the relief of the college, if
things keep on," remarked Kindlings. "There was another meeting of the
faculty this morning, about that law and claim business."
"Is that so?" asked Phil. "Cæsar's ghost! but things aren't doing a
thing but happening to Randall!"
"Well, it's always darkest just before daylight," observed Sid, and then
the coach came along, and ordered them all out to light practice, in
preparation for the game soon to be played.
Tom and his two chums were on their way from the gymnasium, refreshed
by a shower bath, and were going to their room, to rest a bit before
appearing on the gridiron with their team mates.
"Did you find out anything more about Lenton, Tom?" asked Phil, for it
had been agreed that Tom was to do a little detective work concerning
the queer lad and his files.
"No, nothing of any account," he answered. "I talked with some of the
fellows who room next to him, and all they could tell me was that he is
always tinkering on something or other. He's making some kind of an
electrical machine, Perkins said, and he keeps buzzing away at it half
the night. He's a queer Dick, all right, but I don't know that he had
anything to do with the taking of our clock and chair."
"I've got my suspicions," declared Phil. "I'm mighty sure he made that
false key to our room, anyhow, and I'm going to put it up to him some
time soon."
"Oh, I wouldn't," advised Sid. "It might make trouble."
"Well, didn't he--or someone--make trouble for us?" asserted the
quarter-back. "But I'll be pretty sure of my ground before I make any
cracks. Now for a rest, and then----"
"A good fight!" finished Tom, stretching out his arms. "I hope we wallop
'em good!"
As both Captain Woodhouse and Mr. Lighton were sure of the ability of
Randall to beat the military eleven, a number of the substitute players
were allowed to go on the 'varsity team, much to their delight, for they
were hungry for a scrimmage.
There was a record-breaking crowd, and the rebuilt grandstand was taxed
to its capacity. Though the Canton game was one of the minor contests,
it always drew well, and was quite a society function, for the school
was an exclusive one. The cadets, in their natty uniforms, came almost
in a body, and of course the girls were there in "beautiful bunches," as
Holly Cross said. Not only damsels from the military school town, but
from Fairview and from Haddonfield.
"I tell you what it is," said Holly, as he was practicing with his
mates; "'uniforms git gals,' as the schoolboy once wrote in his
composition. 'If you can't be a soldier, be a policeman, for uniforms
git girls.'"
"It's got 'em here to-day, all right," observed Sid. "I hope that----"
"That the heads of our particular girls aren't turned by any of the
cadets," finished Phil, with a laugh.
The game was on, and it was seen that, while Randall had every chance
of beating, she would have no easy contest for the victory. The cadets
played with a beautiful precision, and their team work was something
that made Coach Lighton sigh in vain.
"Why can't I get our fellows to play like that?" he asked in despair of
Captain Woodhouse, during a lull in the game, when one of the cadets had
the wind knocked out of him.
"It's because of the changes so late in the season," declared Kindlings.
"We miss Kerr and Bricktop."
"Well, go on in and do 'em up," advised the coach, as the referee's
whistle blew. "Don't let 'em score on you."
"Not if I know it," answered the captain.
The game was resumed fiercely. Knowing they had little chance to win
the game, the cadets devoted all their energies to trying to score.
They wanted at least one touchdown, or a field goal, and Randall was
determined they should have neither.
In the first ten minutes of play, Randall had shoved the ball over
the line, and the goal was kicked. Then, after some rushing tactics,
which demonstrated that the cadets' line was stronger than at first
appeared, Phil gave the signals for some kicking plays. But it was soon
demonstrated that Canton was almost as good at this as was her rival,
and while it was desired to get some practicing in punting and drop
work, it was deemed too dangerous.
"Straight football," ordered the captain to the quarter-back, and the
game went on in that style.
There were several forward passes, that netted good gains, and the
onside kick was tried, until a fumble nearly resulted in Canton scoring,
and then it was not used again.
Up the field the Randallites rushed the ball, not so fast nor so easily
but what they felt the strain, and soon there was another touchdown
against the cadets. There was almost another in the first half, but the
whistle cut the play short, and the nearest the military lads had been
to scoring was when they tried for a field goal, and failed, because Sid
broke through and blocked the kick.
With indomitable energy, the cadets went at their opponents again in the
second half. Several fresh players were put in, and Captain Woodhouse
allowed other substitutes to try their abilities.
This nearly proved the scratching down of a score against Randall, as
the new lads did not hold well in line, and they were being shoved back
for a loss, when Phil called for some kicking tactics. This took the
ball out of danger, and soon our friends had again crossed the military
goal line.
It was characteristic of the pluck of the Canton lads that they never
gave up. At it again they went, hammer and tongs, giving their heavier
rivals no rest. It was a much more "scrappy" game from the point of
playing, than had been expected, and on occasions excitement ran high.
Several times Randall was penalized for holding in the line, or for
off-side play, but this was due to the eagerness of the substitutes, who
had not the seasoned judgment of the 'varsity men.
The game was drawing to a close, amid a riot of songs and cheers.
Randall had rolled up a big enough score to satisfy even the exacting
coach, and there were but a few more minutes left to play. Canton had
the ball, it being given to her on a penalty, and they were just over
the centre line, in the Randall territory. There came a signal, and the
Canton left half-back was sent charging into the line between Sam Looper
and Bert Bascome.
Whose fault it was no one stopped to figure out, but there was a big
hole opened, Sam was sent sprawling to one side, with Bascome on top of
him, and the man with the ball was through the line, running like a deer
for the Randall goal line.
Sid Henderson tried for a tackle, and missed, and then George Carter,
who was playing full, got ready to throw the man with the ball. But
the latter proved to be a player of exceptional ability, and speeding
straight at the full-back, he suddenly dodged, so that Carter, who made
a dive for him, also missed, and went sprawling.
There was now not a player between the Canton man and the goal line.
Like mad, his friends leaped to their feet, and sent cheer after cheer
ringing into the air.
"Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown!" was the frenzied yell.
"After him!" shouted Captain Woodhouse. "Don't let him touch it down,
fellows!"
He was running desperately, but speed was not his strong point. Tom
Parsons, however, was on the alert. There was not many who could beat
him at the scudding game, and he tore off over the white marks after the
cadet, with a fierce desire to pull him down in his tracks. It was a
hard race, but Tom won, and grappled his man in a fierce tackle from
behind, not two yards from the goal line. Down they went heavily, lying
there for a few seconds, the breath knocked from them both.
"Do--down!" gasped the cadet, and there were tears in his eyes, for it
meant the end of the hope of his school.
"Too bad, old man," spoke Tom kindly, "but we really couldn't allow it,
you know. It was a good try, though."
The other did not answer. He still had the ball, and there was another
line-up, but before the play could be made, the whistle blew, and
Randall's goal line was still inviolate.
"How'd he get through?" demanded Captain Woodhouse, when the cheering
was over, and the players were going to the dressing rooms.
"He got through between Bascome and me," said the unlucky Snail.
"It wasn't my fault," declared the tackle. "He just pushed Sam over. It
wasn't my fault."
"Well, it was _somebody's_ fault," grumbled the captain, "and if it
happens again, something else will happen."
There was quite a jolly time after the game, in spite of the defeat of
the military lads, and the left half-back, who had made the sensational
run, and who had so nearly scored, was properly lionized.
"When are you going to have another little dance, girls?" asked Tom, of
Ruth Clinton and her two friends.
"When you boys have another fire at Randall," was the quick answer.
The little party of students had some refreshments together, and then,
as a little shower came up, the crowd scurried for shelter, the girls
going back to Fairview.
"Well, it was a pretty good game, all right," remarked Tom, as he and
his chums were walking down the corridor to their room.
"Pretty fair," admitted Phil. "Hold on a minute, fellows; I want to see
something."
"What?" asked Tom.
"If there are any more keys in the door," answered the quarter-back,
"and also whether anyone is in there. Listen!"
They approached their portal cautiously, and waited in silence for a
moment, but heard no sound. Then they entered, finding no false key in
the lock.
But, no sooner were the chums in their apartment, than they were made
aware of something strange. As if by common impulse, they came to a stop
in the middle of the floor. Then Tom cried:
"Listen! Our old clock! The alarm clock!"
A loud ticking was heard--a tick different from that of the mahogany
timepiece. Tom switched on the light.
There, on the mantle, in the place where it had always rested, was their
battered old relic! They gazed at it, scarcely able to believe their
eyes. Then Sid remarked:
"The clock has come back!"
"And only increases the mystery," added Tom, slowly.
CHAPTER XXI
SEEKING EVIDENCE
Phil Clinton walked over to the mantle, and, almost reverently, took
down the fussy, ticking clock. It seemed to make more noise than usual,
but perhaps this was because the room was so quiet, or perchance
they had become used to the rather gentle tick-tock of the mahogany
timepiece. The quarter-back turned the clock over and over.
"Yes, it's ours, all right," he finally announced.
"Did you have any doubt of it?" asked Tom.
"Some," admitted Phil. "There have been so many queer things happening,
that I don't know whether or not to believe that we are really here,
that we exist, and that there is such a place as Randall College."
"There won't be, if Langridge's father and those other lawyers have
their way," declared Sid, solemnly.
Phil was still closely examining the clock, turning it over and over,
and listening to the tick.
"Well, what's the matter?" asked Tom. "Do you think it's got the
measles or the pip, that you have to hark to its breathing apparatus
that way?"
"There's something wrong with it," declared Phil, with a dubious shake
of his head. "It doesn't tick as it used to. Here, Sid, you listen to
it."
Thus appealed to, Sid put the timepiece to his ear.
"Don't you remember," went on Phil, "how it used to sort of have a
double tick, like an automobile with carbon in the cylinders? Sometimes
it would act as if it was going to stop, and you'd think it had heart
failure. Then it would get on the move again. It doesn't do that now. It
ticks as regular as a chronometer."
"You're right," agreed Sid. "Here, Tom, have a hearken."
After a few minutes' test, Tom was also forced to conclude that there
was something strange about the clock. Yet it was undeniably theirs.
"And it's exactly right, too," went on Phil, comparing it with his new
watch, a present from his mother. "It's right to the half minute, and
that's something that never happened before since the time when the
memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Whoever had it, and brought
it back, took the trouble to set it right."
Tom was now carefully looking the clock over. He gazed thoughtfully at
the back, where there were a number of turn screws and keys for winding
and setting it, and uttered an exclamation.
"Fellows!" he cried, "our clock has been taken apart and put together
again. See, the back is scratched where some one has used a knife or
screwdriver on it, and smell the oil they've put on it."
He held it first to the nose of Sid, and then to Phil. After several
detecting whiffs, they both gave it as their opinion that the clock had
been given an oil bath.
"This gets me!" exclaimed Phil. "Why in the name of the seven sacred
somnambulistic salamanders, anyone should go to the trouble of making a
false key to our room, take our clock away, renovate it, and then bring
it back I can't see for the life of me."
"Same here," came from Sid, as he slumped down on the sofa. "But we've
got it back, anyhow, and isn't there a proverb to the effect that you
shouldn't look a beggar in the mouth?"
"You're thinking of gift-horses," declared Tom, "but what you mean is,
'take the gifts the gods provide.' Still, it is mighty queer, and I wish
we could get some clews that would help unravel the mystery--that of our
chair as well as the clock."
Sid uncurled long enough to reach out and get a book, which he began to
study, while Phil set himself at some of his college tasks. Only Tom
remained inactive--yet not inactive, either, for he was doing some hard
thinking, in which the clock, the missing chair, and the troubles of
Randall in general, formed a part. He arose and walked about the room,
pausing now and then in front of the clock to listen to the insistent
ticking.
"Oh, for cat's sake, sit down!" exploded Phil, at length. "I've written
this same sentence over six times, and I can't get it right yet, with
you tramping around like a prisoner in a cell."
"Yes, go to bed," urged Sid.
Tom did not answer. Instead, he stooped over and picked up an envelope
from the floor, where it had fallen partly under and was almost hidden
by a low bookcase. He turned it over to read the address, and uttered a
startled cry.
"What's the matter?" demanded Sid, springing to an upright position with
such suddenness, that the old sofa creaked and groaned in protest, like
a ship in a storm.
"Look!" exclaimed Tom. "This letter--I found it on the floor--it's
addressed to Bert Bascome--from someone in the college, evidently, for
it hasn't been through the mail, as there's no stamp on it."
Sid and Phil eagerly examined the missive, turning it over and over, as
if something on it might escape them. It was a plain white envelope,
and was sealed.
"That throws some light on the mystery, and bears out my suspicion,"
went on Tom.
"What light?" asked Sid.
"And what suspicion?" demanded Phil.
"The suspicion that Langridge has had a hand in this mystery, and that
Bert Bascome has been in our room since we last left it. That letter
wasn't here when we went out, I'm sure of that, so Bascome must have
dropped it when he brought back the clock."
"Brought back the clock!" cried Phil. "Do you mean to say he took
it--and the chair?"
"I don't know that I do, but either he or Langridge had a hand in it,"
asserted Tom, positively. "Langridge probably put Bascome up to it, to
annoy us. You know Bascome and that bully were quite thick with each
other before Langridge was forced to leave."
"But this letter isn't in the handwriting of Langridge, Tom," objected
Sid. "I know _his_ fist well enough."
"That's right," agreed Phil. "But I can tell you who did write this."
"Who?" demanded Tom and Sid, in a breath.
"Henry Lenton," was the quiet reply.
"What, the fellow you suspected of making the false key?" cried Tom, in
startled tones.
"That's the chap. He wrote this letter to Bascome; I'm sure of it."
"Then those two are in the game against us!" came from Sid. "Oh,
say, this is getting more puzzling than ever! What can we do about
it--Langridge--Bascome--Lenton--who's guilty--who had our clock?"
"I'm going to find out one thing!" declared Tom, with energy.
"What's that?" asked Phil, as his chum arose and strode toward the door.
"I'm going to give Bascome this letter, and find out what he was doing
in our room."
"You may make trouble," warned Phil.
"I don't care if I do! I'm going to get to the bottom of this," and
holding the envelope as if it might somehow get away from him, Tom
strode from the apartment, his footsteps echoing down the corridor,
while back in the room his chums listened to the ticking of the clock
that formed a link in the curious mystery.
CHAPTER XXII
BASCOME DENIES
Tom Parsons knocked vigorously on the door of Bert Bascome's room. If
the character of his summons was any indication of his mind, the bearer
of the letter was in no mood for compromise. As soon as he had tapped at
the portal, there was audible within the apartment a hasty scramble.
"Guess they must think it's Zane, or Prexy," mused Tom, grimly.
He waited several seconds, and then came the gentle and somewhat
sleep-simulated query:
"Who's there?"
"It's me--Parsons," was the ready, if ungrammatical, answer. "Are you
there, Bascome?"
"Yes, of course. I thought it was one of the profs. It's all right,
fellows--you can come out," and, as the door opened, Tom saw several of
Bascome's friends crawling from under the bed and couch. There was a
smell of cigarette smoke quite noticeable in the room.
"Whew! You fellows are going some!" commented Tom. "You can smell that
all the way up to our room."
"No! Can you really?" asked Bascome, in some alarm. "We opened all the
windows, and we fan the smoke out regularly every ten minutes; don't we,
fellows?"
"Sure," replied Merkle, one of the sportiest of sporty seniors. "It's
regular bore to think we have to sneak around this way when we want
to smoke. Why, in some big colleges, I understand, they allow the
undergraduates to smoke in their rooms, and even the tutors have a pipe
with them."
"Pity this isn't a big college," remarked Bascome, as he lighted another
cigarette. "I suppose I oughtn't to do this when I'm in training," he
went on easily, "but you won't squeal, will you, Parsons? Have a cig.
yourself?"
"No, thank you. May I see you just a moment, Bascome?"
Tom had not thought to find anyone in the room save the left tackle, and
he hardly knew how, under the circumstances, to put his question.
"Sure," answered Bascome. "Anything about football? Because if it
is----"
"It isn't," answered Tom, quickly.
"Oh, then, come on out. Excuse me just a moment, fellows," he said to
his guests, as he followed our hero out into the corridor. "I hope it
isn't spondulix, old man," he went on. "I'd let you have some in a
moment, but I'm dead broke, and----"
"I don't need any money!" broke in Tom, half angrily. "Look here,
Bascome, were you in our room to-day--after the football game?"
"In your room? Certainly not, either before the game or after it. What
do you mean?"
"Well," went on Tom, "there have been some queer things happening
lately. Our old chair was taken--for a joke, I presume, and----"
"Do you mean to accuse me of having a hand in that?" demanded Bascome,
indignantly. "If you do, Parsons----"
"Take it easy," advised Tom, calmly. "I haven't accused you of anything
yet. I merely asked you if you had been in our room."
"But why do you do that? What makes you think I was in there?"
"Because I found this there--after we came back from the game this
afternoon," went on the end. "It's a letter addressed to you, and I
thought maybe you had dropped it."
Tom held out the missive, but, before taking it, Bascome, with a glance
of anger at his companion, said cuttingly:
"Look here, Parsons, I don't know what your game is, but I think you're
confoundedly insulting. Now, before I look at that letter, I want to
say, in the strongest way I know how, that I was _not_ in your room
to-day, nor any other day lately. In fact, I haven't been there since a
lot of us fellows were talking over football matters with you and Phil
and Sid one evening."
"Yes, I remember that time," spoke Tom. "Well, I believe you, of course.
Here's the letter. It's mighty queer, though."
Bascome gave one glance at the missive, and murmured:
"Lenton! I wonder what he's writing about now. That fellow's off his
base, I think."
As he read the note, a scowl came over his face, and he muttered
something that Tom could not catch. However, the end did hear Bascome
say:
"Insolent puppy! He's got nerve to write to me that way! I'll have it
out with him!"
Then, with rapid motions, Bascome tore the letter to pieces, and
scattered them about the corridor.
"It doesn't throw any light on the mystery that has been bothering you
fellows, about your clock and chair," went on the tackle. "I had some
dealings with Lenton, and this was about that."
"I didn't ask to know what was in the letter," said Tom, quickly. "The
only funny part of it was that it was in our room. I thought
perhaps----" he hesitated.
"Oh, don't make any bones about it," urged his fellow player. "You might
as well say it as think it. You imagined I had been in there, playing
some sort of a joke on you."
"Yes, I did," admitted Tom. "Our clock was returned mysteriously
to-night, and the one left in its place was taken away. The other night
we found a false key in our door, and now----"
"Now you find a letter addressed to me!" interrupted Bascome. "I don't
blame you for thinking it a bit queer, old man, but I'm not in the game.
I've got other fish to fry. The way I suppose my letter got in you
fellows' room, is that Wallops, or some of the messengers to whom Lenton
gave it to be delivered to me, must have dropped it there."
"But Wallops nor none of the messengers would have a right to go into
our room while we were out," declared Tom.
"Oh, you can't tell what those fellows would do," asserted Bascome,
easily. "I'll wager that's how it happened. Ask Wallops. I'm out of it,
anyhow. I wasn't in your shack, and you can't make that too strong when
you report back to Phil and Sid."
"I will," promised Tom, somewhat nonplused at the outcome of the affair.
He had been sure that something would come of the connection between
Bascome and the letter. "I'm sorry I took you away from your friends,"
he went on.
"Oh, that's all right. I'd rather have you _speak_ openly like this,
than be _thinking_ a lot of queer things. No, I'm out of it. The letter
had nothing to do with your clock or chair," and with this denial
Bascome turned back toward his own room.
"Good night," he called to Tom; "that is, unless you'll join us?"
He paused and looked back.
"No, thank you, I'm going to turn in."
Tom swung around, and was about to proceed down the corridor, when the
torn pieces of the letter Bascome had destroyed caught his eye. By this
time the other youth had entered his room, before Tom could call to him
that perhaps he had better pick up the scraps.
"Oh, well, leave them there," mused Tom. "I guess if he doesn't care
whether or not anyone sees them, I oughtn't to."
Slowly he walked along, when a piece of paper, rather larger than the
other fragments, was turned over by the draft of his walking. It was
directly under a hall light, and Tom could not help seeing the words
written on it. They stood out in bold relief--three words--and they were
these:
_the alarm clock_
Tom stared at them as if fascinated. They seemed to be written in
letters of fire. He stooped and picked up the piece of the torn letter.
"The alarm clock!" murmured Tom. "I'll wager anything Lenton _was_
writing about our clock, and yet Bascome said the letter didn't have a
thing in it about our mystery. I wonder--I wonder if he expects me to
believe that--now."
For a moment he paused, half inclined to go back and have it out with
Bascome. Then he realized that this would not be the wisest plan.
Besides, he wanted to talk with Phil and Sid.
"I'll tell them," he thought. "Maybe they can see through it, for I'll
be hanged if I can. 'The alarm clock!' I wonder if I would be justified
in picking up the rest of the pieces, and
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