by Morgan Scott
CHAPTER XVI
THE FACE AT THE WINDOW.
Practice that night was a failure; no one seemed to enter into it withheart or enthusiasm. The ball was batted and thrown around listlessly,and Nelson's efforts to wake the fellows up bore no fruit. And so, aftera time, seeing that this sort of work would do the boys no good, thecaptain put an end to it.
"It's plain we haven't our minds on the business in hand, fellows," hesaid, "so we'll quit it for to-night. I fancy we're all thinking toomuch about what happened to Hooker."
They straggled back to the gymnasium, which stood just outside thegrounds, and took their showers and rub-downs and dressed. There was notmuch talk now, and very little joshing or laughter. Cooper perpetrated apun, but no one seemed to notice it. Even beneath the hissing,spattering cold showers there was not much of the usual whooping andshouting; they dove into the icy spray, gasped, jumped out, grabbedtheir towels, scrubbed and dressed. Then, one by one, or in littlegroups, they departed.
Charley Shultz followed Ned Osgood from the gym and overtook himoutside.
"There goes that cub, Piper, along with Phil Springer," he saidanxiously. "Cooper's ahead of them. They're all going the same way.Let's hustle up and overtake them."
Ned restrained him. "Let them go, Charley. It won't do any good to chasethem, and it may look suspicious to others."
"Did you get a chance to say anything to Phil and Chipper?"
"Sure. Couldn't talk to them much, but I told them what Piper was up to,and urged them to hold him in check."
"What did they say?"
"They're worried. They said they'd do their best."
"He'll bring them round," snarled Shultz. "I never saw such a vicious,determined little imp. I figured him out to be a wishy-washy, spinelesscreature, but, on my word, he's the most obstinate, pig-headed fellow Iever ran up against. He's got it in for me; he's bound to queer me."
"He'll queer us both if he sticks to his plan," said Ned, in adiscouraged way. "It's going to hit me about as hard as it will you, oldfellow. I had to get out of Hadden Hall because I was caught with abunch playing poker in my room in one of the dormitories. My motherinsisted that I should attend a smaller and quieter school where therewould be less temptation, and that's how I happened to come here."
"There's a bond of sympathy between us," declared the other boy, with agrin. "I was expelled from Berkley for fighting, and before that I gotinto trouble in the public school of my own town. Like you, it's mymother who wants me to have an education. The old man was for putting meto work with my coat off after the Berkley affair."
They had paused near the academy gate.
"Going home?" asked Ned.
"Home?" exclaimed Charley, misunderstanding him. "If I've got to get outof this town I'll strike out for myself; I'll keep away from home."
"I mean are you going, now, to your boarding place?"
"Oh! I guess not yet. I'll walk up with you. I want to talk this thingover a little more."
To avoid passing through the center of the village, they crossed theyard to a field behind it, which brought them to Middle Street. As theywent along, Shultz was saying:
"My people aren't such swells as yours, Ned, though the old man ismaking some money. They're German, but I was born in this country. It'sonly lately that my father has been scraping together some dollars. Allhis life he's had to pinch, and now he hangs on to the mazuma with adeathlike grip. It about breaks his heart when he has to send me mymonthly allowance, and one reason why he put me here into this littleschool was because he thought it would be less expensive. Your peopleare different. You always have money. They might have sent you to anybig school if you'd insisted on it."
"I explained my mother's reason for wishing me to come here. After thatexposure at Hadden Hall, it seemed best that I should put in a year atsome obscure school before entering an institution of importance. Yousee, considering our standing and family, she felt fearfully cut up overwhat happened at Hadden. If there's a repetition of it here, it willmake her hair turn gray. I may not betray my feelings to the extent thatyou do, but I'll confess that this miserable mix-up has got me going. Ifyou hadn't struck that blow----"
"Oh, now you can't blame me; you'd done the same under thosecircumstances. What I'd like to know is where that extra ace came from.You don't suppose that sneak, Piper, slipped it into the pack, do you?"
Osgood shook his head. "I examined the cards after you fellows left. Youknow I stated at the time that I had two packs with the backs alike.Investigation showed me that the ace of spades was missing from the packthat was not in use. It got into the other pack, somehow, and that'swhat makes me blame myself. You understand, Charley, that it was reallythrough my own carelessness that this whole thing came about."
"It was rotten hard luck."
"Yes, it was hard luck."
Neither of them seemed to fancy for a moment that the element of Fateentered, even remotely, into the case, and perhaps they could be excusedin this, for "hard luck" is ever the cry of the erring who face exposurethrough seemingly chance twists of circumstances. Even hardenedmalefactors, which these boys were not, rarely understand how closelythe threads of human destiny are woven, making it almost impossiblecompletely and effectually to hide the slightest flaw in the web.
Although Osgood invited him in when Mrs. Chester's house was reached,Shultz declined; he was troubled by a vague aversion for the room of hisfriend, in which an event bordering on tragedy had taken place. Theylingered outside near an old elm that was just beginning to show theleast touch of tender green amid its branches, and continued seeking toease their minds by talk.
"Under any circumstances," said Shultz, "this business seems to put thekibosh on our little plan. It's upset everything."
Osgood nodded. "Just when we had things pretty well fixed," he sighed."We were standing in right with the majority of the baseball team, andNelson's act at Wyndham would have helped us along."
"Sure. I'll guarantee you would have been captain of the Oakdale Academynine before long. If Wyndham had won that game after Nelson benched us,it would have settled everything our way. You're mighty clever, old man.You worked the fellows who could be worked, and did it just right. Theydidn't realize for a moment what we were up to. Still, we had themsounded so that we knew which way every one would jump if a split came."
"It was your idea; I'd never thought of it myself. Even after seeing howloosely athletics are run here, being only a short time in the school, Iwouldn't have fancied it possible to depose Nelson had you not suggestedit."
For ten minutes or more they continued to talk without securing theleast relief from the oppression and anxiety that was on them.
The face of Shultz, as he trudged toward the home of Caleb Carter, wherehe boarded, was clouded and gloomy. After supper he waited until theshadows had lengthened into twilight, and then set forth into thevillage. In their talk, neither he nor Osgood had spoken much of theprobable result of Roy Hooker's injury, but Charley was inwardlyconsumed by a desire for some report on the unfortunate boy's condition.
In town he lingered around the post-office and the stores where thevillagers occasionally gathered to gossip, hoping to learn what hedesired without making inquiries. He joined some boys near the drinkingfountain in the square, but took little part in their characteristicchatter.
"You're glum to-night, Shultzie," said Hunk Rollins. "Got a grouch on?"
"Oh, no," was the answer. "I've had bad news from home. Father's sick,and I may have to give up school. It wouldn't surprise me to get atelegram to-morrow."
"Oh, gee!" cried Chub Tuttle. "Don't think you'll have to go for good,do you? With Hooker hurt and you gone, the nine will be mighty weak."
"Has any one heard anything from Hooker to-night?" Shultz desperatelyforced himself to inquire.
"Only that he seems to be about the same," answered Harry Hopper. "Hehasn't talked much yet. We're all waiting to find out what he will haveto say when he does talk. The old Prof seemed to th
ink it was going tobump somebody. We've been trying to figure out who it will be. Fred Sageis Roy's closest friend, but he wasn't out of the house Saturday night,so he don't know anything about it."
"It wouldn't surprise me," said Shultz, "if the whole thing turned outto be sort of a tempest in a teapot. It doesn't seem at all likely thatanybody knows the facts and is keeping still. I'll wager Hooker took atumble and hurt himself on his way home."
"But the question is, where had he been?" said Tuttle, munching apeanut. "He must have been out with somebody at that hour, but nobodyhas come forward to say he was with him. That's what makes it looksuspicious."
"Well, I'm going home," announced Shultz, who had no relish to discussthe matter. "Perhaps we'll hear something new in the morning."
In his small back room at Caleb Carter's he tried to divert his mind awhile by reading, but gave it up at last and decided to go to bed. Hewas half undressed when, chancing to turn toward the window, whichlooked out upon the roof of the ell, he staggered as if struck a blow,his mouth open, his eyes bulging, both hands outflung.
The light of his lamp, shining through the window, fell upon the pallidface of Roy Hooker, who was gazing fixedly at him!