CHAPTER XX
CHET PLAYS THE HERO
The boys stopped at the gate of Three Towers Hall, not knowing just whatto do next. All they knew was that Miss Race had been held up and robbedonly a few hundred feet from the gate and that the robber haddisappeared in the bushes at the left-hand side of the road.
"We'll have to spread out," Teddy said in an excited voice. "Probablythe fellow doesn't expect to be followed, because he thinks there areonly women and girls around Three Towers and he's probably around nearhere somewhere counting over his loot.
"There are five of us," he went on quickly, noticing that two more boyshad come up from the lake on a run. "And if we go in the woods one at atime and circle about we ought to find the thief."
"Don't you think we'd better get Miss Race?" asked Chet eagerly. "She'dbe able to show us just where the fellow disappeared, and everything."
"But it will take too long," Ferd was objecting, when Miss Raceherself, with two or three of the other teachers and Miss Walters, camehurrying toward them.
"What are you going to do, boys?" asked Miss Walters, looking worried.
The boys explained quickly, and Teddy, turning eagerly to Miss Race,asked her to go with them as far as the woods and point out the placewhere the thief had disappeared.
Miss Race was still white from her fright. But she was angry, too, forthe pocketbook she had lost contained a good deal of money.
"Yes, I'll go," she said, then added, turning quickly to her principal:"That is, if you don't mind, Miss Walters."
Miss Walters still looked troubled, but she shook her head slowly.
"I think it will be all right," she said, adding as the boys startedeagerly off: "Only be careful, boys, and don't get hurt. The man may bedesperate if he finds himself cornered."
The girls started to follow the boys, but Miss Walters checked them.
"You can't help," she said when they looked at her reproachfully. "Andsince I'm responsible for you, you will stay right here."
Meanwhile, the boys and Miss Race were running down the road. Yes, evenMiss Race, who was never _very_ dignified, was running.
Suddenly they came to a trampled place in the road, showing that somestruggle had taken place there.
"It was right here," said Miss Race, her eyes black with excitement."And he ran across the road and disappeared in that thick mass ofbushes. Then he covered me with his gun and told me to 'beat it whilethe beating was good.'"
"The rat!" cried Chet indignantly. "Come on, fellows! I want to get myhands on that rascal."
Eagerly the boys started for the woods, but Teddy turned back suddenlyand called to Miss Race.
"You'd better go back now," he said, and Miss Race's eyes twinkled athis grown-up tone. "There isn't anything more you can do, and if thereare any bullets flying around we don't want you to get them. Please," headded impatiently, as she did not move.
"No, I'm going to stay right here," she answered him firmly, and whenMiss Race spoke in that tone everybody knew that she meant what shesaid. "Go along, but don't take too many risks. Remember the man isarmed."
So Teddy disappeared after his comrades and Miss Race waited nervouslyin the road, expecting she hardly knew what.
It seemed a long time that she stood there, dreading any moment to heara shot, blaming herself for sending the boys on such a hunt.
"I'd rather lose a hundred pocketbooks," she scolded herself, "than havea finger of one of those boys hurt. I wish I hadn't said anything aboutit."
As for the boys, they were beginning to despair of ever finding thethief and were calling themselves all sorts of names for ever thinkingthey would, when suddenly Chet walked out of the woods and almost uponhim.
It was so sudden that the boy almost yelled in his surprise, but all hereally did was clap his hand over his mouth and stare. For he had comeso softly that the man had not even heard him.
He was crouched over something that Chet could not see--probably thestolen pocketbook. His revolver lay beside him on the ground, close tohis right hand.
With his heart in his mouth--for after all, with all his courage, he wasonly a boy and the robber was a man, and armed at that--Chet creptforward, fearful each second of stepping on a twig and giving hispresence away.
Nearer and nearer he crept, hardly daring to breathe, until he was rightbehind the thief and the revolver was almost under his feet.
Then with a motion as quick as a cat's, he stooped and caught tip therevolver. The next moment he stepped quickly back and covered the thiefwith it.
"Hands up!" he cried. "Quick there, before I shoot!"
So sudden, so noiseless, had been his action that the thief was takencompletely by surprise. With an exclamation he reached his hand out forhis revolver, then, not finding it, stumbled to his feet.
"Hands up!" cried Chet sharply. "Quick, now. This blamed thing might gooff."
The man's hands went up, but he still kept his back to Chet, his littlefurtive eyes glancing about for a means of escape.
"Turn around," Chet commanded, then as the man did not move he clickedthe trigger meaningly. "Say, I think you want to taste the lead in thisthing," he added, and there was something in his tone, boyish though itwas, that made the man turn quickly.
Chet uttered a gasp of recognition.
"So it _is_ you," he said. "I thought it was all the time, but Icouldn't be sure till I'd seen the color of your eyes. So you're reallythe 'Codfish.' Please to meet you, old man."
"Say, cut that out," snarled the "Codfish," making as though to springupon Chet, but the latter waved his pistol and the man evidently changedhis mind, for he stood where he was, hands above his head, eyes glaring.
"And so there's the pocketbook and the nice fat roll of money you juststole from the Three Towers teacher," Chet went on, his glance shiftingfrom the man to the pocketbook with the money stuffed hastily in itwhere the man had left it on the ground. "You thought it was easy,didn't you? Well, you didn't know you had me to reckon with." Chet wasboy enough to want to strut a little. Never before had he had a chanceto play the real hero. He probably never would have again, so he wantedto make the most of this.
"You little puppy!" the man spat out at him. "You think you can get thebest of me, don't you? Let me tell you, no kid can do that."
He made a sudden lunge forward, and Chet, taken by surprise, steppedbackward, caught his foot in a root and stumbled a little.
He recovered himself in a minute, but in that little space of time the"Codfish" had gone, disappeared as if the earth had swallowed him up.
Then Chet went mad. To have had the thief and then to lose him! Hestarted off wildly into the woods, but his foot struck againstsomething, and, looking down, he saw the pocketbook with the money stillin it.
He picked it up, feeling that he had partly played the hero anyway, forif he had not caught the thief, he had at least recovered the money.
Then he started off on his hunt again, and this time almost steppedinto the arms of Ferd and Teddy.
"Say, what's the row?" the former yelled at him. "We heard the talking,and thought we'd have a look--say, stop pointing that thing at me, willyou?"
"Then get out of my way," yelled Chet, his mind on only one thing. Hemust catch the "Codfish." "I'm after the thief, I tell you! Get out ofmy way!"
"Say, has he gone crazy?" asked Teddy. Then his eyes fell on thepocketbook that Chet was still holding tight in his hands.
"He got the money! Say, Ferd, he got the money! Chet you're some hero.Where's the thief?"
By this time Chet knew he had no chance of catching the "Codfish," who,now that he was discovered, was probably running into hiding as fast ashe could, so he turned back with the boys and began excitedly to tellthem what had happened.
"And you really had him and you let him go again!" cried Ferd indisgust. "Well, you poor old fish!"
"I got the money, anyway, didn't I?" Chet defended himself, adding in asuperior tone: "It's more than any of you did, I guess."
&nb
sp; "You're some boy, Chet," Teddy repeated heartily. "Come on and let'stell the good news to Miss Race. Make believe she won't be glad to seeher wealth again."
"Where are the other fellows?" Chet asked, as they started back.
"Oh, they'll be along soon," said Ferd indifferently. "When they can'tfind old 'Codfish' they'll come wandering back again."
"I wonder if Miss Race has waited," said Teddy, adding as he came nearthe roadway: "Yes, there she is, looking pretty white and scared, too."
As they clumped through the heavy bushes Ferd looked at Chet gloomily.
"Say, make believe I don't envy you, you lucky dog," he said slangily."Gosh, all the girls will be wanting to skate with you and everythingnow."
"Sure! Well be left out in the cold," added Teddy mournfully.
Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall; Or, Leading a Needed Rebellion Page 20