On Your Mark! A Story of College Life and Athletics

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER XII

  TOMMY CORRECTS A REPORT

  Allan was almost the last of Pete's friends to give up hope; but when,by the next morning, Pete had neither returned nor had news of him beenreceived, even Allan accepted the general belief. The janitor at theboat-house readily identified the overturned boat, while as for thehat, which had washed ashore at the foot of Main Street, even if Allanand Hal had been in doubt about it, there was still Pete's initialsmarked on the inside. Inquiry at Hillcrest had elicited the informationthat Pete had never reached there.

  The Guilds were deeply concerned, and Mr. Guild not only added a sumto that offered by the college for the recovery of the body, buthimself took charge of a boat which all the next day dragged the riverbetween his place and Centerport. The drowned body, however, wasnever recovered--a fact which surprised nobody, since the current iscapricious, and the stream so broad as to preclude the possibility ofsearching every foot of its bed.

  The accepted theory was that Pete had encountered a sudden squall whilecrossing the river which had either swamped the boat or overturned it.Although Pete was known to have been a capable swimmer and a fellow ofmore than ordinary strength, yet the fact that he had failed to win theshore from midstream, weighted down as he had been with heavy clothing,was not considered strange.

  A telegram was at once despatched to Pete's father in Colorado, and,since that did not elicit a reply by the following forenoon, a secondmessage was sent. The death was announced in the city papers with muchdetail, and Pete's athletic prowess was highly exaggerated. The ErskinePurple, which appeared the second day after the accident, contained ahalf-column notice of the sad affair, in which Pete's many estimablequalities were feelingly set forth. Tommy wrote the notice himself,and, as he felt every word he wrote, the article was a very touchingtribute.

  The club table was a subdued and sorrowful place for several days.Pete's chair stood pathetically empty until, in desperation, Allan putit away. But as a head to the table was essential, an informal electionwas taken two days after Pete's disappearance, and Wolcott was elevatedto the place of honor. A meeting of the freshman class was called and acommittee was appointed to draw up resolutions of sorrow, to be sentto Pete's father and to be published in the Purple.

  When, after the second day of search, the tug-boat commissioned by thecollege to drag for the body abandoned its work, the first depressionhad passed and the college by degrees returned to its usual spirits.But Allan and Hal and Tommy were not so speedily resigned. Tommy, inespecial, took the event hard.

  Perhaps it had been the utter dissimilarity of Pete's nature and hisown which had drawn him to Pete. That as may be, Tommy was a verygrave-faced little chap in those days.

  But Allan, if he showed less grief, was sadly depressed. He had notrealized before how much he had grown to care in six weeks for the big,good-hearted Westerner. He felt terribly lonely, and besides he blamedhimself for not having accompanied Pete; perhaps, he thought dolefully,had he gone along, the accident wouldn't have happened, and Pete wouldhave been sitting there now across the table, puffing lazily at hisevil-smelling corn-cob pipe. But instead of Pete there was only Tommyand Hal--and Two Spot.

  Two Spot, grown greatly in bulk since her advent, was snuggled againstTommy's arm. Outside it was blowing a gale and lashing the rain againstthe long windows. It was a most depressing afternoon, and the spiritsof the three friends were at a low ebb. Tommy looked now and then asthough a good cry would do him worlds of good. Hal scowled morosely anddrummed irritatingly on the arm of the Morris chair until Allan, indesperation, begged him to "cut it out." It was at this juncture thatTommy let fall a remark that set Allan thinking hard.

  "Poor old Pete got what he was after, though, didn't he?" asked Tommy,breaking a silence of several minutes' duration.

  "What's that?" asked Allan.

  "Don't you remember the bet he and I made?" Tommy replied. "Well,he got his name on the first page of the Purple, after all. Wish hehadn't."

  "That's so," said Hal. "I'd forgotten about that bet. I guess you'llhave to pay that wager to us, Tommy, and we'll drink to Pete's memory."

  Allan, his heart thumping wildly, looked at the other fellows' faces,but it was quite evident that the wild surmise which had come to himhad not occurred to them. He pushed back his chair abruptly and went tothe window.

  Was it possible? he asked himself. Surely, Pete would not have gone tosuch a length merely to win a bet! And yet--Pete was Pete; what anotherfellow would do was no criterion when it came to Pete's conduct.Allan's heart was racing and thumping now. The more he considered theaffair in the light of Tommy's remark the more plausible seemed thestartling theory which had assailed him. He turned to blurt out hissuspicions to the others, then hesitated. If he should prove to bewrong, he would regret charging Pete with such madness. Perhaps he hadbetter keep his own counsel for a while longer.

  To you, respected reader, who have all along known, or at leastsuspected, the truth of the matter, it probably seems strangethat Allan should not have instantly realized the hoax. I have noexplanation to offer in his behalf. He was still in doubt when Fate, inthe not uncommon semblance of a postman, came to his relief.

  When he answered the landlady's tap on his door, he received a letterthe mere sight of which set all his doubts at rest. The envelopewas postmarked Hastings--Hastings is a small city eighteen milesdown the river from Centerport--and the round, schoolboy writing wasunmistakably Pete's.

  Tommy and Hal glanced around when the door opened, but paid noattention while Allan tore open the envelope and rushed through the twopages of writing inside. They only awoke to the fact that something hadhappened when Allan, waving the sheet above his head, gave vent to ablood-curdling yell of joy that sent Two Spot scuttling out of Tommy'sarms and under the dresser.

  "What is it?" they cried in unison.

  Allan waved the letter again ecstatically.

  "It's a letter from him!"

  "Him? Who?"

  "_Pete!_"

  To attempt to describe the subsequent confusion would be absurd. Onlya wide-awake phonograph could do it. Two chairs were overturned, Tommyscreeched, Hal roared, Allan yelled back. The letter waved in air. ThenTommy danced an impromptu jig and, being quite unconscious that he wasdoing it, did it with much grace. Unfortunately none noticed it. Halwas struggling for the letter. Allan was fighting to keep possessionof it. Tommy danced on. Occasionally he shrieked. His shriek was notnearly so pleasant as his dancing. After many moments comparative quietsettled and three breathless fellows gathered at the window whileAllan, holding the precious document in his hands, read aloud. This iswhat they heard, leaving out, for the sake of clearness, the frequentinterpolations of the listeners:

  HASTINGS HOUSE, HASTINGS, _Dec. 7, 1903_.

  DEAR ALLAN--I guess you weren't fooled, but anyhow it may be best, in case you are getting worried, to write and let you know that I am still alive and kicking like a steer. I would have written before, but only got a copy of the Purp this morning. It was fine. Tell Tommy he did nobly. I know it was Tommy wrote it because of the poetry. I'm going to have that front page framed for my descendants to look upon. They'll know then what a noble youth I was.

  I'm leaving here for New York to-night. The old man's there. I'm not stuck on telling him about it, you can bet. He will be rip-snorting mad. I had to drown myself when I did because I got a letter saying he was going to be in New York a couple of weeks, and I knew he wouldn't get any telegrams or things announcing my sad death. I don't guess they'll let me come back to college, and I don't care very much, except that I hate to say good-by to you and Hal and Tommy. But I'll see you again before I go home, unless they are easy on me, which doesn't seem likely, does it?

  You see, I rowed up to Harwich, turned the boat over and set it adrift, and tossed my hat after it. I had another inside my coat. Then I walked to Williamsport and took the train back to this place. I've been here ever si
nce. It's a dull hole. But I had to wait for the Purple to make sure I hadn't slipped up. I suppose there was a lot of trouble. I'm sorry if I worried you fellows, but life was getting duller than ditch-water and something had to be done. I wish you would go down to my room and pack up the things that are lying around.

  Tell Tommy I'll come back some day for that dinner, and that it's got to be a good one. Maybe, if you have time, you'll write and tell me how you all are. It seems like I hadn't seen you for a month. Address me, Care Thomas A. Burley, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York. You fellows have got to come out to Colorado this summer and visit me if they don't let me come back to college. If you don't, I'll arise from my watery grave and haunt you. Say "How" to Hal and Tommy, and don't forget your poor old

  UNCLE PETE.

  * * * * *

  The news astonished everybody save the Dean, who had already begunto smell a rat. Astonishment gave place to relief or joy, accordingto the hearer's degree of intimacy with Pete, and joy gave place toresentment. It is rather annoying to lavish regret over the taking-offof a friend only to discover that the friend has worked a deliberatehoax on you and is still alive to enjoy your confusion. That is why,had Pete put in an appearance at Erskine at that time, he would in allprobability have been mobbed.

  But Pete didn't appear, and ultimately resentment gave place toamusement. The general attitude became one of laughing disapproval.After all, Pete was Pete, and even if he had harrowed their feelingsconsiderably at the same time he had supplied interest at a dull seasonand had worked nobody any harm. This reasoning may have appealed tothe faculty as well. At all events, their verdict, when announced, wasthought to be amazingly merciful. Peter Burley '07 was suspended forthe balance of the term. As there remained less than four weeks of theterm, the penalty would be of short duration.

  Allan and Hal were delighted, and even Tommy, after the first day ortwo of rampant rage, grudgingly acknowledged that he was glad Petewas coming back. This was also after Tommy had written a denial forthe Purple of that paper's announcement of Pete's death. That denialwas very, very simple and brief. There was no mention made of Pete'smany excellent qualities, nor did it express exuberant joy overhis restoration. It merely stated that the announcement had provederroneous and that Mr. Peter Burley was visiting relatives in New Yorkcity.

  When Allan or Hal mentioned that announcement, Tommy went purple inthe face and fell to stuttering. Perhaps, as Allan pointed out, it wasjust as well he stuttered, since what he had to say was really unfitfor polite ears. But Tommy's anger was too intense to last, and by themiddle of the month he was able to smile wanly at Pete's deception. Theawarding to him of a two-hundred-dollar scholarship helped, perhaps,to restore his good humor. Hal said the scholarship would come in veryhandy in paying for the dinner.

  Pete wrote that he had heard the faculty's verdict, and was glad theywere going to let him come back. He was leaving New York for home ashe wrote, to be gone until the opening of the winter term. By readingbetween the lines, Allan surmised that Pete's father had not beenover-much pleased with his son's escapade; there were signs of achastened spirit.

  The term wore itself to a close, and one sunshiny morning Allan and Haland Tommy left Centerport for their respective homes, traveling thefirst part of the journey in company. Two Spot, apparently indifferentto the separation, was confided to Mrs. Purdy, and spent the Christmasholidays in the neighborhood of the kitchen range.