THE TROUBLES OF AN EDITOR
There was great excitement among the boys in an instant and while the
greater part of them sympathized with Jack, there were some who took
sides with Herring and one of these now ejaculated:
"Ha! if he wants to fight let him go at it fair. Get a ring and----"
"Young ge'men," said the negro coachman, pushing forward and throwing
aside the boys who were rushing at Jack, "Ah beg of yo' to remembah dat
dis am against de rules and dat you will be severely chastised if not
punished for dis."
Herring picked himself up, brushed his clothes hastily and cried in
angry tones:
"You will have to give me satisfaction for that, Sheldon. You called me
a liar and you struck me without provocation. I don't stand for anything
like that I can tell you and----"
"What is this?" a newcomer said and the boys suddenly found the drill
master among them. "A fight? I shall have something to say about that.
Disperse at once and proceed to the drill ground."
"Sheldon called me a liar and struck me!" blustered Herring. "I am not
going to have----"
"We will hear this case later," said Colonel Bull, severely. "Do as I
command or I shall put you all under arrest."
Some of the boys smiled at the idea of putting the whole school under
arrest but they all moved away and were shortly in regular formation
going through their customary morning exercises.
After drill Percival went to Jack and said:
"There is some mystery here, old chap. Won't you tell me what it is?"
"Not now, Dick," answered Jack. "Some other time, perhaps, but not now.
I have no father as I told you once before."
"But you know this man that claimed----"
"Yes, but I would rather not say any more about it."
"All right, Jack, I won't urge you," and the two went together into the
main building and took their seats in the great schoolroom.
The boys had been at their tasks for some little time when the doctor
sent in for Jack to come and see him in his study.
Jack left the room and was gone some little time, returning at length
with the doctor who said:
"There is no blame attaching to this young gentleman for what has lately
happened in the neighboring town and his rank is as high now as it ever
was. I wish you to treat him with the same respect that you have always
shown him and which he richly deserves."
"H'm! that does not tell us very much," muttered Harry to Arthur who sat
next to him. "We always did like Jack but the mystery is no more clear
than it was before."
"I trust that there will be no repetition of the scene of this morning,"
the doctor went on. "There may have been provocation on both sides but
we will not allude further to this and the rest of you will forget it or
at any rate not speak of it."
"That is not so easy," murmured Arthur to Harry. "It clears Jack in a
way, at any rate, and that is enough for me."
Jack went to his place and the doctor took his seat at his desk and
matters went on as usual.
Herring gave Jack the blackest of black looks when next they met but
Jack paid no more attention to this than if he had not seen it and
Herring muttered something under his breath which Jack did not hear.
"It seems rather strange," said Percival to some of the boys at recess,
"that Wise did not more thoroughly disapprove of the squabble of this
morning, but the reason I suppose is that he respected the mystery
surrounding Jack and did not care to clear it up by making too great an
investigation. Jack says his father is dead and I shall believe him and
that liar Herring had better keep his lips closed tight on the subject."
"You are breaking the doctor's injunction that we were to say nothing
about it, Dick," laughed Billy Manners, "but I suppose you couldn't
just help it. I know I couldn't."
"Well, that is all I am going to say about it," replied Percival and the
matter was not mentioned although, none of the boys could help thinking
of it at odd times.
Herring still treated Jack with disdain but was careful to avoid an open
rupture, the recollection of the stunning blow which the apparently
slight young fellow had given him acting as a deterrent to his wrath so
that he avoided the boy as much as possible while he still retained his
rancor.
Percival said nothing to Jack about his past life, preferring to let the
boy take his own time about clearing up the mystery which was no clearer
than before.
"I'll get even with Sheldon before I leave the Academy," declared
Herring to Ernest Merritt and another of his satellites a day or so
after the exciting scene in front of the school. "He can't walk over me
if he has got Dick Percival for his friend."
"You can't lick him," laughed Merritt, who did not have the same fear of
his associate that he formerly had. "He has a fist like a rock for all
that he looks so slight. You were three or four minutes coming round the
other day."
"Suppose he has?" snarled Herring. "I can train, can't I? If I send him
a challenge to fight, he can't refuse to take it up and keep his
self-respect, can he?"
"Yah! what do you know about self-respect or honor?" laughed Merritt.
"You haven't got either and----"
He was obliged to retreat and leave the sentence unfinished to avoid the
swinging blow that Herring aimed at him, the third boy narrowly missing
catching it in his stead.
"Here! Look out what you are about!" he roared. "Look where you're
hitting, can't you?"
"Pete Herring means to do Jack an injury, Art," said Harry who had seen
the three talking together, "and we shall have to watch him."
"I guess Jack can watch himself," chuckled Arthur. "He is not afraid of
Pete Herring and he is not a boy to be caught napping."
"But some one threw him down the ravine."
"Yes, but it won't happen again and so we won't have to keep a watch
upon this fellow. I'd like to know if it were really Pete who did it.
Dick met him and Merritt right after the thing happened and puts it down
to one of them."
"I think it was Pete myself," said Harry, "and that's why I think he
needs looking after."
The new number of the Academy magazine was expected to come out in a day
or so and promised to be a very interesting one, Percival and the
assisting members of the editorial staff having gone over the proofs and
found them satisfactory.
There was still some little matter to go in and Jack promised to furnish
this, taking or sending it to Mr. Brooke who did the printing.
On Friday afternoon, having written the last of his copy, Jack took
Percival's runabout which he now had permission to do at any time, and
set off for Riverton and the office of the _News_.
He saw Dick as he was leaving and said:
"I am going down with the last of the matter for the magazine. Will you
come along?"
"No, I guess not. I am getting up for examination next week. I am a bit
behind in my work. You won't hurt the machine."
"Very good. Brooke will want to print the paper and have it sent up
to-morrow and so I am giving him the last of the stuff for it. It will
not take long to set it up and then he can print it to-morrow."
"All right, I can trust you with it. Guess I don't have to revise what
you write."
The run to Riverton was made in a short time and Jack left the car
outside and went into the office, being somewhat surprised to hear the
sound of presses going as he entered.
They were not usually started till the next day but Jack surmised that
the editor might be running off some special job to save time and went
straight to the inner office where he saw Mr. Brooke pecking away at the
typewriter.
"Pretty busy now, Mr. Sheldon," said the little man, looking up for an
instant. "You'll have to excuse me."
"But I have brought the last of the copy for the _Gazette_. Shall I give
it to the foreman?"
"The last of it? Why, you sent it this morning and told us to go ahead
with the magazine."
"I sent you copy this morning?" exclaimed Jack in some surprise.
"Yes, this morning or early this afternoon. We set it up and they are
now running off----"
"But I sent you nothing, Mr. Brooke. You say they are running off the
paper now?"
"Yes, of course. You said you wanted it the first thing in the morning."
With a vague sense of apprehension that something was wrong and yet
unable to say why, Jack went out into the printing office and picked up
a newly printed sheet from a pile that lay in front of the press then
being worked.
The sheet was not folded and several pages of the matter were visible at
once.
Quickly glancing his eye over the sheet he suddenly came upon an article
on the first page which had no business there.
It was not more than four or five lines in length and was a bitter and
most scurrilous attack on Dr. Wise, signed "Jack Sheldon."
"Stop the press," cried Jack to the boy who was feeding the sheets.
"Stop the press! This thing must not go in!"
"Hey?" shouted the boy.
"Stop the press!" cried Jack and in a moment he had thrown off the belt
and the machine came to a standstill.
"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Brooke, missing the noise of the press
and coming out to learn the reason.
"This!" said Jack, pointing out the offensive article. "Did you allow
this to be set up, Mr. Brooke?"
"I? No, indeed. I did not know it was here. If you don't want it, why
did you send it in?"
"I did not. I am not in the habit of signing my nickname to things I
write. There was something else on this page and this rubbish has been
inserted in its place. You can see that there is a break somewhere. How
did you get this? Unlock the forms. It must be taken out at once. Where
are the proofs? It will be easy enough to get the right matter to put
back or it may be on one of the galleys."
While the press boy was looking for the missing type and the foreman was
unlocking the forms, Jack questioned Mr. Brooke regarding the orders to
hasten the printing of the magazine and the identity of the person who
had brought them.
"The foreman took the order," said the editor, "and told me about it. I
supposed it was all right. I don't know who set up the article you
naturally object to. If I did I would discharge him."
"What do you know about this?" Jack asked the foreman who was busy at
the forms. "Did you see the copy or the proofs?"
"No, I did not," the man replied. "I had your order to go ahead with the
printing but knew nothing of any extra matter to be set up. I never saw
this article before. It has been set up and inserted without my
knowledge."
"Here is some matter on a galley," said the boy. "Is that what you are
looking for?"
"Yes," said Jack, looking over the type, for Mr. Brooke could not afford
a typesetting machine and set his paper by hand. "Put it where it
belongs and when the magazines are printed send the bundle direct to me.
If anything is in them that I do not approve we will not pay for the
printing and in the future will have our work done elsewhere."
"You do not hold me responsible for this?" asked Brooke.
"No, but I mean to find out who is."