A PAIR OF RASCALS.
At the tinkle of his alarm clock Mike Lynch awoke, opened one eye,
squinted at the clock, and growled like a flea-bitten dog.
“Rot it!” he muttered. “I haven’t had thirty minutes’ decent sleep all
night long. Whew! whew! I can taste smoke clean down to my toes. Got a
bump as big as half a watermelon here on the side of my head, and the
cords of my neck are stiff and sore. All I’ve done is dream fire, fire,
and twist and snort and make up and try to go to sleep again. Dash it
all, I must look like a wreck! I feel like one, anyhow.”
Making an attempt to sit up, he dropped back with a doleful groan.
“Jingoes, but that does pull on my neck!” he murmured, holding his head
canted to one side. “What makes my neck so lame? I suppose I know. That
whelp Merriwell chucked me headlong against the wall in the basement of
that old warehouse. Wonder I didn’t spill my brains all over that wall.
Next thing I knew I was getting scorched and everything around me seemed
on fire. That brought me to my senses in a hurry, but when I tried to
find the way out I was so bewildered that I didn’t know what to do. How
did I get out, anyhow? Oh, yes, somebody came back and grabbed me and
dragged me toward the door. Somebody—it was Merriwell! That’s right, by
Jove, it was Merriwell! The rest of the fellows were gone. They had
sneaked and left me, the cowards! They left me to roast in that fire
trap. That’s a fine bunch of friends to have!”
He finally succeeded in sitting up, holding both hands to his head as he
groaned and cursed in mingled pain and anger.
“That was just about the worst night I ever experienced. And to think I
might have roasted only for Merriwell! Hang it all! I hate to know I owe
him anything. Do I owe him anything? Why, of course not. Didn’t he chuck
me against the wall and knock me senseless? Gee! I wouldn’t like to tell
anybody that he did, but that’s what happened. I suppose some of those
sneaks who skipped and left me will tell. No, they won’t. They don’t
dare. They’ll keep their faces closed. But Merriwell’s friends—those who
were with him—they’ll tell. Let ’em! let ’em! They don’t know who it was
rigged up in those devil togs. Anyhow, if they do suspect, they can’t
prove it. I won’t acknowledge it, you bet your sweet life!
“No, I don’t owe Merriwell anything. If he’d left me there, it would
have been the same as murder. After chucking me against the wall and
sending my wits wool-gathering, it was up to him to get me out. I’m not
going to blow up with gratitude toward him.”
Lynch was greatly relieved over the thought that he did not owe the lad
he bitterly hated anything like a debt of gratitude. This caused him to
grin the least bit, and, with some mumbling and muttering, he painfully
dragged himself out of bed.
“Suppose a hot bath would do me good,” he said, “but I’m too stiff to
get into a tub. I don’t know when I ever felt this way before. Toleman
was the only one who had decency enough to come around last night to
find out whether I was alive or had been cooked in that fire. I suppose
he told the rest of the bunch that I was here, all right. Confound it!
what brought Merriwell and his gang out there to the warehouse? That
fellow always turns up and spoils things. How did he know we had Tucker
there? He seems to get onto every move we make lately. Somebody is
giving us away. It can’t be Wolfe, for he wouldn’t dare, and I know it
isn’t Ditson or Toleman. I can trust Poland, too. But Daggett—that
fellow would do anything for money. If the Merriwell gang tried it, they
could buy him easy enough. Still, he seems the fiercest against Dick
Merriwell. I don’t trust him. We’ve got to cut him out somehow. It’s
pretty hard work doing it now he knows so much, but it’s necessary to
find a way. We had to cut Lee out. Only yesterday I gave Wolfe a
call-down for telling Lee about our plans. The kid hasn’t any backbone.”
After washing up, Mike began to dress with more or less difficulty. At
intervals he paused to touch gently the lump on his head. Every time he
did this he growled.
His head still throbbed, and when he stooped over to lace his shoes
something like a sledge hammer seemed pounding within it.
“Oh, ache! ache!” he rasped. “You’ll get over it pretty soon—you’ll have
to. I’m glad I haven’t any marks on my face, and I won’t wear a bandage
round my head. My hat will cover that bump. They can’t spot me. I’ll
have to get rid of that devil rig, though. Found my overcoat where we
left our clothes when we dressed back of the old warehouse. Only for
that I’d never been able to get to this room without being pinched.
Lucky my overcoat was good and long and hid my costume. Two fellows did
stop to stare at my red ankles, but I took to my heels, and I know they
didn’t recognize me.”
Opening his wardrobe door, he found the crimson masquerade suit, which
he made into a bundle carefully wrapped in brown paper and securely tied
with stout cord. This bundle was hidden away beneath some underclothing
in a drawer of the dresser.
“I’ll dispose of that to-night,” he muttered. “Don’t like to have stolen
property on my premises. It was Ditson’s idea to rig up in those
costumes. He thought it would frighten Tucker. Hanged if it didn’t seem
to amuse the little fool! I’m going to quit taking the foolish advice of
Ditson or anybody else. I didn’t see anything like a joke in that
business. I was in earnest. But now I suppose we wasted our time. Of
course this isn’t any good at all, and I may as well destroy it.”
From a pocket he produced the typewritten confession which Tucker had
been forced to sign.
“No, it’s no good now,” he muttered, after reading it over. “The little
rat could prove he was compelled to sign against his will. If any one
tried to use this document, it would get him into a nasty scrape. This
will settle it.”
In front of the fireplace he struck a match and applied the flame to one
corner of the paper.
“What are you doing?” cried a voice that made him jump as if struck by a
bolt.
The burning paper fluttered to the hearth, and Lynch turned a pale face
toward the lad who had softly opened the door and thrust his head into
the room.
“Gee!” he breathed, with mingled relief and resentment. “You gave me a
jerk. What the dickens do you mean by poking your head into my room and
yelling like that? Come in and shut that door.”
Bern Wolfe needed no invitation. Slamming the door behind him, he leaped
toward the hearth and placed his foot on the burning paper.
“Get away! get away!” said Lynch, catching the visitor by the collar,
and jerking him back. “Let it burn.”
“It’s Tucker’s confession!”
“Yes.”
“Are you crazy?”
“I guess not.”
“We had trouble enough getting that confession.”
“Too much trouble,” confessed Mike.
“And now it’s destroyed!” groaned Bern, as he watched the flames char
the sheet and turn it to a black film of ash, which crinkled at a breath
and dissolved into fluttering fragments.
“It wasn’t any use after what happened,” declared Lynch. And he
proceeded to explain his reason for thinking so. “You see,” he
concluded, “that thing might have gotten me into trouble if I had kept
it and any one had chanced to find it in my pocket.”
“I suppose that’s right,” muttered Bern, his thin lips pulled back from
the points of his sharp white teeth. “Yes, I see you’re right, Mike, but
I swear I’d like to get some sort of a twist on that fellow Tucker. He’s
playing the position on the nine that I ought to fill. I’m a better
shortstop than Tucker ever was or ever will be.”
“Perhaps you are,” nodded Mike, “but you’re not one of Richard
Merriwell’s petsy-wetsies. Therefore you have no show to play on the
team.”
“That’s not the reason why I’m not playing on the team.”
“Eh? It isn’t?”
“No.”
“Then what is the reason?”
“You know well enough!” snapped Bern bitterly. “You know I had my chance
to get on the team, and I landed there, too. Only for your great scheme
to knife Merriwell, I’d be playing on the team now.”
“Now, hold on—hold on. Don’t always try to shoulder everything onto me.”
“I’m telling you the truth, and you know it!” cried Wolfe, smashing his
clenched right hand into his open left. “If I’d refused to listen to
your scheme, I’d be playing shortstop and Tucker would be on the bench.”
“Bah! bah! What are you giving us?”
“Bah! bah! Bleat away. It’s a fact. Merriwell was ready to use me. He
did use me. I played in that Hudson game until I got spiked.”
“And you haven’t played since,” grinned Lynch.
“Because Merriwell and his friends are dead sure that I was concerned in
the giving away of Umpty-ten’s signals. That was your plan to hurt
Merriwell, but it never harmed him a bit. Instead of that, it swamped
me, all right, all right.”
“What right has Merriwell to keep you off the team? There’s never been
anything proven against you, has there?”
“Not proven perhaps, but——”
“Then you’re not being used right, Bern.”
“Not proven, but established as a conviction in Merriwell’s mind.”
“Rot! rot! You just think it has been established as a conviction in his
mind. You don’t know whether it has or not.”
“I do know he is satisfied that Tucker is innocent.”
“And Tucker, being one of his goo-goo boys, gets the chance to play,
while you pine on the bench.”
“Merriwell knows I’m friendly with you. He knows you would do anything
in this world to hurt him. He doesn’t trust me. If I’d cut loose from
you the way Kates did, I’d be on the team the same as Kates is. He’s
there, isn’t he? You can’t say Merriwell is keeping one of his
particular pets on first to the exclusion of Kates.”
“Merriwell had to have a first baseman and an assistant pitcher.
Ambitious as he is, as much as he likes to show off, he can’t do all the
pitching. Toleman was sulking, and the team just had to accept Kates.
That’s plain enough. You didn’t have a chance of forcing yourself in the
way Sam did.”
“Oh, don’t tell me that! I don’t believe it. I got there once. What have
I made by listening to your plans and plots? I’ve lost the chance I had,
and even though they can’t prove anything against me I’m under
suspicion. You’ve said you would clear me, but never yet have you made a
single promise good.”
“Now, hold on!” snarled Lynch, his red hair seeming to bristle. “That’s
just about enough from you. Haven’t I been doing my best? Wasn’t I
putting myself out on your account last night, and didn’t it come near
being my finish?”
“I told you that was a preposterous scheme before we started in upon it.
You were the only one in the crowd who thought it would amount to
anything.”
“How do you know so much?”
“Oh, I know—I heard ’em say so.”
“Then why did they take any part in it?”
“For a lark. It was to have some amusement with Tucker that those
masquerade costumes were stolen and worn. I was against that piece of
business, but Ditson had been drinking, and he was ready for any piece
of recklessness. Give him a couple of drinks, and you never know what
he’ll do.”
“Well, you’re about as ungrateful a runt as I ever saw!” declared Lynch
bitterly. “I wash my hands of it. I’m through trying to help you. If you
want to, you can go tell every one that you gave away the team’s
signals.”
“You know I’m not likely to do that.”
“I don’t know what you’re likely to do. Why, I’ve even convinced our own
bunch that Tucker was the guilty one instead of you. They believe it.”
“They pretend to,” muttered Bern, “but I’m not sure they do.”
“To tell the truth, a fellow can’t be sure of much of anything with
them,” growled Mike. “Look at the way they skipped me last night! Wasn’t
that fine? You did the same thing. You dusted out with the rest and left
me to the mercies of the Merriwell bunch, or to roast.”
“It was every man for himself then.”
“Oh, was it?”
“Sure.”
“And in such a case you’d leave a friend lying unconscious to be burned
to death, would you?”
“I didn’t know you were unconscious. I was having troubles enough of my
own. I didn’t know what happened to you.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what happened. About four of those fellows,
including Merriwell himself, jumped on me in a bunch. One of them hit me
over the head with a piece of lead pipe or something like that. That was
the last I knew until I found myself lying on the floor, almost choked
by smoke and nearly roasted by fire.”
“That was a tough situation,” admitted Wolfe. “How’d you get out?”
“How did I? I wish you’d tell me. I crawled among those boxes and bales
on all fours without having an idea where the door was. Just by good
luck I found it. Only for that good luck, my bones would be lying this
minute in the ruins of Dinsmore & Hyde’s old warehouse.”
“It was a mighty bad piece of business,” breathed Bern, shaking his
head. “Only for that accidental fire the Merriwell crowd would have had
us all pinched. I can see what would have happened to us. The fire gave
us a chance to break away, for they had to take care of themselves, and
they were all afraid of being nabbed by the police or some one. You see
you can’t blame me for leaving you, Mike. I didn’t know what had
happened to you, and I don’t think the others did. It was pretty rank of
the Merriwell bunch when they skipped out and left you there. Seems to
me it was up to some of them to look after you.”
“Well, they didn’t,” lied Mike. “But why didn’t some of you fellows come
around last night to find out whether I reached my room or not? Toleman
was the only chap who had decency enough to poke his nose in here.”
“We sent him.”
“Oh, you did?”
“Yes. He came back and reported you were here. We didn’t think it best
to come around in a bunch just then. I’m the first one to show up this
morning, ain’t I? Well, doesn’t that indicate that I take some
interest?”
“Oh, yes,” mocked Mike, as he buttoned his collar and began knotting his
necktie. “I expect you were so terribly disturbed over me that you
didn’t sleep a wink.”
“Well, I didn’t sleep much,” confessed Wolfe. “I haven’t been doing much
sleeping for the past two or three weeks. I’m getting thin, and I feel
like a leftover jag the most of the time.”
“Don’t tell me how you feel. I’ve got a bump as big as a lemon here on
my coconut. My head aches. My neck is stiff. My back is lame, and every
breath I exhale smells of smoke. All on your account, too. And you come
around here and growl! You make me sick. Get out of my way! Sit down!”
Lynch thrust his companion on a chair just as the door opened and other
visitors appeared.