UNDER ARREST
"There's some one at that transom!"
"Quick, see who it is?"
Frank, Bob and Ned sprang to their feet as the latter gave the alarm, and
Frank's words started them speedily into action. Bob, half crippled though
he was, reached the door of the room first, tore it open and gained the
corridor.
"It was some one from the crowd next door," he reported. "I fancied I saw
Gill Mace vanish into that room. It's just like him--a sneaking spy."
"Ritchie said those fellows were nosing around a good deal to find out
about my being away from the academy," observed Frank. "I suppose they're
pretty curious."
"Yes, and they're bolting away from the ball game the way you did stirs
them up," said Bob.
"Well, the transom is nailed shut, so any eavesdropper wouldn't be likely
to hear much," declared Frank.
"No, but they might see that," and Ned pointed to an object on the table,
where they had been seated for an hour discussing Frank's circumstantial
story of all that had happened to him from the time of his kidnaping. "I
shouldn't suppose you would care to have that Mace fellow see it."
"Oh, anybody can see it and welcome, as soon as I have a talk with the
president," responded Frank carelessly.
Frank took up from the table and pocketed the bracelet he had found on the
floor of the old hut. It was bent and dented as though it had been handled
roughly.
Frank had just returned from the town, where he had seen to it that the man
called Dan was placed in a comfortable room at a hotel, with a physician in
charge of his case.
The doctor told Frank that the man must have been in a terrible fight with
some one, for he was wounded in several places and unconscious.
Frank told the hotel keeper that he would be responsible for the expense
incurred in caring for the sick man. Our hero offered to pay the farmer
whose wagon had brought Dan to the town. The farmer refused any payment,
but Frank made little Lem a present out of his pocket money.
Now Frank and his two fast friends had gone over the details of his recent
stirring adventures.
"I think that this man Dan is the best of the crowd of plotters," said
Frank. "There must have been a fight over the bracelet. I'm glad I've got
it. I can prove my innocence now."
"What are you going to do with it, Frank?" asked Ned.
"Turn it over to Professor Elliott in the morning, and tell him the entire
story. I am sure that Dan can be made to tell who stole it. I believe it
was Brady."
"He may tell you, too, where to find that lawyer," suggested Bob.
"Grimm--yes," answered Frank. "There's something he's been up to with Brady
that is of interest to Ned here--I am sure of that."
Frank felt certain that affairs were now on a basis where a good many
things would come to light within the next few hours.
He was up bright and early the next morning, and was somewhat disappointed
to learn that Professor Elliott had not yet returned to Bellwood School.
Ritchie came up to him on the campus after breakfast and took him to one
side.
"I say, Jordan," he began in a confidential tone, "there's a good deal of
mystery going on around these diggings."
"How's that?" inquired Frank with a smile.
"Banbury's crowd are up to something, and I feel sure it concerns you in
some way."
"I can't understand how that can be."
"Nor can I," said Ritchie; "but one of our scouts says they were hobnobbing
late into the night. That Gill Mace went to town last evening and sent off
a rush telegram somewhere. This morning the crowd are buzzing like a lot of
bees, whispering together and looking at you, and Mace walks around with
his eye in the direction of the town, as if he expected something to
happen. Look there, now--what's up?"
Gill Mace had hurried toward the campus of the school to meet a man coming
up the road. Accompanying the latter and acting very important and excited,
he advanced across the campus toward the spot where Ritchie and his friends
stood.
"That's the boy," pronounced Gill Mace in a loud tone, pointing to Frank.
"Is your name Jordan?" demanded the stranger of Frank.
"Suppose it is?" inquired Frank.
"Then I've come to arrest you, that's all," said the man. "I'm a constable,
and the charge is stealing and having in your possession a certain diamond
bracelet belonging to Samuel Mace of Tipton."
"Yes," cried Gill Mace, "he's got it about him. I saw him with it last
night."
"Oh, then you are the sneak who was spying over our transom last night,
eh?" said Frank, with a glance at Gill that made him quail.
"Search him, officer--get that bracelet," vociferated Gill. "He stole it
from my uncle."
"Come with me, young man," ordered the officer, extending a hand to seize
Frank's arm.
"Hold on," spoke up Ritchie suddenly, stepping in between the two. "You
don't arrest Frank Jordan until we know the particulars of this affair."