CONCLUSION
"Hello, Gill," said the jeweler to his nephew, and then, glaring at Frank
and facing Professor Elliott in an insolent way, he added: "Now, what's
doing here?"
"Is this Mr. Mace?" inquired the professor, advancing courteously.
"Yes, it is," retorted the jeweler in an ungracious tone, "and I want to
know who's been interfering with my affairs, and where's the diamond
bracelet that Jordan boy stole from me?"
"This lad stole no bracelet from you, Mr. Mace," said Professor Elliott
positively, and placing his hand on Frank's shoulder.
"Hello! There's a scheme to cheat me and save him, is there?" flared out
the jeweler. "The constable gave me to understand that. See here,
Elliott--if that is your name----"
"I am Professor Elliott, yes," interrupted the academy president.
"Well, I paid my nephew's tuition to have him associate with decent
boys--not with a thief that you seem to be shielding and harboring here."
"We are not used to this kind of language at Bellwood School, Mr. Mace,"
observed the professor with dignity and sternness. "You will kindly desist
from using the same and act like a gentleman, or leave this room."
"If I do, it will be to have that Jordan boy behind the bars mighty quick!"
declared Mace.
"It would be the mistake of your life, Mr. Mace, and a costly experiment
for your pocket. This boy is innocent of the outrageous, and I might say
cowardly and unfounded, charge you make against him. I shall ask you to
remain here for about an hour, while I attend to some details of this case
which will enable me to give you a clear statement as to who stole your
property."
"If it's no scheme to sneak Jordan away----" began Mace.
"Silence, sir!" ordered the professor. "Foreman, kindly show Mr. Mace to my
private office and get him the morning paper from the city to read."
"I'll take my bracelet first, if you don't mind," said Mace, extending his
hand.
Professor Elliott took out the little packet that Frank had given him, and
turned it over to the jeweler. Mace opened it eagerly. Then he gave a jump
and uttered a howl that fairly electrified those about him.
"What's this?" he yelled, displaying a piece of jewelry and nearly choking
with excitement. "You're all in a scheme! You're all thieves! I'll have you
all arrested!" and he flung the bracelet to the farther end of the room.
"What's the matter, uncle Sam?" inquired Gill Mace.
"Matter?" screamed the jeweler, hopping madly from foot to foot. "That
isn't my bracelet at all."
"What?" involuntarily exclaimed the startled Frank.
"It's a cheap imitation affair with paste stones in it."
"Is this possible?" inquired Mr. Elliott in surprise.
"Yes, 'tis, and somebody knows it. Don't you crow nor laugh over me, Frank
Jordan!" raved Mace.
"We had better not talk about crowing and laughing just now, Mr. Mace,"
said Frank seriously. "I think I understand about the bracelet, which I
believed until this moment to be the one stolen from Tipton."
"Yah! Yes, you did!" derided the jeweler.
"I think I now guess out the mystery of this substitution. As that
explanation and the fate of the real bracelet may hang on the words of a
dying man, you had better get down from your high horse and help us reach
the facts in the case."
Then in a low tone Frank told the professor that they had better see the
wounded man, Dan, at the village hotel at once.
Mace was induced to await the movements of Professor Elliott, and within
five minutes the latter and Frank and Ned Foreman were wending their way to
the village.
It was arranged that Frank should visit the man Dan at the hotel, while
President Elliott went to his lawyer with Ned.
It was an hour later when Frank, his mission completed, hurried his steps
to overtake Professor Elliott and Ned, just returning to the academy from
the lawyer's office. While in the town Frank stopped at the post-office and
received a letter from his father, in which his parent stated that he was
much improved in health.
"That's the best news yet," said the boy to himself.
"My lawyer believes that there is some plot afoot on the part of that man
Brady to rob Foreman of some fortune," explained the school president. "He
knows who this 'Judge' Grimm is, and will see that Foreman gets his
rights."
"Yes," said Frank, "I have learned that this is true, and a good many other
important facts in the case."
"Then the man Dan was able to see you?" inquired Ned eagerly.
"Yes, and he has told me everything," replied Frank. "He explained about
the bracelet. It seems that Dan is not as bad as Brady and Jem, who stole
it originally, right after I had visited the jeweler's shop. It was left in
charge of Grimm, the lawyer. It was given with a sum of money to Jem after
he and Dan brought me, supposed to be you, Ned, to the lawyer's office.
After they brought me back to Bellwood, Jem and Dan went to the old cabin
to settle up. Jem had the real bracelet. He palmed off a brass one on Dan.
The latter discovered the fraud. There was a terrible fight. Dan is getting
better. Jem has the real bracelet."
"Which Mr. Mace will have some trouble in recovering, I fancy," observed
Ned.
"That is his business," remarked Professor Elliott drily. "We can now with
the evidence of this man Dan positively prove your innocence, Jordan."
"About Ned, here," said Frank, "it seems that recently a distant relative
left his dead stepsister a legacy consisting of some mortgages and a house
and lot. Brady learned of this. His wife being dead, the legacy goes to
Ned. What Brady was figuring on was to become Ned's appointed guardian so
he could manage, or, rather, mismanage the estate until Ned was twenty-one
years of age."
"We will soon have that phase of the case adjusted," observed the professor
in a confident and satisfied tone.
* * * * * * *
"Hi, fellows, look there!" shouted Bob Upton.
It was two days after the arrival of Samuel Mace, the jeweler, at Bellwood
School, and the boys were engaged in their usual late afternoon sports on
the campus. Bob was up and around again now, not much the worse for his
experience with the "doctored" shoes.
"A fight!" exclaimed several, and there was a rush for two combatants, who
seemed sparring in dead earnest on the outskirts of the Banbury contingent.
Banbury himself had just come striding from the school building in a great
huff. He had rushed up to Gill Mace, and pulling him away from the others
had engaged him in combat.
All the fellows knew that when Professor Elliott came home a few days
previous quite a lot of complaints and delinquencies awaited him. Among
these the only one very serious was the burning of a haystack belonging to
a farmer named Wadsworth.
Suspicion had pointed to the Banbury crowd. The farmer had once caught
several members of that group smoking in his barn, and had driven them out
violently. Banbury had threatened revenge, and the day before Frank had
returned from his trip in the covered wagon one of Farmer Wadsworth's
haystacks had burned to the ground.
Banbury had been summoned to the office of the president. Just now
returning from it, he had started the present fight.
As Frank and his crowd reached the scene of the conflict and joined the
ring about the combatants Banbury struck out with a blow that sent Gill
Mace reeling to the ground with a bloody nose.
"Take that, you sneak!" shouted Banbury furiously.
"Hello!" exclaimed Bob Upton. "He knows his right name at last."
"I'll fix you," blubbered Gill, "you great big coward!"
"You shut up, or I'll give you worse," threatened Banbury. "A nice fellow
you are! Went and peached on me about that haystack."
"You lied to the professor about us, saying we had a hand in it," declared
Gill.
"Well, you've got me suspended, sent home, and I'll probably be expelled."
"You ought to be!" yelled Gill, as a twinge of pain made him howl anew. "It
was you who got me sick smoking cigarettes and thought it was funny. Yes,
and it was you, too," blabbed the mean-spirited traitor, "who put those
brads in Bob Upton's shoes, so he would lose the race."
"What?" shouted Dean Ritchie.
He made a vigorous break through the ranks of the crowd with the word. "The
cat was out of the bag" at last, the secret told. Banbury saw the doughty
Ritchie coming for him. He turned in a flash.
It was a race to the nearest school building. Banbury reached it first. The
other boys, running after pursued and pursuer, arrived at the spot to find
Banbury safe within the precincts of the classic temple of learning, and
Ritchie fuming at the open doorway.
"I say, let up, Ritchie," suggested Frank. "We've had enough squabbling."
"Not a bit of it," demurred Ritchie. "No, sir. I said that if ever I found
out who played that mean, low-down trick on Upton, the culprit or I would
leave this school."
"Well, it was Banbury, and he's going to leave, isn't he?" argued Frank.
"Yes; but I said that one of us would go the worst licked boy in Bellwood.
I mean to keep my word."
Remonstrances were in vain. With a grim, resolute face, Dean Ritchie took
up his post at the entrance to the academy, pacing up and down and waiting
for his chance to have another interview with Banbury.
It never came. Some of Banbury's crowd informed their leader of what was
waiting for him, and Banbury managed to sneak out of the school by the
rear, and reached the depot at Bellwood and was on his way home before
Ritchie found out that he had escaped.
"Well, let him go. A good riddance," commented Ritchie, when he was
informed of the fact. "His crowd needs a further cleaning out, though. I
suggest a law and order vigilance committee. There's going to be a rooting
up of all the cads and sneaks around here, if I have my way. This is a
decent school; we've got a grand old fatherly president, and the fellow who
can't have fun without meanness has got to leave, that's all."
* * * * * * *
"A box, you say?" observed Frank Jordan one day, as Bob Upton came up
calling.
"Yes," returned Bob excitedly.
"Just arrived?"
"While you were out on the campus. Came by express, and directed to Mr.
Frank Jordan, as big as life. What do you suppose it is?"
"Maybe some fruit from my folks in the South," suggested Frank. "What was
in the box?"
"It's light. I shook it--nothing to indicate."
"Where is it?"
"I took it up to your room. Hey, Ritchie, and you, Foreman--come and be
witnesses before Frank sneaks a box of goodies under cover."
The little group proceeded pell-mell up the stairs and were soon in Frank's
room. Eager, curious eyes observed a box about two feet square on a little
stand.
"There's holes in the top, and--hello! there's something alive in this box,
Frank," declared Bob.
"Yes, I can hear it scratching," put in Ritchie.
"Oho!" exclaimed Frank, enlightened now. "This end up--handle with care. I
know."
"Know what, Jordan?" inquired Ned.
But Frank did not answer. He had detached the shipping tag, and was reading
some words written on its reverse side.
"I am sending you my special pet, Rambo," the scrawl read, "because nothing
is too good for you. Highly educated, gentle. I know you'll be good to
him."
Frank recalled his new friend, Dave, with a smile of pleasure. He took the
cover off the box. Nestled contentedly in some soft hay at its bottom was a
wonder-eyed little monkey. Beside the animal was a thin, long chain.
To be sure, the boys made a lot of the cute little pet during the next
hour. The word went around, and Rambo held quite a reception. A drink of
water and a cracker put the animal in rare good humor, and he began to show
off.
Rambo would sit in a chair and hold a book, pretending to read. He could
whirl around, hanging by his tail from a hook in the ceiling. His agility,
displayed in springs, curvets and climbing, was something prodigious.
Frank arranged the box comfortably, and lots of fun they had with the
clever, friendly little animal.
Mace and his crowd, with their usual envy for the enjoyment of others,
complained finally that the chattering of the monkey awakened them nights.
This was not true, but obedient to the suggestion of the monitor, until the
faculty could act in the affair, Frank shut Rambo up in a room in the
unused attic nights, not wishing to trust him along with the other animals
in the academy stables.
This was a providential move, it developed later. The second night of
Rambo's isolation, toward morning, Frank was awakened by the crash of
glass. He got up to find that the monkey had burst in through the outside
window. Rambo was bleeding and shivering on the floor.
"Hello, this is strange!" exclaimed Bob, roused up also from sleep. "I say,
Frank, I smell smoke!"
"That's so," replied Frank quickly. "Where does it come from?"
They ran out into the corridor, to quickly trace the smoke to its source.
It evidently proceeded from the attic. Rushing there, Frank and Bob found
some rafters on fire. They had evidently ignited near the chimney.
Rambo, it seemed, frightened at his danger, had broken through the attic
window and had reached the boys' room in time to warn them. The fire was
soon extinguished, but it might have been serious had it not been
discovered in time.
That settled it for useful, vigilant Rambo. He was given permanent quarters
in Frank's room, and was treated like a hero by the academy boys.
Another box came to Frank a few days later--from his father in the sunny
South. It was filled with oranges, pineapples and other luscious fruits,
and there was a gay supper in Frank's room that night. Even Gill Mace and
his crowd were invited, and little Rambo was an honored guest at the
banquet.
Frank felt that the disturbed air of the academy was clearing. Certainly
his own affairs and those of Ned Foreman had come out most satisfactorily.
Samuel Mace had been convinced that Frank was innocent of any connection
with the theft of the diamond bracelet. He had started out the officers of
Bellwood to look up the real robbers, Tim Brady and his accomplice, the man
Jem.
These two rascals had got an inkling of what was up and had fled the
country--not, however, until they had disposed of the bracelet to an
innocent purchaser. The jeweler had to pay out a large sum of money to
recover it.
Gill Mace was compelled to retract in public his false charge against
Frank, and the vindication of the latter was made complete. Then, to the
surprise of our hero, came word from Banbury that Gill had once boasted of
cutting loose a house that was being moved up a hill, using Frank's knife
for that purpose and thereby getting our hero in trouble. This matter was
investigated, and in the end Samuel Mace had to pay for the wrecking of the
old building. This angered the jeweler, and he punished his nephew severely
for his misconduct.
A pleasant position on a farm was secured for the man called Dan, who
promised to lead an honest life in the future.
As to Ned, the homeless lad felt that the greatest happiness in the world
had come into his life. The lawyer, Grimm, had been frightened into telling
all about Brady's plot. The estate that belonged to Ned was traced, and
Professor Elliott was legally made the boy's guardian.
The academy president called Frank, Ned and Bob to his office one evening,
and informed them of the pleasant outcome of their affairs.
"Just think of it," said Ned, with happy tears in his eyes. "I'm sure of an
education now, and all through the loyal friendship of the best boy I ever
knew, Frank Jordan."
"I echo that sentiment," added Bob. "Why, say, I didn't know life was
really worth living till I met Frank."
"Forget it, fellows," ordered Frank modestly, though flushing with genuine
pleasure. "You may help me to win some battles yet."
"Jordan," spoke the bland old professor, handing a sealed letter to Frank,
"you may feel very proud sending that letter to your father. It tells all
the good things I know about a noble, honorable boy."
"Well, professor," replied Frank, "we've made you a good deal of trouble.
Now we're going to get down to good hard work."
"And play," added Professor Elliott, with the kindly, earnest smile that
made him the true friend of the boys of Bellwood School.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Boys of Bellwood School, by Frank V. Webster