THE MISSING TROPHIES
"Boys, you really must go!"
"Oh, can't we stay just a bit longer?"
"No, not another minute. Miss Philock has sent up twice to say that
you've stayed long enough."
"I think her clock is wrong."
"We haven't been here ten minutes."
"Oh, Sid Henderson! Why, it's over half an hour!" exclaimed Mabel
Harrison.
"And he's the fellow who didn't use to like the girls!" said Tom, with
conviction. "Oh, Rome, how art thou fallen!"
"Cut it out!" growled Sid, under his breath.
The four chums had called on their friends and Phil's sister at Fairview
Institute, and the result can easily be imagined by the foregoing
conversation. There had been jolly talk, a telling of the new chance
that had unexpectedly come to Randall, and then the appeal of the girls
that the boys must go--not because the girls wanted them to--but
because Miss Philock, the head of the co-educational institution, deemed
it necessary.
"But we can come again; can't we?" asked Frank, as they paused at the
door. Somewhere down the corridor a thin lady, with thin lips, was
narrowly watching the group of young people.
"Sure we can come again!" declared Phil. "They can't stop me from seeing
my sister."
"Or someone else's," put in Tom, mischievously.
"Tom! Stop it!" cried Madge Tyler. "She'll hear you."
"But we will come!" declared Frank.
"I don't see how we poor girls can prevent you," said Helen Newton, with
a mischievous glance of her eyes.
"Young ladies!" came a warning voice from down the corridor.
"Oh, you really must go!" exclaimed Ruth Clinton.
"All right," agreed Tom. "We'll be back soon. When is the next dance?"
"We'll send you cards," replied Madge Tyler. "Good-bye!"
And the boys moved off, with many backward glances, while the girls
lingered in the doorway of the reception hall until Miss Philock
advanced to garner them into her charge.
"Young ladies!" she began severely, "if your friends overstay their time
again I shall not permit them to see you--even if they are _brothers_!"
and she looked at Ruth.
"Horrid thing!" murmured Madge. "I'll be glad when vacation comes."
"Are your folks going to camp on Crest Island again?" asked Ruth, naming
the resort in Tonoka Lake.
"I think so. Papa sent a man up to look over the cottage this week, to
see if it needed any repairs. And, girls, if we do go, I want you all
to spend several weeks with me!" cried Madge Tyler. "We will have a
scrumptious time!"
When the boys got back to Randall they found some mild excitement there.
Further word had come from the committee of old graduates that they had
perfected their arrangements in the matter of supplying Randall with all
that was necessary to enter into aquatic sports, and there was a request
that the students at once hold a meeting, and decide whether or not they
would accept the offer.
Of course it is not necessary to say that the boys did accept. A meeting
was called for that same evening, and it was enthusiastically voted
to accept the generous offer, with thanks. It was voted to have an
eight-oared crew, as well as a four, while as many singles as could be
arranged, with possibly a double. A committee was appointed to secure
some second-hand shells for practice, pending the arrival of the new
ones in the Fall.
Another committee was named to negotiate with Boxer Hall and Fairview
Institute, looking to planning for the races in the Fall.
"If they won't meet us then, we'll have to wait until next Spring," said
Frank Simpson.
"Oh, I guess they're sports enough to give us a race this Fall,"
declared Tom. "We'll try, anyhow."
It was now June and the weather, after the long rain, was perfect.
Within a few days Boxer Hall and Fairview would meet in their annual
water carnival, swimming as well as boat races, and, as some of the
Randall boys had entered in the swimming contests, it was planned to
send a big delegation from that college to the meet.
"We can get a line on their rowing that way," said Sid, and the others
agreed with him.
Meanwhile the flooded river was subsiding, and a few days after their
visit to the girls, our four friends went out for a row again. In the
meanwhile they had secured some books on the subject of sculling, and,
as they went down stream, they endeavored to correct their faults.
But, as is always the case when you try to do something opposite to the
way you have learned it, whether that way be good or bad, there was
trouble.
"I can't row for a cent the way the book says it ought to be done,"
declared Tom.
"Me either," came from Sid.
"And yet that's the right way," said Frank. "I guess we'll get on to it
after a bit. But let's row our old way now, and go down to Crest Island.
That will make a good distance, and test our wind. Later we can row
right. Anyhow, if we have a coach he'll show us the ropes. Give way now,
everybody!"
They made good speed, and, a little later, were nearing the island, the
largest one of three or four that dotted the lake. Crest Island was the
home of several cottagers in Summer.
"Look! What's that!" cried Tom, as they neared the upper point of the
bit of water-surrounded land.
"Looks like a boat wrecked there!" said Phil.
"It is," declared Sid. "It's smashed on the rocks."
"Let's take a look," suggested Frank. "Maybe it's worth saving."
"It's a motor-boat," said Tom, as they came nearer. "But I guess there
isn't much left of it."
"And there's part of the boathouse it was evidently in," came from Phil.
"Probably it was carried away by the flood--boat, boathouse and all, and
smashed on these rocks."
By this time they had brought their boat to the island shore, and,
getting out, they examined the wreck. Truly it had been a bad smash. The
hull itself could never be used again, and it was a question whether
the engine could, as one of the cylinders was badly cracked. The seat
lockers had been broken open, and nothing seemed to remain in them.
"Say, this is the same boat that fellow locked in the boathouse, the
time we were out rowing when we met the Boxer Hall shell!" cried Tom, as
he saw the name on the bow.
"That's right!" agreed Frank. "The very same. Wallops said some
boathouses had been carried away. This must have been one of them."
"I wonder who owns this boat?" ventured Sid, but no one answered him.
They looked at the wreck for some little time longer, and then started
back up the river. They had not gone far from the island before they met
a man rowing down in a small boat. He had an anxious look on his face as
he hailed them.
"I say, boys," he called, "have you seen anything of a wrecked
motor-boat about here?"
"There's one down on the point of that island," said Tom. "The _Sylph_."
"That's mine!" exclaimed the man. "Is there anything left of her?"
"Not much," replied Frank. "Wait, we'll show you where she is. We were
just looking at her."
"You were?" exclaimed the man, and there was something in the sharp
way he said it, and in his tone, that caused the boys to glance at him
curiously.
"Yes, saw it by accident," went on Phil.
"Did you--er--find--that is--Oh, never mind, I can soon tell when I look
at her," the man said, rather confusedly, as he rowed on. The four lads
turned their craft and accompanied him.
"There she is!" cried Frank, pointing out the wrecked craft amid some
rocks and bushes. "You can see for yourself there's not much left of
her."
Without a word the man sprang ashore from his boat, while the college
lads kept their craft off the rocks. Rapidly rummaging through the
broken-open lockers, the man, muttering to himself, suddenly stood up.
As he did so, Tom said in a low voice:
"That's the same chap who locked the boat up. I wonder what is missing?"
"Did you--excuse me for asking--but did you boys take anything from my
boat?" asked the man, in rather hard tones.
[Illustration: "DID YOU BOYS TAKE ANYTHING FROM MY BOAT?" ASKED THE MAN.]
"Take anything? What do you mean?" demanded Sid, sharply.
"Something is missing from one of the lockers."
"We certainly took nothing from your boat," said Tom, stiffly. "What is
missing?"
"Many things," was the answer. "Among others, a number of trophy cups
belonging to Boxer Hall College. I had them to repair, polish and
engrave, and now they are gone from my boat. Someone must have taken
them!" and he looked at the boys. The four chums felt their anger
rising.