JACK IN DANGER
At first Jack was too stunned by the suddenness of the transfer to talk,
but after a few dizzy miles, he began:
“Where are you taking me?”
“Shut up!” ordered a harsh voice, accompanied by a dig in the ribs; and
he shut up.
Not a word did any of his captors exchange, and mile after mile whirled
by in utter silence. Where he might be, he had no idea whatever. After
endless eons, so it seemed to Jack, the car began to move more slowly and
wind about, then came to a sudden stop.
He was hustled out, run across some gravel, up a few steps. A door
slammed, footsteps on stone, then up stairs, and stairs, and more stairs.
A key turned protestingly. A door creaked; there was a blast of cool air;
he was pushed into some place. Then the door closed, and the key grated a
second time. The sound of footsteps on stairs sounded more and more
faintly; then silence, broken only by a peculiar grating sound from
somewhere above him.
Where could he be?
Pulling the bandage from his eyes he discovered that he was in a small
square room with slatted walls. It looked like a belfry. Yes, there was a
great bell just above his head, almost touching it. If that mass of metal
ever moved, it would put him out of business in short order all right.
What tower was this anyhow? He tried to peer out between the slats. The
only object within his narrow range of vision was the framework of some
new building. What big structure was going up now in town, or nearby? He
tried hard to think, but he still felt a little dazed. How stupid! Who
knew where he was now? They had been riding for a long time; he might be
miles and miles from Granard. Still, there was something annoyingly
familiar about that naked, orange-colored framework out there, with the
big 0032 in black on the top girder. Again he peered at it. It must be—it
was! The new forestry building at the University! Then this was the tower
of the old chapel. His captors had evidently entered the campus from the
alley gate at the back, where no one would be likely to see them. That
accounted for the gravel they had crossed. They had driven for miles,
first, to throw him off. But how strange of the gang to have brought him
here! Who were they, and what was their game anyhow?
Game? Ah, that must be it! He remembered now; there was a lot of money up
on the Greystone struggle, not only on the campus but even in the town;
and if he were out of the contest, Granard stood to lose—so it was said.
Evidently those fellows were Greystone supporters. He remembered now they
had worn Greystone colors. Darned clever of them to put him where he
would have no evidence, when he got out, and where no one would ever
think to look for him.
But how to get out; that was the question.
“Good thing it’s not Sunday, for that big fellow to knock me out!” he
thought, looking up at the bell. A horrible thought came to him. The boys
were going to have a rouser that night; everybody out in front of the gym
before dinner for songs and speeches. They’d ring that bell to call the
students together; and the janitor pulled the rope from a little room at
the foot of the stairs! What time was it now? Glancing at his wrist he
was shocked to find it bare. Where was his watch? Must have come
unfastened in the car.
One, two, three, sounded the bell of a clock in the distance. The clock
on the college library. Breathlessly, Jack listened. Four. One hour—one
little hour of sixty minutes to devise a means of escape. Frantically he
shook the door. Only the flutter of wings, as some startled pigeons arose
from the roof, answered his plea.
Panting for breath, he paused; then began to batter the slats of one
panel with his fists. They were stout, and withstood the blows of even a
husky football player.
He must keep his head and work rationally. There were only two means of
exit: the door and the four slatted windows. Again he shook the door, not
wildly, but listening critically. Perhaps he could pick the lock.
Eagerly he felt in his pockets for his knife and buttonhook. Only a
crumpled handkerchief, a pencil, a soft package of butterscotch, and a
ball of twine rewarded his efforts. The door was now out of the question.
What in heck had become of his knife? Had those fellows purposely
stripped him of everything so he couldn’t possibly get out? To do them
justice, however, he supposed they didn’t know about the ringing of the
bell for the rouser, and probably intended him to be secure until after
the game.
One, two; one, two, chimed the library clock. Four-fifteen! Nothing
accomplished yet.
“If I could get the slats broken, and then lean out of the window and
yell for help,” he said, half aloud.
A squeak on the stairs outside of the door caught his ear. “Wonder if
they left a guard around,” he thought. “If I yelled, they would only come
in and gag me; and that would make things worse than they are now. My
only hope, a forlorn one at that, is to attract the attention of someone
in order to let the fellows know where I am, and come to rescue me.”
But how?
Covering his face with his hands, he crouched on the floor, in deep
thought.
One, chimed the library clock, marking the half hour. Anxiously Jack
glanced up at the heavy bell above him. Perhaps he could unfasten the
clapper, and flatten himself on the floor so that the bell would only
graze him as it swung to and fro. Then, when no sound came from the
belfry, somebody might investigate. But no; old Jake, who attended to the
bell ringing, was too lazy to climb all those stairs to repair the bell
for a mere rally. He’d just let it go until some time tomorrow. By that
time, the team would have left without him!
The tickets he had promised Patricia were lying home on his desk. Wonder
what she thought when he failed to keep his promise to give them to her
in Shakespeare class.
Tut’s friends would probably pass around the word that Jack had taken the
bribe and disappeared. That would be his finish in athletics. Jack
groaned aloud, and pulled his handkerchief from his pocket to wipe off
the cold perspiration which dampened his face. Tut had always been
jealous of him; and since he had refused, a few weeks ago, to work for
Jim’s election as Chairman of the Soph Hop, Tut had positively disliked
him. Jack did not approve of the bargaining for honors, which went on at
the college, but doggedly supported whatever man he thought best fitted
for the job, politics notwithstanding—a practice which had not made him
any too popular with certain ambitious ringleaders.
The sight of his handkerchief gave him a sudden inspiration. Quickly
tearing it in half, he scrawled on one part of it, in large letters,
“HELP! QUICK!” Knotting one end of the ball of twine to it, he
painstakingly worked the bit of linen between the slats of the window
which faced the observatory, and played out the cord as far as it would
go. Fastening the end of it securely to one of the shutters, he took the
other half of the handkerchief, slipped it through between the slats, and
tied it about in the center of the window.
“Now I’ve done all I can,” he muttered. “It’s on the laps of the gods,
for better or worse.”
The part of the campus on which the chapel stood was deserted during the
week. In a rather out-of-the-way place, beyond the other buildings, it
was in the least frequented corner of the campus. Jack’s captors planned
all too well when they chose the belfry for his prison.
One, two, one, two, chimed the library clock. A quarter to five! Would
_nobody_ find his message or see his poor little flag? If he could only
have stood up and tramped around a bit, it would have relieved Jack’s
feelings somewhat; but the belfry was large enough only for the moving of
the single bell. Would he be safer flat on the floor, directly under the
bell, or as far to one side as he could get, when it began to swing?
One, two, three, four, chimed the clock. A door slammed somewhere
downstairs; the bell rope trembled; the bell quivered; Jack stretched out
on the floor as flat as he could, and waited for the first blow of the
iron mass.
Swift steps on the stairs, the turning of a key, hands dragging him
quickly out of the way, just as the first clang of the big bell sounded
deafeningly through the little room. Jack found himself in the hall with
Pat and Ted bending over him.
“Just in the nick of time, old man!” cried Ted, grinning cheerfully.
“Don’t stop to talk!” ordered Patricia frantically. “Let’s get out of
here right away!”
Down the stairs they rushed, while the bell clanged and clanged overhead.
Pat’s car, with all shades drawn, was waiting close to the doorway.
“Get in back,” directed Ted; “crawl behind those cartons and don’t
breathe.”
For a second time that day, Jack was driven off, he knew not where.
“Hi there, Ted,” called Joe Leonard, as they stopped for lights at the
corner of College Avenue and Elizabeth Street. “Come on to the meeting!”
“See you later,” replied Ted; “got to deliver these fruit jars for my
mother first.”
“Wonder if he’s onto us,” whispered Patricia, as they started forward
with a jerk.
Ted only shrugged his shoulders and drove as rapidly as possible to the
apartment he and his mother shared on Winton Street. At the side
entrance, where Mrs. Carter was waiting to admit them, Ted hustled Jack
into the house and up a back stairway to his own room; meanwhile,
Patricia drove her car farther back into the yard.
“Going to keep you here tonight, old fellow,” said Ted, slapping Jack on
the back. “Nobody’ll ever think of looking for you here; and we’ll see
you safe on the train in the morning. No college people in this house,
and we have a back apartment. We’ll keep the shades drawn as an extra
precaution. Right across the hall from this room is the door to the
attic. If anybody comes tonight to call, just beat it for the loft and
slip in behind the big dresser which is near the chimney.”
“But—” began Jack.
“Pat will tell you all about it later; for Mother asked her to stay to
dinner. Wash a bit if you want to, and then go out to the living room.
I’ll have to show up at the meeting for a while, I suppose, in case Jim
takes a notion to look for me. Don’t want to arouse any suspicions.”
Still in somewhat of a daze, Jack made himself tidy and then went out to
the living room. Aunt Betsy was busy in the kitchen, and Patricia sat
alone by the bay window which overhung the side door by which they had
entered. The girl smiled a bit shyly as Jack came in and crossed the room
to her side.
“Have I you to thank for my rescue?” he asked, taking her hands in both
of his.
“Well, partly,” she admitted. “But Ted helped a lot. He’s always been my
stand-by in moments of difficulty.
“When you didn’t show up in Shakespeare class,” she continued, as Jack
dropped down at the other end of the davenport, “I knew right away
something must have happened. You see,” her head dropped a bit, “I heard
something this morning about the possibility of your being out of the
game; and, oh, it seemed only a joking reference, but I was too stupid, I
guess, to have attached enough importance to it. I _did_ wonder if I
should say anything to you about it, put you on your guard; and now, oh,
how I wish I had!”
“Don’t get all steamed up over it,” urged Jack; “it came out all right.”
“But it _mightn’t_ have. If I hadn’t happened to go to the observatory
perhaps nobody would have seen your flag; and—and then, if you’d been
struck by that old bell, it would have been all my fault!”
“Nonsense!” cried Jack, laying his arm gently around her shoulders. He
was distressed beyond measure by the girl’s self-accusation. “I was lying
so flat that the bell probably would only have grazed me.”
Determinedly Pat pulled herself together and sat up very straight,
winking hard and fast to keep back the tears which, much to her
embarrassment, had welled up in her eyes.
“After Shakespeare class,” she continued, “I got away from the rest of
the girls—I always want to be alone if I have anything to work out in my
mind—and wandered about the most deserted parts of the campus trying to
decide what to do. I don’t know all the ins and outs of college affairs
yet, and I was afraid of telling my suspicions to the wrong person. As I
passed the observatory, I remembered having left my fountain pen in the
lecture room; so I ran up to get it. Nobody was in there, and I sat down
by the window thinking that was a good place to be quiet. The sun shone
full on the side of the chapel, and it was no time at all before I caught
sight of the white flag waving in the breeze.
“I nearly broke all records running down the stairs and along the path
toward the chapel. Not far from the building, I found your appeal for
help. I felt sure it _was_ your appeal. I tore off the cloth, so nobody
else would find it, and ran for Ted. I knew he was in the library. I
hadn’t thought about the meeting; but Ted did, right away, and realized
what danger you were in. Ted grabbed up a couple of empty cartons that
stood in the hall, ready to be thrown out, dumped them and ourselves into
my car (which, fortunately, was standing in front of the library) and we
just rushed to your rescue. Luckily, all the students were swarming over
the front campus, waiting for the meeting; so no one, so far as we know,
saw us.”
“But how did you get the key?” inquired Jack, still somewhat in the dark
as to details.
“Oh, Ted has a master key. He has to get into Forestry Hall at all sorts
of odd times. He was sure his key could be used on the belfry door, and
he was right. If it hadn’t fitted, he would have had to let Jake in on
the rescue, but it was better not; the fewer people knew about it, the
safer we were.”
“I wonder how I can get hold of those tickets for you. I might
telephone—”
“Oh, no! No!” protested Patricia.
“What the deuce does he want you to do, Pat?” inquired Ted, strolling in
just in time to hear his cousin’s vigorous refusal.
“Why, I could go over to your room in the morning and get them,” offered
Ted, when Patricia had excitedly explained the subject of their
discussion; “after the train goes, that is, for I’m not letting you out
of my sight before that.”
“Dinner’s ready,” announced Mrs. Carter, appearing in the dining room
doorway.
“And we’re ready for it, Auntie,” replied Patricia, jumping up.
“It’s no end good of you all to take me in like this,” began Jack, as
they seated themselves at the little round table.
“For dear old Granard, I’ll live and die!” carolled Ted. “Now tell us all
about the great abduction.”
Jack was in the middle of the story of his capture, when the telephone
rang sharply.