A HEAVY PENALTY.
On the way out of Chapel the next morning Butler, the proctor, handed
a note to Frank and another to Jimmy. Frank opened the envelope and
read the curt message:
"FRANK ARMSTRONG.
"SIR: You will come to the office of Dr. Hobart at ten o'clock this
morning and show reason why you should not be suspended from Queen's
School for meddling with the Chapel bell last night.
"Very truly yours,
"A. M. COOPER, _Secretary_."
"Very pretty note I have," said Frank. He pursed up his lips and gave
a low whistle, at the same time handing the letter to Jimmy.
"Mine is sharp and to the point," said Jimmy, grinning feebly, and he
handed the one that he had received to Frank as they walked slowly
along. The notes were identical, with the exception that the names
were different.
"How do you suppose that man Butler is so stupid as to think we did
that little trick last night?" said Jimmy scornfully. "I'd like to
punch his nose for him."
"It does look stupid, that's sure, but when you consider it as I have
done, you'll have to admit that we seem to be in the wrong."
"Oh, get out, we can prove we had nothing to do with it," said Jimmy
hotly.
"How? It looks as if we had been caught with the goods on, unless
some one saw the real perpetrators of the alleged joke."
Jimmy was finally obliged to admit that it didn't look so good as
he had thought at first. There was an indignation meeting over in
Honeywell, in which all our friends participated. All talked at once
and Butler was threatened with destruction in every key. But in spite
of the disgust of every one that Frank and Jimmy should be under
suspicion, every one also recognized that appearances were against
them. "The only hope for you," said David, who had been thinking hard
over the subject, "is to find the real fellows and make them confess."
"They're likely to," snorted the Codfish. "They will save their own
skins if they can."
At ten o'clock Frank, with Jimmy at his heels, knocked on the door
of Dr. Hobart's room in Warren Hall, and a moment later they were in
the presence of the Doctor himself. The latter did not look up for a
time, but sat writing at his desk for several minutes while the boys
shifted uneasily from foot to foot. Finally the Doctor laid aside his
pen, swung about on his swivel chair and transfixed Frank with his
piercing eye. The glass eye stared straight ahead stonily.
"What were you young men doing in the tower of the Chapel last
night?" The question was shot suddenly by Dr. Hobart, so suddenly
that both boys almost jumped. "Wait, let us have Mr. Butler here."
He turned and pressed a button which connected with a room near his
own where Mr. Butler was waiting. The proctor came in. "Sit down, Mr.
Butler," said Dr. Hobart. "What is the accusation against these young
men, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Turner? What did you find in the tower
last night?"
Thus admonished, Mr. Butler told of his being disturbed in his room
at about half-past nine. The bell began to clang wildly. He ran to
the front door of the Chapel, and finding it locked, remembered that
there was a door in the rear. That door he found open. As quickly
as possible he got a light and climbed the tower to the floor of the
belfry where he found "this young man," indicating Turner, lying on
the floor in a pool of water, nearly unconscious, with Armstrong
working over him.
"And what did you make of that, Mr. Butler?" inquired the Doctor in a
cool and even voice.
"They said that they had been chasing a cat and that Turner had
fallen and hurt himself, and put the blame for meddling with the
Chapel bell onto some unknown boys who had preceded them," Mr. Butler
finished, smiling sarcastically.
"Well," said Dr. Hobart, turning to the boys; "what have you to say
to this?"
"What Mr. Butler says is the truth," answered Frank, looking the
Doctor steadily in the eye; "but there were a number of things that
happened before he came."
"Yes, and what were they?"
"We went up to find Mrs. Bowser's cat, which had come into the Chapel
in the morning----"
"Or was brought in," interrupted Mr. Butler.
"I do not know how she got in, but she got in somehow, and when the
boys tried to catch her she became frightened and hid."
"And you came to the conclusion that she liked belfries and had
hidden up there."
"No, sir," said Jimmy. "Frank came out to have a walk before going
to bed. I had been in his room and as it was cold we raced up to the
Chapel, where I slipped and fell. While we were standing there, we
thought we heard a cat crying up in the tower."
"And why didn't you report it?" said the Doctor.
"It was late," Frank returned, "and when we found the small door in
the tower open, we thought we might be able to find her ourselves and
return her to the lady, who was much worried about the loss of her
pet. We were particularly anxious to get it for Mrs. Bowser."
"Very generous-minded, indeed," said the Doctor, stroking his chin.
"And so you went up alone?"
"Yes, sir, we went up alone, and while we were in the upper part of
the tower, the boys who were disturbing the bell came up. We heard
them planning to do something, but could not make out what it was at
first."
"And why didn't you make your presence known?" inquired the Doctor.
Both boys looked at each other. Why hadn't they? This was the
question that each was asking himself. "We were waiting," said Frank,
after a noticeable hesitation, "to find out, if we could, who they
were. But they spoke so low that we could not recognize their voices,
nor could we see who they were because there was so little light."
"So, so," said the Doctor musingly; "and what then?"
"When they had put the water in the bell and were working at the prop
which held the bell in the position they wanted it, something gave
way and the bell swung back to its natural position. Turner, here,
started to get down, then slipped and fell. When I saw him fall, I
started after him and let go of the cat, which flew down stairs. Mr.
Butler found us, as he says he did, but we were not responsible for
what happened to the bell."
The Doctor heard the recital to the end, while Mr. Butler smiled
sarcastically and knowingly, glancing from the boys to the stern old
gentleman who was cross-questioning them. After deliberating a full
minute, Dr. Hobart spoke again:
"You said a moment ago that you were particularly anxious to get the
cat for Mrs. Bowser. Why were you particularly anxious?"
"Because," blurted out Jimmy, "she helped us out of a scrape once."
He could have bitten his tongue off after he had said it, but it was
too late to draw back.
"So," said the Doctor, pricking up his ears. "And what was the
scrape?"
"Oh, just an accident," said Frank.
"Yes, and what kind of an accident?" There was nothing for it but to
tell the story of the wrong box which had reached Mrs. Bowser's house
the winter before. Frank told it in a straightforward fashion, but
he could feel the blood mounting to his face. The Doctor stiffened
perceptibly as he listened. Frank refrained from bringing either the
Codfish or Lewis into the story.
"So you are in the habit of practical joking?" he said coldly. "It is
a poor business, my young gentlemen, and it must be stopped. We will
have no practical jokers around Queen's School. This is a place for
study and not for pranks. Your case has been much weakened by what I
have just heard. It seems to me I remember, too, Armstrong, that you
played a practical joke on some one by pretending to be drowned last
year, did you not, and disturbed the whole school? I remember you
were before me at that time."
"He took the place of a boy who was being hazed," Jimmy burst out
hotly, "and it served the hazers right."
"Yes, Turner, perhaps it did, but I remember it disturbed the School.
In the face of the tendency for practical joking that these incidents
seem to prove," turning to Frank, "can you expect me to believe you
are guiltless in the matter of the bell?" The tone was sharp and the
glance which accompanied it keen and penetrating, but Frank replied
steadily: "We had nothing to do with the bell, sir."
"Is this your fur glove, Armstrong?" said the Doctor, opening a
drawer of his desk and producing a glove which Frank thought he
recognized as his own. He stepped forward, looked it over carefully,
and finally turned the wristband back, where, plainly inked, were the
letters "F. A."
"Yes, sir, that is my glove."
"And this one," continued Dr. Hobart. "Did you ever see this before?"
handing him another glove, the counterpart apparently of the first.
"Yes, sir, that is also my glove. It's the mate of the one you showed
me first."
"Very well, Armstrong. One of these gloves was found by Mr. Butler
in the Chapel belfry and the other in your room; is that not so, Mr.
Butler?"
"Yes, Dr. Hobart. I found that glove," indicating the first one
shown, "under the bell this morning, and the other lay on the top of
his trunk in his sleeping room, where I went to look for evidence
this morning."
The boys stared at each other in amazement and from Dr. Hobart to
their accuser. "I do not see how the first glove got up there," said
Frank at last. "I was in my bare hands when I went out last night, as
I only meant to be gone a few minutes."
"Mr. Butler, please bring that young man in here."
The proctor walked from the room, was gone a few minutes and
returned, followed by none other than Chip Dixon. Dixon nodded curtly
to the two boys and faced the Doctor jauntily.
"You say, Dixon, that you saw these two boys entering the rear door
of the Chapel last night?" inquired the Doctor, indicating the
supposed culprits by a jerk of his head in the direction of Frank
and Jimmy.
"I did not say it was Turner and Armstrong. I said I saw two boys
near the door, and that it looked like these two here. One of them
had something in his hand which looked like a bucket."
"Which one was that?"
"Armstrong, sir; or at least the one I took to be Armstrong."
"What time was that?"
"I think it was about a quarter past nine or perhaps a little later."
"We were just under the belfry at that hour," Jimmy snapped out. "The
clock striking the quarter startled me. I remember it well." Frank
nodded in approval.
"It may have been earlier," continued Dixon. "I didn't think anything
much about it till after the racket in the tower. Then I remembered
that I had seen some boys around the Chapel, and recalled that they
looked like Turner and Armstrong."
"That will do, Dixon, you may go," said the Doctor.
When Dixon had left the room, the Doctor turned to our friends
again. "You do not look like boys who would do such silly mischief
as that of last night, but all these stories fit together with such
nicety that I am forced to believe that you were responsible. These
little things that look like jokes sometimes have a very serious
result. For instance, that water which filled the bell came down and
badly damaged the ceiling in the robing room on the ground floor,
and, moreover, it ruined a valuable etching, a gift from one of our
alumni, which hung there in that room."
"But we did not do it," said Frank, "nor did we have anything to do
with it in any way, shape or manner." His voice was trembling as he
spoke. Jimmy was too savage to speak, but stood glowering at the
Doctor.
Unfortunately the Doctor, although a distinguished scholar, was not
entirely in sympathy with his pupils. He sometimes forgot that he had
been young himself once, and there were not a few in the School who
said that "Old-Pop-Eye" had always been as old as he was then. He was
too much immersed in the technical side of his school work and school
problems to acquaint himself with the units that made up his school.
He was apt to judge harshly. And his judgment in this case was harsh.
"In view of all the circumstances," said the Doctor, after studying
the boys for a minute or two, "I should suspend you both from Queen's
School or dismiss you entirely. We want boys here who come to study
and not to play idle tricks and destroy school property. I feel
convinced that you were concerned in this work of last night, for
the evidence is strongly against you. I can perhaps put no greater
punishment upon you than to say to you that for the remainder of the
School year you can take part in no athletics as the representatives
of Queen's School. I understand that you both have played on School
teams." The Doctor paused. "If I find you concerned in any other
escapades of this character, I have no other course than to ask you
to withdraw from the School."
Jimmy was about to burst forth in violent denial, but stopped and
held himself in check. Frank said very calmly, "Dr. Hobart, I say it
again: I had nothing to do with this affair of last night; neither
had Turner. I think I can prove it to your satisfaction some day. May
we go?"
"Yes," said the Doctor, who had turned to his desk again.
The boys almost staggered from the room and down the stairs. It
had been an unexpected blow. At the foot of the stairs, Lewis, the
Codfish and David were waiting. They bore them off to Honeywell,
where the whole scene in the Doctor's office was rehearsed. Most
uncomplimentary things were said about the Doctor and almost
murderous threats raised against the proctor, Butler, who, the
Codfish protested, had "poisoned Doctor Hobart's mind against Frank
and Jimmy."
"And what's to become of our baseball nine?" cried the Codfish.
"And the hockey team, and the track contest?" echoed David.
"I told you to let that blooming old cat stay where she had got
herself," grumbled the Codfish. "A black cat is unlucky. Don't you
remember Poe's story about the black cat?"
"She was unlucky enough for me," said Frank ruefully. "But maybe
we'll come out of it all right."
"How do you suppose that glove of mine got up into the tower?" said
Frank. "I certainly didn't have my gloves with me. I wouldn't
naturally have one in my pocket and one in my room."
"I distinctly remember seeing them both on the trunk yesterday
morning," said David. "I've been thinking about it since you told
what Butler found."
"I know positively," cried Frank eagerly, "that I didn't have them on
yesterday. I didn't have occasion to use them."
"Then it's a put-up job," said the Codfish. "Some one who has it in
for you sneaked in here and got that glove for a purpose."
"Who could it be, do you suppose?" questioned Jimmy. "Dixon wouldn't
do such a trick in spite of his general meanness and his disposition
toward Frank. And who else is there?"
"Gamma Tau!" said the Codfish suddenly. "They have members in this
dormitory and it would be the easiest thing in the world to get in
here, for the door is never locked. The gloves were in plain view on
the trunk."
"I think you have the answer," said David. "Frank has been too
popular to suit our friends, the Gammas, ever since he won fame as a
drop kicker. Now this talk of another society has set them going,
but I say, it was a dirty way to do it."
"Well, we'll beat them yet," said Jimmy, jumping up and smashing a
fist into the palm of the other hand. "And if I ever get a real good
chance at Dixon, I'll give him a thumping he won't forget for fifty
years!"
"And I'll help you," said the Codfish, throwing out his narrow chest
and thumping it valiantly. At which all laughed.