THE ACCUSATION
"Wasn't it glorious!" cried Madge Tyler, as Tom and his chums came up.
"I was just gripping the seat when you threw that last ball, Mr.
Parsons."
"So was I," admitted Ruth. "Phil, I'm proud of you, even if you are my
brother."
"Humph!" grunted Phil. "If it hadn't been for Sid's home run we wouldn't
have been in it. The fellows who followed him fanned."
"You should be very proud, Mr. Henderson," remarked Mabel Harrison, who
looked charming in some sort of a soft, clinging dress which I'm not
going to describe.
"Oh, it was just luck," spoke Sid modestly.
"Luck nothing, you old walloper!" cried Tom, thumping his chum on the
back. "You just laid for that one, and lambasted it out where the
buttercups and daisies grow."
"Oh, how poetic!" cried Miss Harrison.
"Some ice cream would sound a heap-sight more poetic," decided Phil.
"What do you girls say? Will you come and have some?"
"Oh, I've provided a little treat for you boys," said Ruth quickly. "By
rare good luck Miss Philock, the ogress of Fairview Institute, is away
to-day, and I secured permission from the assistant to have a little tea
in one of the rooms. We three girls will feed you lions of the diamond,
if you promise not to eat up all the charlotte russe and lady fingers I
have provided."
"Great!" cried Tom. "I haven't the appetite of a butterfly, but----"
"Me either," interrupted Sid, with a laugh.
"Come on, then," invited Phil's sister. "We are just in time to catch a
trolley for Fairview. I have a letter from home for you, Phil," she
added.
A little later a merry crowd of young people were walking up the campus
of the co-educational institution, where the three girls were pursuing
their studies. It was Saturday afternoon, and a half holiday for
everyone. Ruth, having secured permission, escorted her brother and his
two chums to one of the rooms set aside for the use of the girl students
in which to entertain their friends.
"Why, sis, this is quite a spread!" complimented Phil, as he saw the
elaborate preparations in the shape of paper napkins, in the colors of
Randall--yellow and maroon--spread about on the table, and as he noted
the flowers and the rather more generous "feed" than that indicated when
his sister had named lady fingers and charlotte russe.
"Yes, we provided this in case you won," replied Ruth, "but if you had
lost----"
"Well, in case we had lost?" asked Sid, who was close to Miss Harrison.
"We were going to eat it all ourselves," finished Madge.
"And be ill afterward," interjected Tom. "I'm glad, for more reasons
than two, that we won; eh, fellows?"
"Yes, but--er--if it's all the same to you, let's eat," suggested Phil,
with the freedom of an elder brother.
There was a merry time. The fair hostesses had provided coffee and
sandwiches, with plenty of ice cream and cake, and when they had been at
the table for some time, Phil, with a sigh of satisfaction, remarked:
"I'm glad this didn't happen before the game, fellows, or I couldn't
have caught even a pop fly."
"Ditto here," agreed Tom. "Pass the macaroons, Sid. I see you and Miss
Harrison trying to hide them between you."
"No such a thing!" retorted the second baseman, while the blue-eyed girl
blushed.
"Oh, Phil, I promised to get you the letter from home!" suddenly
exclaimed Ruth. "I'll run up to my room for it. Excuse me," and she
darted off, to return presently with two missives. "Here's one for you,
Mabel," she said. "I found it on your dresser. It must have come in
after the regular mail."
"A letter for me," repeated Miss Harrison in some bewilderment. "I
didn't expect any."
"Unexpected ones are always the best," ventured Sid, and when Tom
whispered "Bravo," at the attempt on the part of his chum to shine in
the society of ladies, Sid muttered a threat to punch the captain when
they got outside.
"Mother is well, and dad as busy as ever," remarked Ruth as she handed
her letter to her brother, and passed the other to Miss Harrison. The
latter gazed curiously at the missive.
"I don't know this writing," she remarked. "I wonder who it can be
from."
"Better open it and see," suggested Sid.
She tore open the envelope, which fluttered to the ground, as she took
out a piece of paper.
"Why, how funny!" exclaimed Miss Harrison. "There is nothing but a
Haddonfield newspaper clipping, and--and--why it seems to be about you,
Mr. Henderson," she added. "Why--why!" she stammered. "How odd! Of
course it must be some one else. Just listen," and she read:
"'During a raid on an alleged gambling house kept by Tony Belato in
Dartwell, just outside of Haddonfield on Thursday night, a number of
college students, believed to be from Boxer Hall, Fairview or Randall
were captured. Several got away, and those who were locked up gave false
names, it is believed. One young man, who stated that he was Sidney
Henderson, fought the officers, and was not subdued until after a
struggle. None of the college boys seemed to know him, but it was stated
that he had lost heavily in playing poker. The prisoners were fined ten
dollars each, and this morning were discharged by Judge Perkins with a
warning.'"
There was silence for a moment following Miss Harrison's reading of the
clipping.
"What's that?" cried Tom at last, and his words seemed to break the
spell. "Arrested in a gambling raid--Sid Henderson? Of course it must be
some one else! But who sent the clipping to you, Miss Harrison?"
"I don't know," was her answer, as she looked full at Sid. "It was a
piece of impertinence, at any rate," and she began to tear up the
newspaper item. "Of course it wasn't you, Mr. Henderson. I should not
have read it. I don't suppose you were within miles of the place where
it happened. These newspaper reporters are so careless, sometimes. You
weren't there, were you?" she went on.
As they all remembered it afterward it seemed strange that Miss Harrison
should so insist on her question, but, later, it was explained that her
family, as well as herself, had an extraordinary abhorrence of any games
of chance, since her brother had once been fleeced by gamblers, and
there had been some disgrace attached to it.
"You weren't there; were you?" repeated Miss Harrison, and her eyes were
fastened on those of Sid.
His face was strangely white, and his hands trembled. His chums looked
at him in surprise.
"I--I wasn't arrested in any raid," he said, and his voice was husky.
The girl seemed to catch at the evasion.
"Were you there?" she demanded. "I--of course--I have no right to ask
you that--but--this clipping, coming to me--as it did--and under the
circumstances----"
"I wasn't--I wasn't arrested," faltered Sid. "It's all--it's all a
mistake!"
Almost instantly there came to Phil and Tom at the same time a memory of
Sid's queer actions of late--of his strange absences from college--of
his hurried departures on receiving notes--of the smell of tobacco on
his clothes.
"Were you at the gambling place, in Dartwell?" asked Miss Harrison
coldly, and it was not until later that the others understood her
strange insistence and hatred of games of chance. "Were you there?"
"I--I wasn't arrested!" blurted out Sid. "I--I can't explain--I was in
Dartwell that night--but--but it is all a mistake--I don't see how my
name got in the paper."
"Sometimes these matters get out in spite of all that is done to keep
them quiet," remarked the girl, and her voice sounded to Sid like the
clash of steel.
"I tell you I wasn't arrested--I wasn't there--that is, I wasn't
gambling--I--I--er--Oh, won't you believe me? Won't you take my word
for it?" He was pleading with her now.
"I haven't any right to control your actions," said Miss Harrison. "I
don't know who sent me this clipping--nor why--I wish I had never seen
it," and her eyes filled with tears. "Yet when I ask you if you were
there, it seems as if you could say yes or no."
"That's it! I can't!" cried poor Sid. "I--I wasn't arrested. I was
there--yes, in--in Dartwell that night--but I can't explain--it's a
secret--it--Oh, won't you believe me?"
Miss Harrison turned and looked full at him. The others were watching
the little tragedy that was being enacted before them.
"Won't you believe me--I'll--I'll explain--some time," faltered Sid
desperately.
"I'm sorry, but unless you care to tell me everything, and explain why
you were in a gambling house I can't accept your excuses," she said
coldly. "I cannot retain the friendship of a person who goes to gambling
places. I must ask you to excuse me," and holding her head high, though
there were tears in her blue eyes, and a sob in her trembling voice, she
turned and left the room.
Ruth and Madge looked at each other.
"Come on," said Phil to Tom huskily, and they filed out. Sid remained
long enough to pick up the envelope that had contained the accusing
clipping, and then he followed. None of the three chums spoke until they
were out on the campus. Then Phil turned to Sid and demanded:
"What in blazes is the matter? If that didn't mean you, and you weren't
there, why didn't you say so?"
"I--I can't," was the answer. "Oh, fellows, don't go back on me now.
I'll explain--some time."
"Of course we won't go back on you," declared Tom. "Even if you were
playing the ponies or shuffling a deck of cards, it doesn't matter to
us. It's your money to lose, if you want to, only I didn't think you
cared for such things."
"I--I don't!" blurted out Sid.
"Then why don't you----"
"But I can't explain! Don't desert me now!"
"We're not going to," spoke Phil more gently, "only it hurts with a girl
like Miss Harrison to have a thing like this come out. She's done with
you."
"Do you think so?" asked Sid miserably.
"Sure," agreed Tom, "but don't worry over that. You've got to bat for us
to win, as you did to-day," for he feared Sid would go to pieces, such
was the wild look on his face.