"MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!"
For a moment no one knew what to do or say. Tom was nervously kicking
at the pebbles in the path, while Phil got out his knife and began
whittling a stick furiously. As usual it was the girls who saved the
situation.
"I suppose he's gone off to get some more pictures," said Madge, with a
nervous little laugh. "Come on, Ruth, we mustn't let Mabel go back there
all alone. After all, I don't believe we want to go sit in the shade.
Isn't dinner almost ready? I'm nearly famished, boys."
"Yes, bring on the butter, ants and all," added Ruth.
"All right, just as you say," responded Phil, with a quick look at Tom,
who rather avoided the glance, for he was sorely puzzled. "I dare say
grub is ready. We'll dine beneath the greenwood tree, from whence all
care shall banished be."
"Bravo!" cried Miss Tyler. "You never told me your brother was a poet,
Ruth."
"He doesn't know it himself," commented his sister dryly. "Oh, there's
Mabel. Wait!" she called, and the girl in advance turned. There was a
troubled look in her blue eyes, but otherwise she was calm.
"Isn't it perfectly charming in the woods," she remarked. "I wish
Fairview College was nearer the lake."
"Oh, we'll come over and get you, any time you want to come," said Tom
quickly.
"Thank you," responded Miss Harrison, with a grateful look at him. She
seemed to have recovered control of herself, but there was a pathetic
air about her, which did not vanish.
Luncheon was a gay affair, as Tom and Phil felt that it was their duty
to make up, in a measure, for the strange action of Sid, in going off in
company with a flashily-dressed youth who had practically insulted his
chums' companions.
In the afternoon there was a period of idling beneath the trees, walks
along shady and moss-grown paths, and trips about the lake in boats,
until the declining sun warned the merry-makers that it was time to
depart. Phil and Tom took the three girls to Fairview, but they had no
further sight of Sid that afternoon, nor was any mention made of him,
though Tom rather hoped the girls would say something that would enable
him to defend his chum.
For, somehow, in spite of it all, Tom felt that there was something he
didn't understand in relation to Sid. He was puzzled over it, grieved
deeply, too, yet he could not condemn Sid.
But no mention was made of the little incident of the morning, and the
two youths left, promising to come over again at the first opportunity.
"It was awfully kind of you to bother with me," said Miss Harrison, as
she shook hands with Phil and Tom. "I was rather in the way, I'm afraid,
and I realize----"
"Why, Mabel, what a way to talk!" interrupted Ruth. "If they hadn't
taken you with us, we wouldn't have gone with them; would we, Madge?"
"Of course not."
"It's awfully kind of you," went on Mabel, as she turned into the
college, leaving Phil and Tom to say good-by to their friends.
"Well, what do you make of it?" asked Phil, when he and Tom were on
their way back to Randall.
"Hanged if I know what to say. Who was that sporty chap, anyhow?"
"Search me. He seemed to take a good deal for granted. The puppy! I felt
like punching him one, the way he leered at the girls."
"So did I. Would have, too, only for Sid. He seemed to be friendly with
the flashy chap."
"Yes, and that's the funny part of it. He seemed somehow to have Sid
under a spell."
"It's just another phase of the mystery that seems to have been
enveloping poor old Sid, of late," went on Tom. "I only hope one thing,
and that is, that whatever it is that it doesn't interfere with
baseball. We've got to depend a lot on Sid this season, as the other
fellows aren't batting as I hoped they would, and this includes
myself, but I never was much as a hitter. I never could get above two
sixty-eight, but Sid won't have any trouble getting to four hundred, and
he can bat both ways, placing a ball in either right or left field. But
if this thing is going to keep up," and Tom shook his head dolefully, "I
don't know what to do."
"Losing that game to Fairview didn't do our standing any good," remarked
Phil.
"I should say not! But we play Dodville Prep school Saturday, and
they're easy fruit."
"That will help pull our average up some," admitted Phil.
They made the rest of the trip back to Randall almost in silence, Tom
making an occasional remark about baseball, and Phil replying, but the
thoughts of both were more on the events of the day than on the great
game.
Sid was not in the room when Phil and Tom entered. The latter took off
his cherished blue tie, and placed it carefully away, probably in a
place he would forget the next time he wanted it, while Phil made a
point of sticking his garnet sleeve links in a box that contained
everything from fish hooks to waxed ends for sewing ripped baseball
covers.
"Well, I'm glad to-day's over," remarked Tom, as he threw himself in the
old armchair, with a sigh of relief, "but it was lots of fun while it
lasted. Still I didn't exactly know what to do when that fellow showed
up."
"Same here, yet the girls got through all right. Trust them for a thing
like that? Girls are queer creatures, anyhow."
"You laughed at me when I said that last term," remarked Tom, as Phil
stretched out on the ancient sofa, raising a cloud of dust. "Well,
to-day is done. I wonder what will happen to-morrow?"
"Same old grind. I've got to brush up a bit if I want to pass with
honors. Guess I'll do some boning to-night."
"Yes, and I've got to arrange for some more baseball practice," went on
Tom. "I wonder where Sid is? I didn't like the looks of that chap. And
did you hear what he said about playing poker?"
"Yes, I'm afraid Sid's in bad, in spite of what he says."
There was a moment of silence, broken only by the ticking of the alarm
clock. Then Tom resumed:
"I wish we could help him. If he's got in with a bad crowd we ought to
help save him. Poor old Sid, I wish----"
At that moment the door opened, and the chum whose troubles they were
discussing walked in. He had heard what Tom had said, and a dull red
flushed up under his brown skin.
"Were you fellows talking about me?" he asked hotly.
"We were just saying," began Phil, "that we couldn't----"
"I wish you fellows would mind your own business!" blurted out Sid. "I
guess I can look after myself!" and he crossed the room and gazed
moodily out of a window, into the darkness of the night, while the tick
of the fussy little alarm clock seemed to echo and re-echo through the
apartment.