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"AS GOLD IN THE FURNACE"
Books by the Same Author
=Harry Russell=; a Rockland College Boy.
12mo, cloth, .85
=Saint Cuthbert's.=
12mo, cloth, .85
=Shadows Lifted.=
12mo, cloth, .85
=Tom Losely: Boy.=
12mo, cloth, .85
=The Making of Mortlake.=
12mo, cloth, .85
=The Son of Siro.= A Novel. Illustrated.
12mo, cloth, 1.50
[Illustration: It was hard! It was a sore trial to give up his dream
of years!--_Page 20._]
"As Gold in the Furnace"
A COLLEGE STORY
(Sequel to "SHADOWS LIFTED")
By Rev. JOHN E. COPUS, S.J.
Author of "Harry Russell," "The Son of Siro," etc.
[Illustration: Small religious line drawing]
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO
BENZIGER BROTHERS
PRINTERS TO THE | PUBLISHERS OF
HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE | BENZIGER'S MAGAZINE
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I PAGE
Roy Surprises His Friends 7
CHAPTER II
The Motive 13
CHAPTER III
The Conditions 19
CHAPTER IV
Roy and Garrett 25
CHAPTER V
A Pitching Cage 30
CHAPTER VI
Advice 38
CHAPTER VII
The Little Sisters 45
CHAPTER VIII
Something Happens 56
CHAPTER IX
Who? 64
CHAPTER X
A Day's Adventure 72
CHAPTER XI
An Afternoon's Fun 82
CHAPTER XII
Reports 90
CHAPTER XIII
What Henning Remembered 96
CHAPTER XIV
Facing the Boys 104
CHAPTER XV
Suspicions 111
CHAPTER XVI
Roy Makes a Move 119
CHAPTER XVII
Garrett is Angry 129
CHAPTER XVIII
A Talk 135
CHAPTER XIX
The Unexpected 142
CHAPTER XX
The Fairest Lily 149
CHAPTER XXI
The Passing of Ethel 157
CHAPTER XXII
Roy and His Father 163
CHAPTER XXIII
The Great Blow 170
CHAPTER XXIV
The Fallen Tree 177
CHAPTER XXV
Surprises for Roy 185
CHAPTER XXVI
Stockley's Story 193
CHAPTER XXVII
Stockley's Story (_Continued_) 201
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Unraveled Tangle 206
"AS GOLD IN THE FURNACE"
CHAPTER I
ROY SURPRISES HIS FRIENDS
"I tell you what it is, gentlemen, once for all. I can not go in for
baseball next spring, nor even for the few games we have still to play
this fall."
Roy Henning was talking to a group of college boys of the upper classes
in St. Cuthbert's yard. It was late September and still very warm. The
little gathering of friends found the shade of a large elm tree in one
corner of the yard very grateful. A hearty burst of laughter followed
Roy's announcement. No one for an instant entertained the idea that
Henning was in earnest and meant what he said. Was he not passionately
fond of the game? Had he not, before vacation, been the very best
player on the college diamond?
"Oh! of course not! of course not!" exclaimed Jack Beecham, Roy's
truest friend and constant companion. "Of course not! You're no good
anyway! You couldn't be center-rush on the eleven if you tried! You
don't know a thing about baseball either! Oh! no! And another team
wouldn't do a thing to us if you left the pitcher's box! Oh! no, not
at all!"
"Look here, Jack," said Henning, "I'm in earnest. I am not going to
engage in sports at all this year."
"Not for the money, I know that. It has always cost you a good penny.
But let me assure you, you dear old goose, that you can't come any
sort of game like that on us--not on me, at least. Let me tell you,
Roy boy, that you are most decidedly and most strictly in it, and in
it every time."
"Look here, Jack, will you listen to reason----" began Roy Henning.
"With pleasure, when I find evidence that you are in possession of
that valuable commodity."
"But----" began Roy again.
"That's all right, old fellow. We know your modesty, and all that. We're
also under the impression that you have recently developed a remarkable
penchant--that's the word, isn't it, boys--for practical jokes. But
this time be so condescending as to remember that joke-day--April 1,
you know--is a long way off. See?"
"Yes, I see," replied Henning, "but you fellows will not, nor will you
listen to reason. So it is useless for me to talk."
"That's precisely what we wish to do," said Jack--laughing Jack
Beecham--who struck an attitude and continued, "but you persist in
talking anything but reason. What an incontestably preposterous thing
for you to say that you are not going to play ball. Is a fish going to
swim?"
"Nonsense or not, boys, I have good reason for saying what I have
said. It's a fact. I am not going to play."
Roy Henning's clean-cut, handsome face was flushed at the moment with
vexation. His eyes showed his annoyance, and his brows contracted in
displeasure. It was vexatious enough for him to make--to be compelled
to make--such an announcement to his friends, but his chagrin was
rendered four-fold by having his companions receive his statement with
incredulity. Not the least part of his annoyance came from the fact
that his own particular friend should affect to believe that he was
perpetrating a practical joke, especially as he was very much in
earnest and the announcement had cost him much effort to make.
When Roy Henning first came to St. Cuthbert's, he was a narrow-chested,
weakly boy of very quiet manners and of a retiring disposition, as the
readers of the chronicles of St. Cuthbert boys may remember.
Month after month, however, saw him growing stronger and taller and
more robust, until now, in his last year at college, he was one of the
biggest boys in the yard, with the strength of a giant, and, as some
who knew declared, the grip of a blacksmith. The opportunities of
acquiring brawn and muscle he had not neglected, resulting in a
proficiency in running, jumping, swimming, and boating, and in all the
manly and invigorating exercises of school life.
He was well aware how much the success of next summer's baseball
season really depended on him. He knew, also, what the boys expected
of him. They all regarded it as a foregone conclusion that he would
again be the captain and the principal pitcher on next season's team.
No one but himself knew what annoyance it had been to him to make the
statement which his hearers had refused to accept otherwise than as
the merest joking. Yet he intended to give up sports for this school
year. Why? The reason for so doing, and all the consequences that such
a course of action brought in its train, will constitute the following
narrative.
Roy's eyes, quick to sparkle in fun, quick to soften in sympathy, yet
quicker to glitter with indignation at any exhibition of smallness or
meanness, just now had a look in them other than was their wont. Their
owner was annoyed because the boys standing around him seemed determined
not to take him seriously, and this annoyance could be seen. For a
moment he felt a strong throb of anger, such as quickens the pulse,
and the hasty word was on the tip of his tongue, but he checked
himself in time. Why should he not be believed when he had made a
plain statement and had reiterated it? Yet there was a smile as of
incredulity on nearly all the faces grouped around him.
The truth of the matter was that Jack Beecham and his companions were
hoping against hope. They clearly saw Henning's annoyance, and several
of them had more than a suspicion that, after all, he meant exactly
what he had said. Beecham's badinage was only a cover for his
uneasiness.
A silence fell on the group, during which, to their nimble imaginations,
visions of future victories on the diamond grew dim, for every boy
there had the most unlimited confidence in the proven prowess of
Henning to lead them to victory.
"But, Roy," said Tom Shealey, a short, thick-set, sturdy, whole-souled
boy, who had a habit of calling a spade a spade: "Give us your reason.
You are not sick?"
"No, not sick, certainly," said Henning, smiling at such an idea.
"What's your reason, then?--supposing you have a reason and are not
joking."
"I'm not joking, Tom," said Henning, "but I can not give you my
reason."
"Guess he has none," said Andrew Garrett, a youth who affected a blue
sweater instead of a coat and vest and whose face was not a
healthy-looking one. "Guess he has no reason. He's merely posing."
The remark vexed Henning all the more that it came from his own cousin,
to whom in a difficult situation he might have looked naturally for some
form of support.
"Stop that, Garrett," said Tom Shealey, hotly. "Do you wish to insult
your own cousin? I'd rather believe him than you--there! If Roy says
he has reasons for acting as he is doing and does not want to give
them to us, I believe he has them anyway. I guess you don't know your
own cousin as well as we do."
"Well, why doesn't he give his reasons for not playing?" asked
Garrett, sulkily.
"Because," answered Henning, with no little natural dignity, "I do not
feel at liberty to do so. If I did I would give them readily. Believe
me, boys, it is not by my own choice that I resign my position on the
baseball and football teams."
"We believe you, Roy," said Shealey. "Although we regret your action,
we believe you have good reasons; don't we, Beecham?"
Jack Beecham nodded affirmatively. "Yes," he replied, after a moment's
silence, "I joked at first only because I thought Roy was joking. Sorry
he wasn't. Garrett, you had better believe what your cousin says. He is
not accustomed to lie into or out of a thing."
This remark was received by Garrett in silence. With a look unpleasant
enough to be considered a leer on his face he walked away, but Shealey's
innuendo, as we shall see later, had more significance for the one to
whom it was directed than the rest of the group realized. Were it not on
account of the relationship with Roy, the boys in general would have
ignored Garrett. Winters and Hunter and Stapleton and Clavering were
gone from St. Cuthbert's, having graduated the previous year. Henning
and Ambrose Bracebridge, Rob Jones and Tom Shealey were taking their
places, and among these Henning was most popular.
In a few minutes Henning walked away, and his friends began freely to
discuss his decision, vaguely guessing at the motive which prompted it,
and entirely unsuccessful in arriving at any solution of the difficulty.
"Of course," said Jack Beecham to Shealey, as they strolled about the
yard somewhat disconsolately, "Henning must have some good reason for
backing out, but I am more sorry than I can say that he has done so. I
am afraid things are going to be mighty unpleasant for him in
consequence."
"I, too, am afraid they will be."
"Well, I'm going to stick to him, come what may."
"Same here," replied Shealey. "It won't be hard to do that, because he
is the soul of honor and a royal good fellow. You might as soon expect
anything wrong with him as--as to see----"
"You at the head of your class in next examination," interrupted Jack.
"Thanks! Or to see you heading the philosophers."
"Thanks, too."