A PUZZLING MATTER SETTLED
At the same time that Jack Sheldon, Dick Percival and young Smith
were on the river together, Billy Manners, Arthur Warren and Harry
Dickson were going up the road leading to the Van der Donk house,
although they had no idea of going there.
When they were well away from the camp and there were no other boys
in sight, Billy stopped short suddenly, and said:
"Funny thing about Herring's recognizing that girl's poem in Jack's
verses, wasn't it?"
"Why, I saw those verses two weeks ago, and knew they were Jack's,"
replied Harry.
"Funny about my getting that black eye the other night, too, wasn't
it?" Billy went on.
"Yes, but what has that got to do with-----"
"I'll tell you. That night I woke up and heard some one say in the
next tent to ours: 'it's all right, I've got it,' and somebody else
asked, 'can you fix `t?' and the first fellow answered, 'fix it?
Of course I can fix it, and fix his winning the prize, too.' That's
all I heard then."
"In the next tent?" said Arthur. "Who is in the next tent?"
"Herring and Merritt on one side and Seymour and Blaisdell on the
other. It was not them I heard. It was Herring and Merritt. I was
not sure of it at the time, being half asleep, but from what has
happened since-----"
"Hello!" exclaimed Arthur. "This is getting interesting. Go on to
how you got the black eye, Billy."
"Well, I knew that there was mischief of some sort going on, but
I did not bear any more and fell asleep. Later I woke up again
and heard one of the fellows say, 'That will do first rate,' and
the other one asked, 'They, won't notice the difference?' and the
first one, Herring I am sure, said: 'No, and now to put it back.'
Then they said something about the doctor being surprised, and I
knew that there was some mischief on foot and I jumped out of bed
and went out."
"Well, and what then?" asked Arthur.
"I saw somebody hurrying along, and followed till I came to the
doctor's cottage when I stood just under the open window. I could
hear some one inside and finally came to the window. I was too
late, and the first thing I knew somebody jumped out and upset me.
I grabbed him by the leg, and he gave me a crack in the eye that
made me see stars. Then he got away, and I found myself in your
tent at last instead of my own, and later I fell over the tent rope
and got another bump."
"And what do you make out the fellow was doing in the doctor's
cottage?" asked Harry.
"Putting back the manuscript he had fixed up. He had written in
the lines he thought were some one else's, and then he put it back.
He must have just come from taking it away when I first heard him."
"Things fit in pretty well, Art," said Harry. "Pete Herring has
always had it in for Jack since he first came here. Do you remember
what Jack said to him? 'What was your father?' asked Pete in that
nasty way he has, when Jack told him his father was dead. 'A gentleman,'
said Jack and the emphasis he put on the word just hammered home the
idea that he didn't think Pete was one. It was the neatest thing I
ever heard. Do you remember it?"
"Yes, and I guess Pete hasn't forgotten it either."
"Well, he was pretty sure that Jack would take the prize, as he
generally does, and he fixed up this plot, never supposing that he had
got hold of one of Jack's own poems."
"He always makes some stupid break like that," said Billy, "that
upsets him. It takes a smart fellow to be a rogue, and Pete isn't
quite smart enough. Another time when he tried to get back on Jack
he made some such blunder as this, and gave himself away."
"You didn't say anything this morning?" said Arthur.
"No, for I was thinking things over. When I got to talking about
it with you fellows it all came out straight."
"Well, Jack got the prize anyhow," remarked Harry, "and I don't
suppose there is any use in saying anything about it. If you
didn't actually catch Pete in the act and recognize him, he could
easily say that he was not out of his tent that night, and Merritt
would back him up."
"Yes, of course, but if he knows that I and young Smith and a lot
more of the boys know it he won't put on so many frills after this;"
"No, he won't, but we don't go with him anyhow, and he bullies his
own set into doing just what he wants, so that he never wants for
company. You can't send him to Coventry very well, so I don't know
that it will do much good to let him know that we know all about it."
"It will take down his conceit, Hal," said Arthur, "and that is one
of his biggest assets. A bit of ridicule of his fine plot will take
the starch out of him, and that's what he needs."
"Yes, to be sure."
The boys were in sight of the Van der Donk house by this time, but as
they had no intention of calling they turned around and went back to
the camp where they met Jack and his two friends just coming ashore.
"I have just heard how you got your black eye the other night,
Billy," laughed Jack. "J.W., here, said he was not to tell, but
we excused him under the circumstances. We came to the conclusion
that you got your black eye in trying to stop Herring when he was
getting out of the window of the doctor's cottage after he had put
back the manuscript he had been 'fixing,' as he called it."
"That's what we think," said Harry. "Billy has just been telling
us about it. We laughed at him that night, but he was cute enough
to keep the thing quiet until he found out more about it."
"Harry thinks it won't do any good to expose Herring," said Arthur,
"but I think it will."
"There is no especial need of it," rejoined Jack quietly.. "He
has only made a stupid mistake, and done me no harm whatever, and
it is really not worth while to pay any more attention to it.
I shall not, at any rate."
"I am sorry he is here, anyhow," said Arthur. "He is always making
a lot of trouble. The fellows don't like him and after the other
day when he claimed that he thought the Rocky Hill boys were playing
a trick on him, and would not go to the aid of the one who had the
cramp, not only our boys, but the other fellows are sore on him, and
if there are any more meets they will look out that he is not asked."
"They probably won't have any," added Percival. "They are really
bound to ask the whole Academy, and so they won't ask any one. That
will put an end to these meets, for they won't come up here as long
as they know they will meet Herring. For my part I think he ought
to be exposed, but, of course, it should be as Jack thinks. He is
the one most concerned."
"He may not stay here after this," said Jack.
"He did not care to stay here in the beginning, I understand,
preferring to go to some more lively place, and it is likely that he
will leave after this."
"We'll wait a little and see," answered Percival. "If he goes, that
will settle the matter without any trouble. However, I want to see
what Brooke will have to say about that paper using your poem
without his consent, and putting it under another name."
The boys went to town in Jack's boat, and called at the office of
the News, where they found the editor busy as usual.
Jack had the copy of the other paper with him, and showed it to
the editor, asking him if he knew anything about it.
"I don't exchange with it," Brooke said, "but some one may have seen
the poem in our paper and sent it to him. I'll call him up."
There was a long-distance telephone in the office, and the editor
called up the other editor, and said:
"This is Brooke of the Riverton News. How about your printing a
poem last week written especially for us, and putting another name
to it? The poem was called 'The Message of the Hudson.' You
remember it?"
"Yes. It was written by a young lady stopping at the hotel here,
and given to me."
"Oh, no, it was not. It was written by a young gentleman of the
Hilltop Academy, and written especially for us, and not signed. I
have his original manuscript in the office, and he is here now."
"Well, I am very sorry, but the young lady told me she wrote it,
and, as I thought it was very good, I published it."
"You were right enough there, for it is good, but I have a copyright,
which the young lady should have seen and respected. Will you make
a correction in your next issue?"
"I certainly will, Mr. Brooke, and be glad to. You don't think
that I would have published the verses had I known the truth?"
"No, I hope not. You might call the young lady's attention to
the fact, while you are about it."
"I would do so gladly, but she has left town. She is making a
tour of the towns in the neighborhood."
"And getting up a reputation on other persons' literary efforts,"
laughed Brooke. "Well, send me the paper. Sorry you were fooled
that way. Take the News and you won't be again. Goodbye."
"That is the cheekiest thing I ever heard," laughed Percival, "taking
a thing bodily and claiming it as your own. I should call that
stealing, if I were asked about it."
"That's what it is," replied Brooke, "but it is a very common
practice with some papers. Why, I had an editor show me an article
of my own, and ask me if I did not think it quite clever. One of
his compositors had written it, he said. I said a few things myself."
"I imagine you did!" chuckled Dick. "Well, I am glad we have
settled this matter. We might not have known anything about it
only for a blunder made by a fellow who has not the sense to read
the News every week."
The editor looked puzzled and Percival explained briefly, Brooke
laughing and adding:
"That was very funny, accusing Sheldon of plagiarizing his own stuff.
I never heard anything quite so queer."
"And all on account of his not reading your paper," rejoined Percival
with a wink at Jack. "You should make an editorial of this, Mr.
Brooke."
"Thank you, I think maybe I will," replied the editor, beginning to
peck savagely at his typewriter, and the boys left the office.
When they returned to camp after doing a few errands they were met
at the landing by Billy Manners, who said with a grin:
"Well, it is settled. Pete Herring and Merritt have gone to Saratoga,
so we will not be bothered with them any longer."
"Just as I thought," said Jack.