THE PUZZLE GROWS
It was just three days afterwards when Jack saw his two chums again. On
Sunday morning his father had occasion to start to a town about thirty
miles distant, to see a sick aunt who depended on him for advice. She
had sent word that he must fetch Jack along with him, Jack being the old
lady's special favorite and probably heir to her property.
Jack's father was a lawyer, and often had trips to make in connection
with real estate deals, and estates that were located in distant parts.
Consequently, it was nothing unusual for him to receive a sudden call.
Jack might have preferred staying in Chester, where things were
commencing to grow pretty warm along the line of athletics, his favorite
diversion. His parents, however, believed it would be unwise to offend
the querulous old dame who was so crotchetty that she might take it into
her head to change her will, and leave everything to some society for
the amelioration of the condition of stray cats. It would be a great
pity to have all that fine property go out of the Winters' family, they
figured; and perhaps they were wise in thinking that way; little Jack
cared about it, not being of a worldly mind.
So when he sighted Toby and Steve on the afternoon of his return, he
gave the pair a hail, and quickly joined them on the street.
"Glad you've got back home, Jack, sure I am," said Toby, the first
thing.
"Why," added Steve, "we didn't even get a chance to compare notes with
you about that great game on Saturday, though Toby and myself have
talked the subject threadbare by now."
"And one thing we both agree about, Jack," continued Toby, with a grin.
"What's that?" demanded the other.
"Fred saved the day when he stopped that terrible line drive of O'Leary,
and shot the ball home as straight as a die. No professional player
could possibly have done it a shade better, I'm telling you."
"It was a grand play," admitted Jack, "and I told Fred so while we
walked home together."
Steve looked keenly at him when Jack said this.
"Oh! then you got a chance to talk with Fred after the game, did you?"
he ventured to say, in a queer sort of way. "How did Fred act then,
Jack?"
"Well, I must say he didn't impress me as being over-enthusiastic,"
admitted Jack. "You see, he had done his whole duty in the heat of
action, and after he had a chance to cool off and realize what he had
lost, he may have felt a touch of remorse, for he certainly does love
that poor mother of his a heap. I can understand just how he must be
having a terrible struggle in his mind as to what is the right course
for him to pursue."
At that Toby gave a snort that plainly told how he was beginning to
doubt certain things in which he had hitherto fully believed.
"Now, looky here, Jack," he started to say good-humoredly, "don't you
reckon that you might have been mistaken in thinking poor Fred was
dickering with some of those men to throw the game, so they could make
big money out of if? Why, after all, perhaps his looking so dismal comes
from his feeling so bad about his mother. We ought to give him the
benefit of the doubt, I say."
"I sometimes feel that way myself, Toby, don't you know?" acknowledged
Jack in his usual frank fashion. "And yet when I consider the
conditions, and remember how suspiciously Fred acted with that
sporty-looking gentleman, I find myself owning up that it looks bad for
the boy. But at any rate he succeeded in fighting his own battle, and
winning a victory over his temptation."
"But, Jack, I'm afraid he's bound to have to go through the whole
business again," interposed Steve.
"Do you know I more than half suspected you had got wind of something
new in the affair, Steve," Jack told him. "I could see how your eyes
glistened as you listened to what Toby here was saying; and once or
twice you opened your mouth to interrupt him, but thought better of it.
Now tell us what it means, Steve."
"For one thing, that man has been at Fred again," asserted the other,
positively.
"Do you know this for a certainty?" Jack asked.
"Why, I saw them talking, I tell you," explained Steve, persistently.
"This is how it came about. You see, yesterday, as Toby here couldn't go
fishing with me I started off alone, taking my bait pail and rod along,
and bent on getting a mess of perch at a favorite old fishin' hole I
knew along the shore of the lake about a mile or so from town."
"Meaning that same place you showed me, near where the road comes down
close to the shore of the water?" suggested Toby, quickly.
"Right you are, son," continued Steve, nodding his head as he spoke.
"Well, I had pretty fair luck for a while, and then the perch quit
taking hold, so I sat down to wait till they got hungry again. And while
I squatted there on the log that runs out over the water at my favorite
hole, I heard the mutter of voices as some people came slowly along the
road.
"First I didn't pay much attention to the sounds, believing that just as
like as not it was a couple of town boys, and I didn't like the idea of
their finding out where I got such heavy strings of fish once in so
often. And then as they passed closer to me something familiar in one of
the voices made me twist my head around.
"Well, it was Fred Badger, all right, walking along with that same
sporty-looking stranger. And say, he isn't such a bad-looking customer
after all, Jack, when you get a close look at him, being gray-bearded,
and a bit halting in his walk like he might have been injured some time
or other. It's more the clothes he wears that give him the sporty
appearance, though, if you say he's one of that betting bunch up at
Harmony, he must be a bad lot.
"They had their heads together, and seemed to be discussing something at
a great rate. I couldn't hear what they said, the more the pity, for it
might have given us a line on the whole silly business; but the man
seemed trying to convince Fred about something, and the boy was arguing
kind of feebly as if ready to give in. Well, something tempted me to
give a cough after I'd stood up on the log. Both of 'em looked that way
in a hurry. I waved my hand at Fred, and he answered my signal, but
while you might have expected that he'd come back to ask what luck I
had, and mebbe introduce his friend, he didn't do that same by a
jugfull. Fact is he said something to the man, and the two of them
hurried along the road."
Jack felt his heart grow heavy again. He was taking a great interest in
the affairs of Fred Badger, and would be very much shocked should the
other fall headlong into the net that seemed to be spread for his young
feet.
"I know for one thing," he told the others, "I'll be mighty glad when
that tie game is played off with Harmony, no matter which side wins the
verdict. And I hope Fred is given no such chance to choose between right
and wrong as came his way last Saturday. If those men increase the bribe
his scruples may give way. And if only Fred could understand that his
mother would utterly refuse to profit by his dishonor, he might have his
heart steeled to turn the tempters down."
"Then, Jack, why don't you try and figure out how you could put it up to
Fred that way?" urged Toby, eagerly.
"I've tried to think how it could be done without offending him, or
allowing him to suspect that I know what he's going through," mused
Jack. "There might be a way to mention a hypothetical case, as though it
were some other fellow I once knew who had the same kind of choice put
up to him, and took the wrong end, only to have his father or sister,
for whom he had sinned, reproach him bitterly, and refuse to accept
tainted money."
"Gee whiz! it does take you to hatch up ways and means, Jack!" exclaimed
Toby, delightedly. "Now, I should say that might be a clever stunt. You
can warn him without making him feel that you're on to his game. Figure
it out, Jack, and get busy before next Saturday comes, won't you?"
"Yes," added Steve, "Fred Badger is too good a fellow to let drop. We
need him the worst kind to fill that gap at third. Besides, suspecting
what we do, it would be a shame for us not to hold out a helping hand to
a comrade who's up against it good and hard."
"What you say, Steve, does your big heart credit," remarked Jack, "but
it might be wise for us to drop our voices a little, because somehow we
have wandered on, and are right now getting pretty close to Fred's home,
which you know lies just on the other side of that clump of bushes."
"Did you steer us this way on purpose, Jack!" demanded Toby,
suspiciously.
"Why, perhaps I had a little notion of stopping in and seeing Mrs.
Badger," admitted the other, chuckling. "In fact, my mother commissioned
me to fetch this glass of home-made preserves over to her, knowing that
Fred's mother has not been at all well. Yes, I own up I was influential
in making her think that way, and was on my way when I ran across you
fellows."
"Huh! I wouldn't be at all surprised, Jack!" declared Toby, "if you had
a scheme in your mind right now to put a crimp in this foolishness on
the part of Fred Badger."
"I'm not saying I haven't, remember, fellows," laughed the other, who
evidently did not mean to show his full hand just then. "When the time
comes perhaps I'll let you in on this thing. I want to do some more
thinking first, though. Many a good idea is wasted because it isn't
given a foundation in the beginning. Now, suppose you boys wait for me
here while I step around and leave this little comfit with Mrs. Badger
with my mother's compliments."
"Just as you say, Jack," muttered Steve, looking rather unhappy because
lie was not to be taken wholly into the confidence of the other. "Don't
stay too long, though, unless you mean to tell us all that happens in
there."
Jack only smiled in return, and stepped forward. His comrades saw him
suddenly draw back as though he had made a discovery. Then turning
toward them, he beckoned with his hand, at the same time holding up a
warning finger as though telling them not to make the least noise.
"Now, what's in the wind, Jack?" whispered Toby, as they reached the
side of the other.
"Take a peek and see who's here!" Jack told them.
At that both the others advanced cautiously and stared beyond the big
clump of high bushes. They almost immediately shrank back again, and the
look on their faces announced the receipt of quite a shock.
"Great Caesar! is that chap the man you've both been talking about, tell
me?" asked Toby, half under his breath.
"He is certainly the party I saw Fred talking with so mysteriously,"
asserted Jack, positively.
"And the same fellow who was walking along the road with Fred while I
sat on my log, fishing," added Steve, convincingly.
"But what under the sun is he doing out here near Fred's house, leaning
on that fence, and keeping tabs on the little Badger home, I'd like to
know?" Toby went on to say, wonder written in big letters on his face.