EXPLANATIONS
"Look who's here!"
"Back again!"
"Tom Fairfield, what in the name of the seven sacred scribes has
happened, anyhow?"
Thus Tom's chums--George, Jack, and Bert, greeted him about an hour
later when he entered his room in the borrowed garments of the farmer.
Ray Blake followed him into the apartment, a trifle embarrassed. The
boys had managed, through the friendly offices of Demy Miller, the
studious janitor, to enter the dormitory unseen by the proctor or any
of his scouts.
"Yes, I'm here," said Tom with a smile, as he limped to an easy chair.
"Ray, have a seat. Boys, allow me to introduce my cousin, Ray Blake."
"Your--your cousin!" gasped Jack.
"Yes. He's the one who had my sweater," went on Tom.
"Your sweater?" gasped George.
"Yes--that rather brilliant one that connected me with the
horse-poisoning case."
"But--but," stammered Bert. "Did he--your cousin--?"
"No, he didn't use any cyanide," said Tom quickly. "Now for some
explanations. But first shake hands, and then maybe we'd better stuff
our keyhole so the light won't show. No use being interrupted."
"That's already been attended to," said Jack. "We always take those
precautions," and in turn he and the others shook hands with Ray.
"To begin at the beginning," said Tom, "this is my cousin--a son of my
mother's sister. I haven't seen him in some years, for he went West,
where his parents died. How he managed to come to work as a hired man
for Appleby I don't know, but he did----"
"It was just chance," cut in Ray. "Suppose you let me explain, Tom."
"All right, go ahead. I'm going to rub some liniment on my ankle.
It's got to be treated, if I'm to play football again."
"I might as well own up to it first as last," went on Ray, "that I
haven't been altogether what I should be. When my mother died--I--I
sort of went to the bad." He choked up for a moment and then resumed.
"I got in with a lot of tough characters in the West and I lived a fast
life. Then I drifted East, lost what money I had and went to work for
Mr. Appleby. I didn't know Tom was going to school here or I wouldn't
have run the chance of disgracing him."
"If you had only let me know earlier that you were here," said Tom,
"everything might have been all right."
"Well, I didn't," said Ray, with a smile at his cousin. "Things went
from bad to worse. Appleby wasn't the best man in the world to work
for. Then Jake Crouse happened along. I had known him out West. He
came of a good family, but he went to the bad and became a common
tramp, though he had a good education. Crouse isn't his right name, I
guess.
"Appleby treated us very mean--he does that way to all his hired men, I
guess, and he used to fine us if we accidentally broke any tools, or
made mistakes. In fact about all our money was eaten up in fines, so
we had very little coming to us.
"Finally Jake Crouse got mad when he was heavily fined, and he said he
was going to get even. He wanted me to go in with him, but I wouldn't,
and I decided to skip out, and look for another place. I had no money,
and then, accidentally, I learned that Tom was a student at Elmwood
Hall. I heard Appleby mention his name as having gotten ten dollars
from him for about a dollar's worth of trampled-down corn. Then I
decided to appeal to Tom to help me get away.
"I sent him a note, and he came to see me. It was in a pool room in
town--a place where I used to go for amusement, but I've dropped all
that sort of thing now. There Tom gave me money enough to straighten
up and begin life over again."
"Say!" interrupted Jack, "was that where you got so all smelled up with
smoke, Tom?"
"I guess it was. I know everybody in the place seemed to be smoking,"
answered our hero.
"That was the night Jake Crouse set fire to the hay stacks," went on
Ray Blake. "He fixed it so suspicion wouldn't fall on him, as he was
away from the farm at the time. He used a sort of chemical fuse that
would cause the fire several hours after it was set.
"After I met Tom, and got the money, and told him about the prospective
hay fire," said Ray, "I sneaked back to the farm to get what few
clothes I owned. Jake Crouse was waiting for me, and when he found out
I was going to run away, and that I had some money, he threatened to
implicate me in the burning of the hay. He had me in his power and I
didn't dare--or at least I thought I didn't dare--refuse him. So I
stayed on, and he got most of my money over cards. He wasn't suspected
of the fire, and I never knew Tom was, or I'd have made a clean breast
of everything.
"Well, things went from bad to badness. Appleby got worse toward us
instead of better, and Crouse said he'd teach him a lesson. I
suspected he would do something desperate so I made up my mind to get
away. I laid my plans carefully, and, ashamed as I was, I decided to
ask Tom for more money.
"I appealed to him, and he answered. He gave me all he could spare,
and more too, I guess and I promised to reform. I made him promise he
would never say anything about me, and he didn't. As much on his
mother's account as mine, I guess, for my mother and his were sisters,
and I knew my aunt would be broken-hearted if she knew how much I'd
gone to the bad.
"Well, to make a long story short Tom fixed me up--he even gave me his
sweater when I sneaked up and called on him in this dormitory, for I
was cold and hadn't many clothes--and I lit out. I guess I must have
made some wild threats against Appleby before I left, for he had
treated me mean."
"You did make all sorts of wild declarations," put in Tom, "and it was
that which made me fear you had poisoned the horses when it was known
that they had been given cyanide."
"But I didn't," said Ray. "I ran off that night, and later, as I
passed by the barn, carrying Tom's sweater, I saw Jake Crouse going in
with a package and a bottle. I got scared and ran as fast as I could,
fearing he would see me and force me to have a hand in the crime. But
I got away, though I dropped Tom's sweater, and didn't dare go back for
it.
"I went to New York, and I've been there ever since, until recently. I
stayed with a man I had known in the West, but I never knew Tom was in
such trouble on my account. What happened here, after I left, I don't
know, except as Tom has told me. But the other day I got a letter from
him, asking me to release him from his promise to keep silent about my
presence here, and about what a life I had led, and I came on. I
couldn't get here until to-night and I sent word that I'd meet him near
the Appleby house and explain everything.
"In his letter Tom told me about how he was suspected of the poisoning,
and how he wanted to clear his name. The reason I appointed the lane
near the farm house was because I intended to go with him to Mr.
Appleby and explain everything. I never thought it would storm so, but
it was too late to get word to Tom, so I kept the appointment."
"And so did I," added Tom. "How Jake Crouse got there is a mystery."
"Not much of one, I guess," said Ray. "I fancy he was mad because he
didn't kill all the horses and he was going to try it again. Then too,
foolishly, I wrote him a final letter, saying I was going to see you
and I guess he went there to meet me."
"At any rate he was there," said Tom, "and we both had a run-in with
him. He's now safely in jail, having confessed to both crimes. So my
name is cleared."
"Yes, by the plucky way you kept after the clews," said Jack.
"And the luck he had of running into Jake," added Bert.
"No, Jake ran into me," explained Ray, with a laugh. "Well, I've
released Tom from his promise of silence. Perhaps it was foolish to
bind him to it, for I should have been willing to take my medicine.
But, for a time, I could not bear the thought of his mother knowing how
low I'd fallen--I didn't want anyone to know how nearly I'd disgraced
Tom's family."
"That's why I couldn't say anything about to whom I gave my sweater,"
explained Tom. "And, for a time, I feared Ray was guilty of poisoning
the horses. His threats, and the fact that he had some time before
experimented with chemicals, with me, made me suspicious. So I had a
double motive in keeping silent.
"At last I could stand it no longer, and I began to try and trace my
cousin. I had accidentally found the clew of the bottle, and I knew
that someone giving the name of Crouse had purchased the poison. But
even then I was afraid Ray had given the tramp's name to shield
himself. Though when the drug clerk said a man with a scar had bought
the cyanide I had my doubts. Still I was not sure but what Ray had
been hurt in a fight."
"I was a pretty wild character," admitted Tom's cousin, "but I'm done
with that sort of life now."
"So I wrote several letters," went on Tom, "asking my cousin to come
and explain things. It was some time before one reached him, as I sent
to his last known address out West."
"But I finally got one," put in Ray, "and then I came on, as soon as I
could. It's all explained now, and Tom's name is cleared."
"How do you suppose Sam Heller saw you--or thought he saw you--with
your gay sweater on--at the barn?" asked Jack.
"Give it up," said Tom. "Maybe we'll find out that too."
They did--the next morning, when Tom and his cousin, in an interview
with Doctor Meredith, told the whole story. But it had leaked out
before that, and when Sam Heller was sent for he was not to be found.
He had left Elmwood Hall in a hurry.
In order to clear himself of any part in the unjust accusation against
Tom, Nick Johnson made a clean breast of the whole affair. To him Sam
had confided a plan of throwing suspicion, of some mean act against Mr.
Appleby, on Tom. Sam's plan was to go to the barns, and damage some
farm machinery, at the same time leaving behind some object with Tom's
name on it to implicate him. Nick would have nothing to do with this,
and Sam went off by himself.
That was the night the horses were poisoned, and Sam, seeing Crouse and
Ray about the barns, became frightened and sneaked off without playing
his mean trick. It was Ray he had seen wearing the sweater, leaving
the dormitory after Ray had borrowed it, and Sam thought it was Tom,
for the cousins were much alike. And it was Ray whom Mr. Appleby had
seen, though the empty package of poison was dropped by Crouse, and not
by Ray, so in that the farmer was mistaken. And Sam testified against
Tom, at the time believing him guilty.
Later, though, in one of the resorts of Elmwood, Sam overheard Crouse
boasting to some boon companions of what he had done, but, instead of
telling what he knew, and clearing our hero, Sam kept silent, letting
the blame rest on Tom. And it was Sam's school pin the farmer found
near the hay.
And it was also Sam and Nick who had bribed the farm boy to send Tom
and his chums on the wrong road, thus leading them into the cornfield
and causing the quarrel with Mr. Appleby.
"Well, all's well that ends well," said Tom's cousin a few days later,
when he made ready to go back to the West, where he promised to begin a
new life. "I can't tell you how sorry I am Tom, for the trouble I made
you."
"Never mind," answered our hero. "It's all right."
"Tom's pluck and luck won for him," said Jack, and Tom was the hero of
the school, for Doctor Meredith publicly commended the youth for his
action, and Mr. Appleby was fair enough to beg Tom's pardon before the
whole school.
"But we've got to have a new quarterback," said the perplexed football
captain as the time approached for the last big game--that for the
championship.
"Yes," admitted the coach. "Better a new one than that sneak Sam
Heller. I'm glad he's gone. Is Tom's ankle fit for him to play?"
"He says he'll play, anyhow!"
"Good for him. Well, I guess we can make a shift."
The football game was one long to be remembered. It was played on a
cold, crisp day, and a record-breaking crowd was in attendance. For
the first three quarters neither side scored. There were brilliant
runs, sensational kicks and tackles, brilliant passing, and good plays
generally, but the teams seemed too evenly matched.
Then came the last quarter. Foot by foot the ball had been worked to
within striking distance of the rival's goal.
"Now, boys, a touchdown!" cried the captain.
Smith, the new quarterback, gave the signal for Tom to take the pigskin
through center, and Tom, with lowered head and fiercely beating heart,
leaped forward. There was a crash as the two lines of players met, and
then, struggling forward, tearing himself loose from restraining
hands--pushed, shoved and all but torn apart, Tom forced his way onward.
His vision became black! His breath was all but gone, and then, with a
last mighty heave, he shoved the ball over the last line.
"Touchdown! Touchdown!"
"Tom Fairfield's touchdown!"
"Elmwood Hall forever!"
"Three cheers!"
"Three cheers for Tom Fairfield!"
The players and spectators went wild, and the game came to an end a few
minutes later, with Tom's team the champions.
"Well, old man, we did 'em," said Jack some hours later, when the
chums, and as many of their friends as possibly could crowd into the
room of our heroes, had gathered there. "We did 'em."
"Good and proper," added Bert.
"How's the ankle, Tom?" asked the captain anxiously. "We don't want to
permanently cripple you, for there'll be more games next year."
"Oh, I guess I'll be all right by then," said Tom, with a smile.
"Jack, pass those sandwiches," for an impromptu banquet was under way.
"Yes, and don't hold that mustard for a loss," added George.
"Pass those pickles up this way for a touchdown," begged Reddy Burke.
"Well, Tom," asked Bruce Bennington in a low voice, "are you glad or
sorry you didn't insist on having a row with Sam, right off the bat?"
"Glad," answered Tom. "It came out all right anyhow."
"Sure it did. He's gone, and you're here," said Bruce.
"A song, boys! A song!" called Jack Fitch, and a moment later, in
spite of the danger of a visit from the proctor, there swelled out the
strains of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!"
But the proctor did not come. As he heard the forbidden sounds of
gaiety he smiled grimly.
"It Isn't every day that Elmwood Hall wins a championship," he remarked
to Doctor Meredith.
"No, indeed," agreed the head master. "And so young Fairfield made the
winning touchdown?"
"Yes. As plucky a lad as we have in the school. He played the game
with an injured ankle."
"Oh, it isn't alone physical pluck that Fairfield has," remarked the
head of the school thoughtfully, as he remembered what Tom had endured.
Those had been strenuous times for Tom, but other happenings were still
in store for him, and what some of them were will be related in another
volume, to be called "Tom Fairfield's Hunting Trip; Or, Lost in the
Wilderness," in which we shall see how Tom's pluck was put to the
supreme test.
"All ready for the grand march!" cried one of the boys, and soon a big
line was formed, and the boys began to march around the school
buildings. And here we will say good-bye to Tom Fairfield.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Tom Fairfield's Pluck and Luck, by Allen Chapman