HODGE IN DANGER.
Frank was crossing the campus when a voice called to him:
“Hey, Merry, hold on; want to speak with you.”
He looked around, and saw Danny Griswold hurrying toward him. There was
a strangely serious look on the face of the little fellow, who was of a
jovial nature and seldom inclined to take anything seriously.
The moment Frank saw Danny’s face, he realized something was wrong.
“What is it, old man?” he asked, as Griswold came up, panting.
“They’re looking for the fellow who did it.”
“Did what?”
“Broke his ribs.”
“Broke whose ribs?”
“The cop’s.”
“Why, the little fellow with the red head and liver face.”
“The one who tried to arrest Browning?”
“Same.”
Frank whistled.
“And his ribs were broken?”
“That’s it. He says it wasn’t the big fellow who did it, but some other
chap slammed him up against a stone post and smashed his ribs in.
Officers have been here trying to locate the fellow. We’re in danger of
being pulled up as witnesses--or worse.”
“Accused, you mean?”
“Any of us may be.”
“Well, who did it, anyway?”
“Hodge.”
Frank started.
“Hodge?” he cried. “Are you sure, old man?”
“No.”
“Then why did you say that?”
“Noon says Hodge slammed the cop up against the post.”
“Noon says so, eh? Did he see it?”
“Says he did.”
“And he is talking about it openly?”
“Don’t know about that. He talked to me about it.”
“Anybody else present?”
“No.”
“I must see Noon.”
Merriwell was aroused, for he realized that Bart Hodge was in danger.
Were Hodge arrested for injuring the policeman, and should the charge
be proved against him, his college career might come to a sudden
termination.
Frank had pulled his friend out of more than one bad hole, and he
believed he understood Bart’s nature pretty well. Hodge was again on
the high road to an honorable career, guided by Merriwell’s hand, but
to thwart him at the very outset of his college life would mean almost
certain ruin.
Merry’s teeth came together with a click when he realized the danger
that menaced Bart.
“I’m afraid you made a mistake in introducing that freshman to our
gang,” complained Griswold. “None of the fellows cared to know him, but
they accepted him simply because of your friendship toward him. This is
the result.”
Frank was not pleased by Danny’s words. They did not sound as if they
came from the little fellow’s mouth.
“None of my friends were forced to meet Bart Hodge,” he said, quietly.
“Hodge and I were schoolmates together, and, when he came to Yale,
I was not going to be cad enough to cut him because he is in a lower
class than myself. I am not built that way.”
“Oh, you might have treated him decent, without having him in your room
so much.”
“No, you are mistaken. At Fardale Academy we were roommates. What sort
of a fellow would I have been had I shown, when he came to Yale, that
he was not wanted in my room?”
Danny did not answer the question, but stood grinding his heel into the
ground, looking downward.
“I trust you see plainly enough that I did what any white man should
do, Gris?” said Frank, letting a hand fall on Danny’s shoulder.
“Oh, I am not going to set myself up as a judge of your actions,” was
Griswold’s impatient retort. “All I know is what it has brought us to.
If I am pulled up and forced to tell what I know about the way the cop
was hurt----”
“What will you tell? What do you know? You confessed to me that you did
not see it.”
Frank cut in rather sharply, giving Griswold a start. Danny looked
rattled and flushed.
“Oh, I didn’t see it, but Noon told me----”
“That sort of evidence will not go, old man, and you should know it.
Take my advice, and keep still. This business must be hushed up, and it
will be the fellow who talks too much that will get us into trouble.”
“What if you are pulled up and questioned? Are you going to swear to a
lie?”
It was Frank’s turn to flush, but the flush was one of indignation.
“Did you ever know me to lie?” he asked, sharply.
“No, but this is different, and----”
“It will not be necessary for me to lie about this in order to shield
Hodge. I did not see anything. I did not see the cop injured. I can
swear to that, and it’s all they’ll ever get out of me.”
After a moment of silence, Griswold said:
“We may be able to protect Hodge by keeping silent, but I want to give
you some advice, Merry. I am serious now. Don’t grin at me. This is one
time in my life when I am not thinking of anything funny, as the fellow
said when the surgeons were getting him ready to cut off his leg. If
you are wise, you’ll let up on one thing you have been trying to do.”
Frank could not help grinning when he thought of taking advice from
Griswold, but he tried to look serious, and said:
“Go on.”
“You have been pushing Hodge for the nine. Is that right?”
“Well,” admitted Frank, “I have been using my influence to get him on,
for I know he is a corker.”
“Drop it!” cried Danny, pulling out a package of cigarettes and
extracting one. “It won’t go, and you are going to get the other
candidates for the position of catcher down on you. Hodge is a very
fresh freshman, and he does not stand a show of getting on the nine
this year.”
“I am not so sure of that,” said Frank, quietly. “I got on in my
freshman year, if you will remember.”
“I know, but circumstances brought that about. Yale was in a hole for
pitchers. You did some clever twirling on the freshman nine, and you
were tried as a desperate expedient. That is the secret of your getting
on the ’varsity nine your first year in college.”
“Well, Hodge did some clever backstop work last Saturday, when the
scrub played the regular nine. He played on the scrub, and he made
a better record than either Noon or Stone, who took turns on the
regulars.”
“Oh, that was a chance, and it didn’t show his mettle, for there was
nothing at stake. He had better opportunities than the other fellows,
that’s all.”
“Come off!” cried Frank, dropping into slang. “He did better throwing,
and he would have caught every man who tried to steal second if the
pitcher had not been a little slow in his delivery. As it was, he
caught four men, while Noon and Stone caught only one each. He did not
have a passed ball, for all that the pitcher was wild as a hawk, and he
got three fine hits.”
“Two of which were off you, Merry. That part of it didn’t fool anybody.
Ha! ha! ha!”
Frank flushed again.
“By that I presume that you mean to insinuate that I gave him easy
ones, so he might hit it out. Look here, Gris, I have told you that
I do not lie. Now I am going to tell you that I did my level best to
fool Hodge, for he had told me that he would bat my eye out. I thought
I knew his weak points. I gave him a high inshoot, and he got a pretty
single off it; I gave him one round his ankles, and he lifted it out
for three bags. The fellow who says I favored him in the least says
something that is not true.”
“Oh, well,” said Danny, shortly, “I am not here to talk baseball.
Anyway, I don’t think Hodge stands a ghost of a show to catch on. Noon
is the man who will get there.”
“Nit!” muttered Frank, as Danny walked away, smoking.