THE SPYING PROCTOR.
Although he had not lifted his voice the least, there was indignation
in Merry’s manner, and his eyes were flashing. He looked from one to
another of the lads before him, as if seeking to discover the guilty
one or ones.
There was a brief silence, and then Bruce Browning hastened to say:
“Oh, it’s all right, Merriwell. Billings must have done it, for a joke,
himself.”
“Not by a blamed sight!” came surlily from Billings, who seemed to have
sobered up wonderfully when he realized that the watch really belonged
to Gooch instead of Merriwell. “I may have taken considerable punch,
but I’m no practical joker, and I won’t be called a thief by anybody.
Anybody calls me a thief I’ll fight him right here and now!”
Billings seemed, in a half-drunken manner, to realize that he was
suspected by some of having stolen the watch.
“Oh, I don’t think you took it, Newt,” hastily said Gooch, as the
freshman glared at him.
“Well, it’s a good thing f’you that you don’t!” growled Billings.
Then he turned to another freshman and muttered plainly enough for all
to hear:
“I’d punch face off’n him if he hinted anything of the sort! Dunno
where the old watch came from. Took it out of Merriwell’s pocket.”
“One thing is certain----” began Harry Rattleton.
“And that one thing is that Frank Merriwell did not steal Gooch’s
watch,” finished Charlie Creighton.
“Oh, I don’t want to think anything like that!” hastily exclaimed
Sidney, with apparent sincerity. “As for Billings, he has not been near
me this evening, so he could not be the one who took it from me.”
“It is possible no one took it from you, Gooch,” said Diamond. “Some
fellow may have picked it up from the floor and tucked it into
Merriwell’s pocket for a joke.”
“If any fellow did so, he will prove his manhood and relieve Merry of
suspicion by stepping forward and speaking up,” said Creighton. “Step
right out! It was no crime, although it was a foolish sort of joke.”
The boys waited for some one to step forward, but not a soul moved.
“Who had a good chance to swipe the watch, Gooch?” asked Walter Gordan,
who had been keeping in the background.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” answered Sidney. “I suppose lots of
fellows have had a chance.”
“You missed it first just after we caught those fake professors?”
“Yes.”
“You were one of the fellows who held Merriwell?”
“Yes, I was the first one to get hold of him. I couldn’t hold him
alone. It took four of us, and then he came near getting away.”
“What are you driving at, Gordan?” flashed Jack Diamond, his face
flushed with anger, for he fancied Walter was attempting to wind the
net about Merry.
“I’m just trying to find out----”
Walter hesitated, for he saw a gleam in the eyes of the hot-tempered
Virginian that was more than a simple warning.
“I hardly think anyone will believe that I would steal a watch,” said
Merriwell, slowly; “and yet I do not like to have this thing hanging
over me. I repeat, if it was a joke, it is a pretty poor joke.”
“Joke!” exploded Diamond. “It’s an infernal outrage, and I can lick the
sneak who did the job! If more than one fellow took part in it, I’ll
agree to lick the whole gang one at a time!”
This brought something like the ghost of a smile to Frank’s face, for
he thought of the time when Jack Diamond had regarded fighting as low
and beneath the dignity of a gentleman and Virginian. Then it was that
Diamond had refused as far as possible to engage in a “low fistic
encounter,” but now he was making fighting talk without saying anything
about calling anybody out upon the “field of honor.” Since coming to
Yale there had been a wonderful change in the passionate lad from the
South, but he was not a whit less courageous and full of chivalry.
“Thank you, old fellow,” said Frank, placing a hand on Jack’s shoulder.
“I assure you of my appreciation, but perhaps you’d better let me do my
own fighting.”
Jack was thinking, too--he was thinking of the trip across the
continent, when Frank Merriwell had stood by him for all of his
peevishness and ill temper. Then Jack had become so disagreeable that
the others of the party would have been glad to rid themselves of him,
but Merry had been patient to a most remarkable degree, for all that he
seemed to be the butt of Diamond’s anger on every occasion.
When it was all over Jack could look back with calmness at those
things, he began to realize what kind of a friend he had in Frank,
and it aroused in the heart of the chivalrous Virginian a feeling
of affection that positively was without bounds. No danger could be
appalling enough to keep Jack Diamond from Frank’s side.
It was in moments of danger when Diamond showed his affection for
Frank. At other times he seemed rather cold and undemonstrative. He
was quite unlike Harry Rattleton, who, in everything and at all times,
showed his high regard for Merry.
It is pretty certain that Bruce Browning was no less Frank’s friend,
but it was very seldom that he showed it so that his friendship was
conspicuous to anyone but Merriwell himself.
Frank understood Browning, and he knew full well how loyal the big
fellow was. He knew that no other person would have induced Bruce
to train down and get in condition to play baseball. The giant had
done that for Merry, for all that he was so lazy it seemed the most
frightful punishment that could be inflicted on him.
Now Frank’s friends ranged themselves by his side. They showed by their
looks and words that nothing could make them believe he would do a
crooked thing.
“You can fight your own doing, Merry--I mean do your own fighting,”
spluttered Rattleton; “but I’m going to say it’s a mighty mean trick
for anybody to put up in order to get square for the joke you worked on
us.”
“If it was done for that purpose,” put in Diamond; “but I don’t believe
it was.”
“Oh, I don’t wish to think it was done for any other purpose,” came
quickly from Merriwell’s lips. “I know some fellows in college do not
like me, but I do not wish to think they would be dirty enough to try
to make me out a thief.”
“That would be mean,” said Gooch, mildly.
“Well, you don’t think he stole your watch, do you, Sid?” demanded
Creighton.
“Of course not,” answered Gooch, with a smirk. “Oh, of course not!”
The way he said those words caused Diamond to clinch his hands and
grate his teeth together. At that moment Jack longed to knock Sidney
down.
“Well, Merry,” said Charlie, “you can rest assured that nobody here
will ever think you tried to steal the watch.”
“Just the same,” came from Frank, “I would give something to have it
explained how the watch came in my pocket.”
“Perhaps that will be explained sometime.”
“This is the proper time.”
“Say, fellows,” called one of the freshmen, “are we going to let this
business break up the fun? We were getting good and jolly when----”
There was a rush of feet outside, and Silas Blossom came bursting into
the room.
“Fellows,” he said, excitedly; “you had better make a sneak, and you
must get out by the back way.”
“What is it?” asked several. “What’s the matter?”
“Is it another faculty scare?” demanded Nash.
“No, but the faculty has a spy who is piping us off.”
“Is that it?”
“Sure.”
“Who is the spy?”
“Rudge.”
“The proctor?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“In front of the house, keeping watch of the door. He is taking down
the names of everybody who comes in or goes out.”
“And there isn’t a doubt but he will report us if he sees us,” said
Frank. “What business has he on York Street? It strikes me it would be
a good time to give Mr. Digby Rudge a lesson.”
“What sort of a lesson?”
“Oh, one that he will not forget--one that will cause him to attend to
his business in the future and let things outside the college grounds
and buildings alone.”
“We are with you, Merry,” declared several. “What is your little game?”
Then Frank proceeded to unfold his plan.