QUEER DISAPPEARANCES
"Come in!" cried Andy as a knock sounded.
"I'm not going out, I don't care who it is!" exclaimed Dunk, fidgeting
in his chair. "I've just _got_ to get this confounded Greek."
"Same here," said Andy.
The door was pushed open and a shock of dark, curly hair was thrust in.
"Like to look at some swell neckties!" a voice asked.
"Oh, come in, you blooming old haberdasher!" cried Andy with a laugh,
and Ikey Stein, with a bundle under his arm, slid in.
"Fine business!" he exclaimed. "Give me a chance to make a little money,
gentlemen; I need it!"
"No more of that Japanese 'vawse' business!" warned Dunk. "I won't stand
for it."
"No, these are genuine bargains," declared the student who was working
his way through college. "I'll show you. I got 'em from a friend of
mine, who's selling out. I can make a little something on them, and
you'll get swell scarfs at less than you'd pay for them in a store."
"Let's see," suggested Andy, rather glad of the diversion and of the
chance to stop studying, for he had been "boning" hard. "But I don't
want any satsuma pattern, nor yet a cloisonne," he added.
"Say, forget that," begged Ikey. "That Jap took me in, as well as he did
you fellows."
"Well, if anybody can take _you_ in, Ikey, he's a good one!" laughed
Dunk.
"Oh, don't mind me!" exclaimed the merchant-student. "You can't hurt my
feelings. I'm used to it. And I'm not ashamed of my nature, either. My
ancestors were all merchants, and they had to drive hard bargains to
live. I don't exactly do that, you understand, but I guess it's in my
blood. I'm not ashamed that I'm a Jew!"
"And we're not ashamed of you, either!" cried Andy, heartily.
"Same here," added Dunk. "Trot out your ties, Ikey."
In spite of the fact that he sometimes insisted on the students buying
things they did not really need, Ikey was a general favorite in the
college.
"There's a fine one!" he exclaimed, holding up a hideous red and green
scarf. "Only a dollar--worth two."
"Wouldn't have it if you paid me for it!" cried Andy. "Show me something
that a fellow could wear without hearing it yell a block away."
"Oh, you want something chaste and quiet," suggested Ikey. "I have the
very thing. There!" holding it up. "That is a mere whisper!"
"It's a pretty loud whisper," commented Dunk, "but at that it isn't so
bad. I'll take it, if you don't want it, Andy."
"You're welcome to it. I want something in a golden brown."
"Here you are!" exclaimed Ikey, sorting over his stock.
He succeeded in selling Andy and Dunk two scarfs each, and tried to get
them to take more, but they were firm. Then the merchant-student
departed to other rooms.
"It's a queer way to get along," commented Andy, when he had finished
admiring his purchases.
"Yes, but I give him credit for it," went on Dunk. "He meets with a lot
of discouragement, and some of the fellows are positively rude to him,
but he's always the same--good-natured and willing to put up with it.
He's working hard for his education."
"Harder than you and I," commented Andy. "I wonder if we'd do it?"
"I'd hate to have it thrust on me. But I do give Stein credit."
"Yes, only for that Japanese vase business."
"Oh, well, I believe that oily Jap did put one over on him."
"Possibly. Oh, rats! Here come some of the fellows!"
The sound of footsteps was heard in the corridor. Andy glanced at Dunk.
If it should prove to be Mortimer Gaffington, who, of late had tried in
vain to get Dunk to go out with him, what was to be done? Andy caught
his breath sharply.
But it proved to be a needless alarm, for Bob Hunter, Ted Wilson and
Thad Warburton came in with noisy greetings.
"Look at the digs!"
"Boning away on a night like this!"
"'Come into the garden, Maud!' Chuck that, you fellows, and let's go
downtown. What's the matter with a picture show?"
It was Thad who asked this, but Bob, with a wry face, put his hand in
his pocket and drew out seven cents.
"It doesn't look much like a picture show for me to-night," he said.
"Oh, I'll stake you!" exclaimed Ted. "Come on."
"Shall we?" asked Dunk doubtfully of Andy.
"Might as well, I guess," was the answer. Andy was glad it had not been
Gaffington, and he realized that it might be better to take this chance
now of getting Dunk out, before the rich youth and his fast companions
came along, as they might later in the evening. He knew that with Bob,
Ted and Thad, there would be no long session at Burke's.
"I haven't done my Greek," objected Dunk, hesitatingly.
"Oh, well, I'll set the alarm clock, and we'll get up an hour earlier in
the morning and floor it," suggested Andy.
"Burning the candle at both ends!" protested Dunk, with a sigh. "Ain't I
terrible? But lead me to it!"
As they went out of Wright Hall, Andy looked across the campus and saw
Gaffington, and some of his boon companions, approaching.
"Just in time," he murmured. When Gaffington saw Dunk in charge of his
friends he and the others turned aside.
"That's when I got ahead of him!" exulted our hero.
They spent a pleasant evening, and Andy and Dunk were back in their room
at a reasonable hour.
"I declare!" exclaimed Dunk, "I feel pretty fresh yet. I think I'll have
another go at that Greek. We won't have to get up with the chickens
then."
"I'm with you," agreed Andy, and they did more studying than they had
done in some time.
"Well, I'm through," yawned Dunk, flinging his book on the table. "Now
I'm going to hit the hay."
The next day Dunk was complimented on his recitation.
"Oh, I tell you it pays to bone a bit!" Andy cried, clapping Dunk on the
back as they came out.
"That's right," agreed the other.
In the days that followed Andy watched Dunk closely. And, to our hero's
delight, Gaffington seemed to be losing his influence. Several times
Dunk refused to go out with him--refused good-naturedly enough, but
steadfastly.
Andy tried to get Dunk interested in football, and did to a certain
extent. Dunk went out to the practice, and Andy tried to get him to go
into training.
"No, it's too late," was the answer. "Next year, maybe. But I like to
see you fellows rub your noses in the dirt. Go to it, Andy!"
Link Bardon seemed to find his employment at Yale congenial. Andy met
him several times and had some little talk with him. The young farmer
said he hoped to get permanent employment at the college, his present
position being only for a limited time.
Andy had received letters from some of his former chums at Milton. Among
them were missives from Ben Snow and Chet Anderson. Chet wrote from
Harvard, where he had gone, that he would see Andy at the Yale-Harvard
game, while from Ben, who had gone to Princeton, came a similar message,
making an appointment for a good old-fashioned talk at the annual clash
of the Bulldog and Tiger.
"I'll be glad to see them again," said Andy.
It was about two weeks after the arrival of Link Bardon at Yale that
some little disturbance was occasioned throughout the college, when an
announcement was made at chapel one morning. It was from the Dean, and
stated that a number of articles had been reported as missing from the
rooms of various students.
"You are requested to keep your doors locked when you are out of your
rooms," the announcement concluded.
There was a buzz of excitement as the students filed out.
"What does it mean?"
"Who lost anything?"
"I have," said one. "My new sapphire cuff buttons were swiped."
"I lost a ring," added another.
"And a diamond scarf pin I left on my dresser walked off--or someone
walked off with it," spoke a third.
There were several other mysterious losses mentioned.
"How did it happen?" asked Andy of a fellow student who had said a few
dollars had been taken from his dresser.
"Hanged if I know," was the answer. "I left the money in my room, and
when I came back it was gone."
"Was the room locked?"
"It sure was."
"Did any of the monitors or janitors see anyone go in?"
"Not that I know of; but of course it could happen. There are a lot of
new men working around here, anyhow."
Andy thought of Link, and hoped that the farmer lad would not be
suspected on account of being a stranger.
But as the days went on the number of mysterious thefts grew. Every
dormitory in the quadrangle had been visited, but the buildings outside
the hollow square seemed immune.