RUSTY BRINGS A FRIEND
“When I left you in the restarong,” began Rusty, “I hied me forth in
pursuit of a youth whose countenance I had spied through the window,
in short, none other than Sandy Halden. Sandy said he was looking for
someone, I forget who, and I said I’d help him look. I believe in
helping others whenever it isn’t too hard work.”
“Why that pill, though?” asked Stanley. “Thought you had no use for
Sandy.”
“You’re quite wrong then,” answered Rusty earnestly. “To the eager
and inquiring mind nothing is useless. Anyhow, you shut up and let me
tell this. Sandy and I wandered through the metropolis side by each,
admiring the soaring edifices and the homes of ease and luxury. And as
we strolled, we talked. Maybe I talked more than Sandy did, but that’s
neither here nor there. Among other things I said was this: ‘They’re
charging fifty cents to see the game this afternoon, Sandy, and that’s
too much. Not that I’m going to pay it, though. I’m going to see it
for nothing.’ Of course that interested Sandy tremenjously, for Sandy
doesn’t mind spending money any more than a Scotsman! He wanted to
know how I was going to do it; did I have a pass or what. ‘Don’t have
to have a pass,’ I told him. ‘Maybe you’ve noticed that one of the
dormitories is right close to the field? Well, if you happen to have a
friend there whose room is on the back, you don’t have to spend your
good money. You just sit in the window up there quite comfortably and
look right down on the field. Of course, you’re not as close as you are
in a stand, but you can see everything that goes on and you’re saving
a big old half-dollar. And a half-dollar is a lot of money about the
middle of the month!’ Sandy agreed cordially to that sentiment and said
he wished that he knew someone in one of those dormitories. I said,
yes, it would be nice if he did, and looked at my watch, remarking that
I mustn’t be late for my engagement. Then we happened on a candy store
and I stopped and looked in the window and said something about the
caramels looking nice. I could see Sandy struggling mentally and I kept
on looking at the caramels. He tried to edge off, but I wouldn’t edge.
So finally he said in a weak little voice that he guessed he’d get a
few and we went in and he bought a quarter of a pound for fifteen
cents. Then we strolled on and ate the caramels, and after a bit I said
sort of thoughtfully: ‘Look here, Sandy, if you’d like to see the game
with me I guess it would be all right. My friend is a mighty nice sort
and I don’t think he’d mind if I brought you along.’”
“What friend?” asked Dick, puzzled.
“My friend in Wallack Hall,” replied Rusty, with a grin. “Wallack’s the
dormitory that looks like a tomb and has ivy all over it.”
“Oh,” said Dick uncertainly. Blash made a derisive noise in his throat
and Stanley chuckled.
“Well, Sandy was that pleased! Gee, fellows, it does give one a fine
feeling to give pleasure to others, doesn’t it? Sandy was quite
affecting. He said I was mighty kind and he wouldn’t forget it and he’d
like awfully to meet my friend. So we came to a drug store about then
and I said I was thirsty and Sandy insisted on buying sodas. By that
time it was getting on toward two and I asked a fellow in the store
how to get out to the school and he told me and we started out. I had
to pay the car fares, for Sandy was looking out the window hard when
the conductor came around. When we got out there I said we’d better
walk around awhile and see the place, and we so did, and when it was
about time for the game to start I conducted Sandy to Wallack. ‘He may
not be in yet,’ I said, ‘because he has a two o’clock recitation, but
he said I was to make myself at home until he got back.’ So we climbed
two flights of stairs and I went along looking at the numbers on the
doors, telling Sandy I didn’t quite remember which room it was. Sandy
kept asking me what the fellow’s name was and reading the cards, but I
put him off until I found the room. Then I knocked, and, sure enough,
Harold wasn’t in, but he’d left the door open and so we went on in.
It was a bully room, with a lot of corking furniture and pictures and
so on, and we looked around and waited for Harold to come back. You
couldn’t see as much of the field as I’d expected, because the top of
the grand stand cut off the nearer side of it, but it wasn’t bad, and
I made Sandy take his coat off and sit down on the window-seat. He was
very grateful, was Sandy. Doing things for him is a real pleasure,
fellows!” And Rusty looked around the small circle of his audience
with much feeling. Stanley was chuckling and Blash and Dick grinning
broadly, and Rusty seemed surprised at their amusement.
“Well, that’s about all there is to tell, except that presently Sandy
called out that they were starting the game and I came over and looked
out over his shoulder and saw that he was telling the truth. ‘Funny
Harold doesn’t show up,’ I said, as concerned as anything. So I opened
the door and looked up and down the corridor and there wasn’t anyone in
sight and the building was awfully silent. ‘Guess I’ll go down to the
entrance, Sandy,’ I said, ‘and see if I can see him. You sit tight.’
So Sandy said all right, he would, and that Phillipsburg had just
kicked-off, and I went out and closed the door gently but firmly behind
me, absent-mindedly turning the key in the lock, and went downstairs.
Harold wasn’t in sight and so I went on around to the field.”
“You locked Sandy in there?” exclaimed Stanley incredulously and
joyfully. Rusty grinned and nodded.
“I guess so. I didn’t try the door, but the key turned all right.”
The others were fairly howling. “Wouldn’t I like to have been there
when the owner of the room got back!” gasped Blash. “_What_ do you
suppose Sandy told him?”
“He told him the truth,” laughed Rusty, “but I don’t believe Summer
believed him.”
“Summer? Not that big left-guard of theirs?” cried Stanley.
“Yes, Harold Summer.”
“Then--then you _do_ know him?”
“Only by reputation,” replied Rusty modestly. “I’ve never had the
honour of meeting him.”
“How’d you know where he roomed?”
“Easy. Looked up the fellows on the team until I found a couple who
roomed in Wallack. Half of them do room there, because it’s a sort of
senior dormitory, I guess.”
“Looked ’em up where?” demanded Dick.
“In the school catalogue. There was a copy in the library. I forgot to
say that we visited the library amongst other places of interest. I
found one football chap lived in 17 Wallack and another in 28, and I
knew that one of them must be on the back, and it turned out to be 17,
and that was Harold’s dive.”
“Summer’s? But, look here, seems to me Summer’s name is George,” said
Stanley. “Where do you get this ‘Harold’ stuff?”
“Had to call him something, and Harold sounded sort of convincing, sort
of like what a Phillipsburg fellow _would_ be called. Get me?”
“Oh! Well, say, suppose Summer didn’t go back to his room until after
supper or something? Have you seen Sandy since?”
“Oh, yes, he’s aboard. I saw him in the station. He didn’t see me,
though. I think he wants to. That’s one reason I wasn’t keen for going
after the chocolate. Something tells me that Sandy has misconstrued my
innocent efforts to save his money for him!”
“Gee, but I’ll bet he’s mad enough to bite a nail!” chuckled Stanley.
“Of all the crazy stunts, Rusty, that’s the craziest! How did you know
Summer wouldn’t have a room-mate and that the room-mate wouldn’t be in
when you got there?”
“I didn’t. I couldn’t find that out without going through the whole
catalogue, and there wasn’t time for that. If there’d been anyone in
when I knocked I’d have just asked for a fictitious name and backed out
again. Anyway, I don’t see what Sandy has to be peeved about. He saw
the game without paying a cent!”
“Except for the caramels and soda,” laughed Blash. “I wish I could have
been behind a door or some place when Summer walked in and found Sandy
sitting there!”
“Maybe Sandy got wise and got away before Summer came back,” suggested
Stanley anxiously. But Rusty shook his head. “He probably got wise, all
right, but I’ll bet he didn’t get out! There was only one door and that
was locked. There wasn’t any transom and the window was two stories
up. And I don’t believe there was a soul in the building; every fellow
was at the game.”
“How the dickens did you ever think of the scheme?” asked Stanley
admiringly. Rusty shrugged modestly.
“Oh, it just sort of came to me. Like an inspiration, you know. Well,
that settles one or two old scores between Sandy and me, I guess. I
hope Summer didn’t beat him up, but still, if he did--” Rusty shrugged
again. “I should grow faint and be carried out!”
“Rusty, you’re a wonder!” said Blash earnestly. “You’ll be hung if you
live long enough; there’s no doubt about that: but in the meanwhile you
certainly do add to the joy of nations!”
“What do you mean, hung?” demanded Rusty indignantly. “My record is as
clean and my life as stainless--Oh, my sainted grandmother! Here he
comes! Hide me behind your stalwart frame, Blash!”
From the farther end of the swaying coach came Sandy Halden, gloom and
wrath upon his brow, his gaze seeking his enemy. A few seats away his
eyes fell on Rusty and they blazed in triumph. He shoved his way past
an accumulation of suit-cases and faced his benefactor, his shock-hair
standing up defiantly under the cap he wore and his long nose
twitching like a rabbit’s. Rusty viewed him calmly.
“Hello, Sandy,” he greeted. “Great game, wasn’t it?”
“A great game you put up on me!” sputtered Sandy. “I suppose you think
you’re mighty smart, eh? You wait till I’m through with you, Crozier!
I’ll make you wish you weren’t so blamed funny! I’ll show you what a
real joke is! I’ll----”
“There, there,” said Rusty, soothingly. “What’s your kick, Sandy? You
saw the game all right, didn’t you? And you saved a whole half-dollar,
didn’t you? What more do you want? By the way, I suppose you introduced
yourself to Harold? Sorry I couldn’t stick around!”
“He was all right, don’t you worry! I told him about you and he said a
few things you ought to have heard! His name isn’t Harold----”
“What? You don’t mean that we got into the wrong room!” exclaimed Rusty
incredulously. “Wasn’t it Harold Jones’ room, Sandy?”
“You know mighty well whose room it was!” answered the other
indignantly. “That’s all right! I’ll get even with you! I’ll----”
“Oh, I _am_ sorry!” declared Rusty miserably. “Such an awkward mistake
to make. I don’t see how I could have been so stupid! Whatever can I
do to show my contrition, Sandy?”
By this time most of the fellows within hearing were listening eagerly
and amusedly, and it dawned on Sandy that he was making a mistake to
advertise the joke. “Never mind your contrition,” he growled in a lower
voice, “I’ll fix you, Crozier. Don’t think you can get away with it.”
His eyes swept the grinning or amused faces of Rusty’s companions.
“You make me sick, anyway, the whole lot of you!” he added. “If I
tell Jud what you did, Crozier, you won’t think it’s so funny!” With
which veiled threat he swung angrily away and the car door crashed
resoundingly behind him.
Blash and Stanley were somewhat sobered, but Rusty still beamed. “I
wonder what Summer did say!” he chuckled. “I wish I knew!”
“Look here,” said Stanley, “you don’t suppose he will go to Jud, do
you? You know, Rusty, Jud’s a bit down on you!”
“He won’t. He knows that if he did I’d beat him to a stiff froth!
Anyhow, what of it? Jud will only appreciate my kindness of heart. It
wasn’t really my fault if we stumbled into the wrong room.”
“That won’t go with Jud,” said Blash, shaking his head. “Still, I
don’t believe Sandy will blab. What say, Gus? Oh, he was sort of
peeved over something that happened.” Blash turned to Gus Stone, who
was leaning over the back of the seat. “You know how Sandy is. Thinks
fellows are trying to put something over on him.”
“What was it?” persisted Stone, smiling broadly in anticipation.
“Why, nothing much, really. It was all--a mistake.” Blash looked as
innocent as a new-born babe. “You see, Rusty offered to introduce
Sandy to a friend of his at Phillipsburg whose room overlooked the
football field so that Sandy wouldn’t have to pay to see the game,
and by accident they got into the wrong room and Rusty went out to
look for his friend and thoughtlessly locked the door behind him. Of
course, when the fellow who lived there got back and found Sandy, he
was surprised! And Sandy has got it into his head that Rusty put up a
job on him. Which just shows, Gus, that even with the best intentions
in the world you sometimes go wrong!”
“Warne! Warne!” called a trainman. “Change for Sturgis, Bradfield,
Seppit’s Mill and points on the Westfield Branch! Wa-a-arne!”