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[Illustration: "_I shall tell you nothing_," _said Jack finally_.]




    THE HILLTOP BOYS

    A STORY OF SCHOOL LIFE

    BY

    CYRIL BURLEIGH

    [Illustration]

    THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING CO.
    CLEVELAND
    MADE IN U. S. A.


    COPYRIGHT 1917

    PRESS OF
    THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO.
    CLEVELAND




CONTENTS

    CHAPTER                                             PAGE

        I THE BEGINNING OF THE TERM                       13

       II A HITCH IN JACK'S WELCOME                       21

      III SOME OF THE BOYS AND THEIR WAYS                 29

       IV ANOTHER ATTEMPTED HAZING                        36

        V THE HAZERS ARE HAZED                            45

       VI BILLY'S LITTLE JOKE                             54

      VII A TOUCH OF EXCITEMENT                           63

     VIII WHAT JACK FOUND IN THE RAVINE                   71

       IX ANOTHER OF JACK'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS               79

        X AN INTERVIEW IN THE WOODS                       88

       XI A BIT OF SIGNAL WORK                            94

      XII THE TROUBLES OF AN EDITOR                      102

     XIII TRYING TO FIX THE BLAME                        111

      XIV "SUSPICION IS NOT PROOF"                       117

       XV FUN AND EXCITEMENT                             125

      XVI AN ANONYMOUS ACCUSATION                        132

     XVII THE MATTER SETTLED                             138

    XVIII AN EXPLORING TRIP THROUGH THE WOODS            144

      XIX MORE THAN ONE WAY OUT                          153

       XX WHAT BILLY'S CAMERA REVEALED                   160

      XXI A PUZZLING AFFAIR                              169

     XXII LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT                           175

    XXIII ON THE WAY HOME                                181

     XXIV HOW IT ALL CAME OUT                            185




THE HILLTOP BOYS




CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNING OF THE TERM


"I say, Art, let's take a run down to the train. There will be sure to
be some of the old fellows on it and perhaps some new ones."

"Yes, for I heard the doctor tell Buck to have the coach and horses
ready, as he expected several of the young gentlemen to come on the
afternoon train. Why can't we go down with Buck instead of going alone?"

"Because Mr. Bucephalus, called Buck for short, objects to doing any
more work than he is obliged to. We can ride back with him. That is
vastly preferable to pedaling up the hill."

"So it is, Harry, but I don't mind coasting down. Come on, there is the
train now, just leaving the station below."

Two bright looking boys of about fifteen, dressed in a half-military
fashion, stood on a terrace in front of a rambling, two-story building
overlooking the surrounding country, the Hudson River being seen in the
distance at the foot of a mountain of considerable height, everything
being most distinct in the clear Autumn air, the steamboats on the
river, the roof of the little railroad station and the puff of smoke
from the engine as it pulled out being seen very clearly.

The rambling, two-story building on the top of the hill was the Academy
and the boys were two of the pupils who were here a little in advance of
the rest to begin the new term, were, in fact, some of the Hilltop Boys
as they were called by the people of the town on the river where the
train on the branch road was now going at a fair speed, the incline
increasing with the distance from the station.

Arthur Warren and Harry Dickson hurried off to the stables where the
wheels of the boys were kept, selected their own, mounted quickly and
set out along the Academy drive to the road leading to the station, this
being a mile or more distant, although in a straight line it was much
less.

From the river to the station nearest the Academy it was five miles, but
on account of the grade and the numerous stops the two boys had plenty
of time to reach the railroad before the train which they had seen
leaving the river station could arrive.

"Did the Doctor say who was coming, Art?" asked Harry, as they reached
the road, set their brakes and started down the hill. "Dick Percival
generally comes at this time."

"Yes, I believe the black fellow said he expected Master Dick. He
always likes to fetch Dick up and will go for him at any time, day or
night."

"To be sure, for Dick always gives him a tip."

The hill down which the two boys were now gliding at a good rate was
quite steep, there being a decided drop a few rods in advance and a
number of sharp turns, the rounding of which required considerable
dexterity and the coolest of heads.

They were two-thirds of the way down and had reached the steepest part
of the hill when, in rounding a particularly sharp turn where they had
to keep all their wits about them, they saw just ahead of them, in the
middle of the road, a boy carrying a suitcase.

"Hi! get out of the road!" roared Harry, taking a tighter grip on his
handle bars and apprehending trouble.

"Look out!" cried Arthur in shrill tones.

The boy in the middle of the road, not more than fifty feet distant at
this moment, stood perfectly still and cried in a clear voice, sure to
be heard above everything else:

"Swerve a bit to the side, both of you and there will be room enough."

Simultaneously, he made a quick signal to the right and to the left.

Arthur steered a little to the right while Harry went to the left, both
whizzing past the boy in the middle of the road who held his suitcase in
front of him and stood perfectly still.

Neither of the boys even grazed him but there was little room to spare
and the wind of the two wheels caused his coat to flutter violently and
almost took off his soft hat.

In a moment more both boys were speeding down the hill at a tremendous
gait and in another were out of sight around another and less sharp
turn.

"My word! but that was a close shave!" ejaculated Harry, with a sigh and
a feeling of intense relief. "I made sure that we were going to get
spilled, the three of us."

"Some cool head that!" returned Arthur. "Lots of fellows would have gone
all to pieces. I came pretty near doing it myself."

"He knew just what to do and when to do it," Harry went on. "Only for
that there would have been a bad mix-up."

"Well, there wasn't!" grunted Arthur, "so don't say any more about it.
It gives me the creeps to think of it. That fellow has some nerve.
Wonder what he was doing on our road? You can't get anywhere except to
Hilltop Academy that way. If he's a new student why didn't he come with
Bucephalus and the coach?"

"Can't tell you. Maybe he didn't know anything about it."

The boys reached the bottom of the hill without further incident and
went on to the little railroad station, hearing the sound of the
expected train as they dismounted and stacked their wheels.

The colored coachman of the Academy, who bore the high-sounding name of
Bucephalus, but who was almost always called Buck by the boys and by the
people of the town at the foot of the hill, sat on his box as if carved
out of black marble and neither looked to the right nor the left,
considering it beneath his dignity to converse with any one in the
village while on duty and seeming to see no one.

"Did you meet a young fellow going up the hill as you were coming down,
Buck?" asked Harry, stepping alongside the big coach. "A new fellow, do
you think, Bucephalus?"

"Ah dunno, sah, Ah done paid no attention to anybody Ah met on de road,
sah. Ah done had 'nuff to do to look aftah mah hosses witho't
catechisin' or scrutinizin' strangers, sah."

The whistle of the train was heard again at that moment and in a short
time it arrived and many of the passengers alighted, among them being
two or three boys who were warmly welcomed by the two students.

"Hello, Dick, back again, eh? Glad of it. How are you, Billy, how do,
Tom? Ready for work, of course?"

"And incidentally, a bit of fun," replied one of the newcomers. "Hope we
will have a good crowd this term. Any new ones to put through their
paces and make toe the mark?"

The boys chatted and laughed at a lively rate while their trunks and
valises were being put on top and behind the coach and then all got
inside, Bucephalus objecting when Harry and Arthur put their wheels on
the rear rack and took their seats with the others.

"Yo' young ge'men am discommodin' de reg'lah passengers an' taking up
mo' room dan Ah speckerlated on," he muttered. "Whyn't yo' go back de
same way yo' come?"

"Walk and wheel our bikes?" cried Harry. "Not much. There's room for all
of us and I want to talk with Dick."

"That's all right, Buck," said Dick Percival, one of the newcomers, a
handsome boy of sixteen, strong, well built and sturdy, slyly passing
something to the coachman. "Come up on the box, Harry. I have a lot to
tell you. Come on, there's lots of room."

The two boys sat on the box alongside the coachman who set off up the
hill for the Academy and Dick at once began to tell of an adventure
which had happened to him during the vacation.

"I was taking a hike up in the fruit country," he began, "and in making
my way across lots lost my bearings and came out in a peach orchard
where I could not see the road nor a house nor anything. Two
rough-looking fellows, fruit pickers, and they are not the best men to
meet even if they are sober, and these were not, came up and looked
rather hostile and threatening. I had considerable money with me and
although I could have met either one of the men singly, did not feel
like engaging both of them. It was either a case of run or be
outmatched, and I was puzzled what to do."

"What did you do?" asked Harry, interested. "They must have been pretty
husky fellows for you to decline meeting them."

"A young fellow in overalls and a rough shirt who was picking peaches in
a tree, I had not seen him at first, suddenly appeared and ordered the
men to get to work and then the boss happened up and sent them away. The
boy went back to his picking and the man gave me directions how to reach
the road. I suppose the boy was a picker just like the rest but at any
rate he had some idea of fairness. He spoke well and I was astonished to
see him with the rest but you can't always tell."

"Art and I had a close call this afternoon," said Harry. "We were coming
down the Academy hill on our bikes when, at one of the worst places in
it, we came upon a young fellow. It looked as if we would run him down
but he stood stock still and with all the nerve in the world, whisked
his arm first to the right and then to the left as a signal to us. We
just flew past but did not hit him and it was a mercy we didn't. Only
for his coolness there would have been a bad upset for the lot of us."

"It was very fortunate that there wasn't. Did you know him?"

"No, never saw him before."

"What was he doing on the Academy hill?"

"I'm sure I don't know. That's what bothered Art and me."

The coach went on up the hill and at last stopped in front of the
Academy and the boys began to alight.

Dr. Theophilus Wise, the principal, was standing on the front veranda
with a good-looking boy in a brown suit and soft hat.

"This is a new pupil, young gentlemen," said the doctor, coming forward
with the strange boy. "Let me make you acquainted with John Sheldon. I
trust that you will make him at home."

"Why, that's the boy that Art and I met on the road," whispered Harry to
his companion as they were descending.

"It is? Why, that is the first picker I was telling you of."

"Oh!" said Harry in a tone of disappointment.




CHAPTER II

A HITCH IN JACK'S WELCOME


Dick Percival was the son of wealthy parents, was made much of at home
and at school was admired and flattered by the boys of his own set and
looked up to by the younger ones who took him as their model and
regarded him as a hero.

He was the leading spirit in the school and, being high in his studies,
and first in all the athletic sports indulged in by the boys, ranked
well with both professors and students, so that whatever he did was
considered to be about right.

What he did now was, therefore, a salve to the wounded pride of Harry
Dickson, who resented having a mere berry picker enrolled among the
students of the Academy and taking equal rank with boys of wealth and
position.

As soon as he was down from the coach, Dick went straight to the new
boy, extended his hand cordially and said in his most agreeable voice
and with a smile on his handsome face:

"I am glad to see you again. Welcome to the ranks of the Hilltop boys.
You remember me? You did me a great service a short time ago and I am
not likely to forget either that or yourself. My name is Dick Percival.
Shake hands, Jack, if you will let me call you so."

"I have no objection," said the other, taking the boy's hand with as
much cordiality as it was offered. "I remember you now but what I did
was nothing. You are very kind and I will endeavor to repay you in any
way I can."

The other boys now pressed forward and Harry was as cordial as Dick
himself in welcoming the new boy to the school.

"You saved us a bad accident, old chap," he said, shaking Jack Sheldon's
hand. "If it had not been for your coolness I would have gone all to
bits in a moment. I am obliged to you and if I can do anything for you
at any time just let me know."

"It was a ticklish moment," answered Jack, "but you two boys sized up
the situation as quickly as I did and acted just as you should have
acted so that as much credit belongs to you as you are ready to give to
me. I am glad that all came out so well."

Harry introduced Arthur and in a short time the new boy was acquainted
with all the boys then at the Academy and apparently on good terms with
all of them, Dick Percival's advances toward the newcomer having given
the others their cue, so to speak.

More boys came that afternoon and in the early evening, some by train or
boat and some in private conveyances, the greater part of those
expected to enter upon the new term being on hand that night.

There were nearly a hundred of the Hilltop boys, the majority hailing
from New York but many other states were represented, the Academy having
a national reputation and being considered one of the best schools for
boys to be found anywhere.

It was conducted under military rules and had besides a retired army
officer to drill the boys, a corps of competent instructors in many
branches, sending its graduates to the leading colleges and universities
of the land.

As the boys' duties would not begin until the next day they were at
liberty to do as they pleased that evening and after supper, which was
had in the great dining hall, Jack took a stroll with Dick, Harry and
one or two others of his new acquaintances.

"Dick told us how you helped him out of a scrape," said Harry, as they
were entering a bit of woods in the rear of the Academy. "He took you
for a berry picker. That was funny, wasn't----"

"But I was one," said Jack. "I picked all summer, strawberries,
raspberries and currants and then peaches and some grapes. I made enough
to pay my schooling for----"

"Yes, but you were not one of the regulars," broke in Harry. "They are
nothing but a lot of tramps, I believe."

"There are tramps that do the work, of course, but the regulars, as you
call them are not. They work up from the south and go as far as the
western part of the state and into Pennsylvania before the season is
over. Many of the boys and girls, too, in our part of the state earn
money that way and I don't see that there is anything----"

"Wrong in it?" interrupted Dick, who noticed the prejudice of the other
boys. "Of course there isn't. Be careful about this place, Jack. There
is a ravine which is very steep and a fall would not be a pleasant
adventure. Stick close to me and you will be all right."

Nothing more was said about the manner in which the new boy had earned
money for his schooling but even a casual observer would have noticed
that neither Harry nor Arthur were as cordial in their treatment of him
after that and he and Dick did all the talking.

The greater part of the boys slept in big dormitories on the upper story
of the Academy building, a few especially favored ones having rooms to
themselves either there or in one of the cottages adjoining, Dick
Percival being one of these.

Jack was assigned to one of the large dormitories and found himself
associated with Harry Dickson and a number of boys whom he had seen very
little of when it came time to go to bed at ten o'clock that night.

His suitcase had been brought up and one of a number of lockers was
assigned to him in which he could keep his clothes, there being a small
portable iron washstand in front of it at the head of his bed which was
about ten feet distant from the next on either side.

There was a row of beds running along two sides of the room with a space
of ten feet between the rows, so that there was plenty of room for every
one and yet the boys were near enough to converse with each other if
they chose before the lights were put out, this being done outside by
one of the professors.

Jack saw four or five boys gathered in a knot while he was undressing
and caught a few words of their conversation which was carried on in low
tones, paying no attention to it, however, and not seeming to have heard
it.

"We must give him a welcome to the Academy," said Harry.

"As soon as the lights go out, make a rush and be sure and get the water
jug before he gets up," put in Arthur.

"Oh, we know where everything is, all right," muttered Billy Manners, a
lively young fellow whom Jack had noticed at the supper table, who
seemed to be always making jokes at something or other. "We have done
this before, you know."

"It was just as well that I thought there might be something of this
sort and got ready for it," thought Jack, but as far as any of the boys
could see he was entirely unsuspicious of their pleasant intentions.

He undressed himself quietly, now and then saying something to one or
another of the boys who addressed him, and then, just before he got into
bed, quietly dropped something on the floor on each side of the bed
without being noticed.

He had taken whatever it was from his suitcase and had not been
observed, his motions being quick and with no appearance of stealth or a
suspicion of the other boys' designs.

All the boys were in bed a few minutes before the electric lights were
extinguished and talked among themselves on matters of little
importance, Jack saying little, however, but calculating how long it
would take the nearest boy to reach him and fixing the position of the
water jug well in his mind without turning to look at it.

The lights were extinguished from a switch-board in the doctor's room as
soon as the clock struck, so that it was not necessary to go up to the
dormitories at all.

There would be no one in the hall outside, therefore, and so whatever
noise the boys might make would not be heard by the doctor or any of the
professors.

The clock struck ten and as the last stroke sounded the lights went out
and in a moment all was dark in the dormitory.

Then there was a sudden rush and Jack sat up in bed, turned and reached
for the water jug which was just behind him.

Swift but light footsteps were heard approaching the bed on three sides
and then there was a sudden howl, or chorus of howls from all sides.

"Wow! what's that?"

"Ouch! who left tacks on the floor?"

"Gee whiz! stop that!"

Jack had strewn a few small tacks on the floor and the boys who had
meant to give him a little hazing had stepped upon them in the dark.

One of the invaders fell against the bed and at once the water jug
tumbled over upon him or at any rate that was what he supposed had
happened in his confusion.

"What's the matter, boys?" asked Jack, quietly, and then a flash of
light from a pocket searchlight shone from the bed.

"Tacks!" exclaimed one.

"Waterspouts!" ejaculated another, he who had been drenched by the
contents of the jug.

"Do you often have these little affairs, boys?" asked Jack, with
provoking coolness. "Do you enjoy them?"

Two of the boys were sitting on the edge of their beds taking tacks out
of their feet while another was looking for a dry night shirt in his
locker.

The others looked rather sheepish and no attempt was made to rush in
upon Jack who said with the least suspicion of a laugh:

"Better go to bed, boys. Some one might have heard the noise and be
coming up to investigate."

Then the light suddenly went out as steps were heard in the hall outside
and all was still within.

Whoever was outside was evidently unsuspicious of what had happened
within for the footsteps passed the door and went on down the hall and
not a word was heard.

"I guess that was one on us," muttered Billy Manners when all was quiet
again, "and we'd better let it go at that and score a point for the new
fellow."

Evidently, his advice was taken for there was no more disturbance in the
dormitory for the rest of the night and in the morning when the bell
sounded for the boys to get up Jack was out of bed before any of his new
companions.




CHAPTER III

SOME OF THE BOYS AND THEIR WAYS


The boys were awakened at six o'clock, went into chapel at half past
six, had breakfast at seven, went through a drill from eight to nine and
then went into the general schoolroom and were busy till noon, when they
were dismissed to get ready for dinner.

Nothing was said about the event of the night before but several of the
boys gave Jack sly winks and it was quite evident that there would be no
repetition of the hazing.

When they went out to drill, Dick Percival said to Jack:

"Well, my boy, it seems to me as if you showed just as cool a head last
night as you did in the afternoon when you stood in the road and
directed the two fellows who were rushing down upon you on their bikes.
I would have liked to seen the fun."

"If they had not talked about it I would not have known anything of it,"
replied Jack, "but how did you hear of it?"

"Oh, Billy Manners thought it was too good a joke to keep even if you
did soak him with the contents of the water jug," laughed Dick. "I
don't think he upset it as some of the boys think."

Jack said nothing and the subject was dropped for the time.

Later, Billy Manners himself came to Jack and said, good-naturedly:

"That was one on us, Sheldon, but I don't hold it up against you. I
would like to know how you suspected us, however. Have you been to other
schools where they practised this sort of thing?"

"No, I have never been away to school before but if fellows will talk of
their plans they need not be astonished if somebody overhears."

"True enough!" rejoined Billy, with a chuckle. "I never thought of that.
I supposed we were speaking low, however."

"You spoke in whispers and you can hear a whisper farther than you can
hear a low tone."

"H'm! I never knew that. That's something to remember."

After dinner and before they went back to the school room several of the
boys, Jack among the rest, were standing in front of the main building
when Peter Herring, a big, brawny fellow with a disagreeable face and
manner said brusquely to the new boy:

"I say, Sheldon, who are you anyhow? Who's your father?"

Jack flushed crimson and then turned pale and for a moment seemed
greatly agitated but he quickly gained his composure and said quietly:

"My father is dead."

"Well, what was he then?" pursued the other in the same disagreeable
tone he had before used.

"A gentleman," answered Jack, pointedly, and then turned away and spoke
to Harry and Arthur.

"H'm! you got it that time, Pete!" roared Ernest Merritt, Herring's chum
and a boy with a reputation for bullying and also of toadying to the
richer boys and snubbing the poor ones. "That hit you. Did you hear how
he said 'a gentleman,' my boy? Your father is something dif----"

"Mind your business!" snapped Herring, darting a look at Jack which
boded no good for the latter and then walking away with a sulky air.

"Did you notice how Jack flushed when Herring asked him who his father
was?" asked Harry of Arthur when Jack had left them. "There is some
mystery there."

"I don't see it. Jack would naturally be angry when spoken to in that
tone. Herring is a bully and no gentleman, as Jack indicated."

"That's true enough, but Jack turned red and then white and was
evidently under a considerable agitation. There is some mystery, take my
word for it."

"Well, suppose there is?" rejoined Arthur. "It is certainly no business
of ours and I am not going to meddle with it."

"Well, neither am I," with a little snap, "but I can have my opinion,
can't I?"

"Certainly," and there was nothing more said, the boys being good
friends and though having little differences at times, never quarreled.

While Arthur and Harry were having this conversation Herring said
angrily to Merritt:

"What did you want to say that for? My father is as good as yours. I'll
give it to Sheldon for talking back to me."

"You started it," growled Merritt. "You're always picking on the new
fellows."

"So are you," snapped Herring. "You're a regular bully. Never mind,
though. There is something crooked about Sheldon or his family and I'm
going to find it. I don't associate with tramp berry pickers and the
rest of the boys won't when I find out things."

"Dick Percival goes with him," muttered Merritt, pointing to where the
rich man's son and Jack Sheldon were walking together arm in arm.
"Percival is a swell and his father is richer than yours and a lot
more----"

"A lot more what?" snarled Herring, clenching his fist.

"Respectable!" snapped Merritt, hastily retreating.

"Don't mind what a fellow like Herring says, Jack," said Dick Percival,
kindly, putting his arm in the new boy's. "No one of any account pays
any attention to him. A fellow that can show the nerve you can has
nothing to fear from Pete Herring."

"I am not afraid of him, Dick," Jack answered, "but----" and then he
stopped and went on in silence.

"It's all right," said Dick, at length. "A boy that stands as high
as you do in your classes need not be afraid of Pete Herring's
condemnation. I believe I shall have to hustle or you will be up
to me before I know it."

"That's what I'm here for, to get ahead as fast as I can," laughed the
other, who in his examination that morning had showed that he was by no
means a backward scholar.

The first day of the new term was spent mostly in getting things into
shape for the days that were to come and the regular routine was not as
strictly observed as it would be later, new boys being tried out, new
methods experimented upon and everything being made ready for the fall
and winter.

There were several new boys in addition to Jack Sheldon and one or two
of these were as advanced as he was but the greater part went into the
lower classes and would make the material of which the Academy would be
composed at a later period, Dr. Wise taking them under his particular
care and forming their characters for the future as he put it.

In the course of two or three days the machinery of the school was
running as smoothly as if it had been in operation for a month, the boys
knowing what was expected of them and the professors keeping them
rigidly to their work and attending to their own duties with unflagging
zeal.

Jack took an interest in his work and was stimulated by knowing that
much was expected of him and that there were others who desired to
overtake him in his studies, this very emulation helping him to do his
best.

The greater part of the boys were his friends and he gave little
attention to those who were not, keeping on good terms with them while
not having much to do with them.

As far as he was concerned, however, the boys knew no more of him at the
end of the week than they had known at the beginning and many of them
decided that it was as well to let him remain a mystery until he chose
to further enlighten them.

Without being churlish or obstinate, Jack was reserved and all they
knew, which could have been obtained outside as well as from him was
that he lived in another county, some ten miles distant, that he was the
only child of a worthy widow and that he was paying for his schooling
out of money that he had earned or would earn from his own efforts in
one line or another.

"At any rate if he does have to earn the money to carry him through,"
said Billy Manners to a number of the boys one afternoon when school was
over for the day, "he is not mean and contributes what he can to the
legitimate fun of the Hilltops and does not waste his coin on foolish
things. If he is poor he is not a miser and if he has to work for his
schooling that is his business. If Dick Percival, the acknowledged head
of the school in studies as well as in athletics, can associate with
him and be proud of his company, the rest of us have nothing to say and
I, for my part, certainly have not."

"Neither has any decent fellow among the Hilltops," added Harry,
enthusiastically, and the majority echoed his sentiment, the few that
remained silent and indulged in black looks being unobserved amid the
general acceptance of the new scholar.




CHAPTER IV

ANOTHER ATTEMPTED HAZING


Herring and Merritt and others like them were not satisfied to accept
Jack Sheldon on the same footing as had Percival and the better class of
boys at the Academy.

Herring had been used to doing about as he pleased with the new boys and
any interference seemed like a curtailing of his rights as he looked at
it, and he greatly resented it.

"We'll see if that new berry picking chap can get the best of us, Ern,"
he said to Merritt when he was alone with a few of his cronies after
Harry Dickson's declaration that Jack was good enough for any of them to
associate with.

"He won't do it, Pete," replied Merritt.

"There's no use in doing anything in the dormitories," remarked Zenas
Holt, one of the party.

"No, that makes too much noise," muttered another of the party all being
interested in the scheme which they knew Herring must be concocting to
get the best of Jack.

"No, everybody hazes new fellows in the dormitories," growled Herring.
"He'll be watching for us and then he has made a lot of new friends and
they will go to his help."

"We want to catch him alone," suggested Merritt.

"That's the talk," added Holt.

"Just what I was thinking of," said Herring, "and if you fellows will
stop talking so much, I'll tell you how we can fix it."

These boys were just the sort to attack another with the odds against
him and never had a notion that there was anything cowardly in that way
of accomplishing their ends.

As a matter of fact, Herring was afraid of Percival, who was his equal
in size and strength as well as in athletic qualities and a good boxer
to boot, and therefore did not wish to have the latter about when they
set out to haze Jack.

"There are other ways of doing the thing besides getting up a row in the
dormitories," he said.

"Sure!" added Merritt. "We don't want the profs. coming in on us to
spoil the fun."

"Nor to have to lick Percival and a lot of other fools that have taken
up with the new chap," observed Holt.

"H'm! you'd lick Dick Percival, I don't think!" sneered Merritt, who
never lost a chance to jeer any one, his own associates included. "I'd
like to see you do it."

"Shut up!" snarled Herring. "How can we talk the thing over if you're
always putting in your oar?"

"You aren't wearing a lot of medals yourself for keeping your mouth
shut, Pete," retorted Merritt.

"Who's getting this thing up?" snarled the other. "Me or you? Did you
start it?"

"No, but you can't get along without me, all the same, so don't be so
fresh and breezy."

"If you fellows are going to squabble there'll be nothing done at all,"
put in Holt impatiently.

"It ain't me that's squabbling, it's Ern Merritt," growled the leader of
the bullies, angrily. "If he don't want to go into this thing he
needn't, but there's no use in doing so much talking."

"Who's doing the most of it?" laughed Merritt.

"Shut up!" said the rest of the boys, who wanted to hear what Herring
had to propose.

"There are other places besides the dormitories to work in," said
Herring. "There's the woods and the road and a lot of other places. He
won't be with the other fellows all the time."

"No, of course not."

"It'll be easy enough to send him a note and get him away from the
buildings and then we can do just what we like."

"Give him a good scare and take the nonsense out of him."

"And he won't know us, neither, for we'll have masks on and we mustn't
say a word."

"That'll be a hard thing for you," laughed Merritt, who could not resist
the temptation to have another fling at Herring.

The latter paid no attention to him, however, knowing that one word
would only lead to another.

"We'll watch him," he continued; "find out when he goes off by himself
and then do the job up brown. If he don't go off alone, we'll fix it so
he will, and that's easy."

"What'll you do with him?" asked Holt. "Steal his clothes and make him
walk home at night?"

"Black him up with soot and send him back," suggested another, "That
stuff is awful hard to get off."

"I'll make a good job, all right," muttered Herring. "Just you leave it
to me."

Some of the better sort of boys were seen approaching at that moment,
and Herring said in a low tone:

"Come on, let's get out. Go in different directions. Those fellows might
get a notion that we were fixing up something."

The boys went off in different directions, and Harry, who was one of the
other boys, said to Arthur:

"If Pete Herring and those sneaks are not plotting against the new
fellow, I'll miss my guess."

"Well, it may not be against him," replied Arthur, "but it probably has
to do with some of the new fellows or with the little ones. Herring and
his crowd are always pestering them."

"If they try to make any trouble for Jack, they will get all that's
coming to them," laughed Billy Manners.

"Yes, you found out that he could take care of himself, didn't you?"
asked Arthur with a chuckle.

"There were others," replied Billy with a grin.

Herring and his accomplices found a chance to meet again later when
there was no chance of being interrupted by any of Jack's friends, and
the bully laid his plans before the rest.

"That's all right," said Merritt.

"Couldn't have fixed it up better myself," added Holt.

"That'll do the trick," said another.

Some time later, with still considerable time before supper, Jack
happened to be passing the rear of the house where Bucephalus was at
work on a wagon.

"Dey was a tullyphome message fo' yo', sah," said the man. "Yo' was to
call up two-fo'-six as soon as conwenient."

"Where is the booth, Bucephalus?" asked Jack.

"Raght in bahn, sah. Dere am a switch fo' mah conwenience. Yo'll fin' it
cluss to de do', sah."

"All right," and Jack went into the barn, where he saw a telephone
receiver and transmitter on a little shelf near the door.

He took down the receiver and called up the number which Bucephalus had
given him, waiting a moment for an answer.

"Hello, who is this?" he presently heard over the wire.

"John Sheldon. I was told to call you up. Who is this and what do you
want of me?"

"This is Jones, down at the station. There is an express package for you
here that has to be signed for. Better come after it."

"Can't you send it?" asked Jack, who thought that the voice sounded
rather too near to come from the station below.

Furthermore, it seemed to him that it sounded suspiciously like that of
Peter Herring, the leading bully of the Academy.

He had not had much conversation with the fellow, but what he had had
was sufficient to make him remember the voice, and he had a good memory
for all voices.

"No, I can't send it now. Haven't got any one to send. You can take a
short cut through the woods as you leave the Academy and get here in a
few minutes. It's shorter than by the road. Take the turn on the right
after you get out of sight."

"Is there any hurry?"

"Yes, I gotter go to supper, but I'll wait for you. Hurry up!" and Jack
heard the sound of the receiver being hung up on the other end.

He hung up his receiver and went out, finding Bucephalus still at work
on the wagon.

"Did yo' catch him, sah?" asked the man. "Werry conwenient little
instrament, dat tullyphome, ain't it? Werry myster'ous, too. Just think
o' hearin' a man talkin' a mile or two away, an' yo' unnerstan' him as
plain like he was right cluss up."

"Yes, there is a bit of mystery about it, Buck," laughed Jack, who had
ideas of his own which he did not care to tell to any one else at the
moment.

"There is a switch that those fellows have got on," he said to himself,
"and I was not talking to the station any more than I was talking to the
President of the United States. Well, there'll be a little fun in this,
and I don't mind taking the risk."

Jack had gotten the idea that Herring was on another branch of the
Academy telephone, and that the story of the express package was a
fiction, meant to mislead him.

He knew enough of such characters as Herring's to satisfy himself that
the bully would not rest at one attempt to make trouble, but would try
again as soon as convenient.

"If that was not Herring on the wire, I never heard him speak," he said
to himself as he ran off toward the house and then to the dormitories.

He was not upstairs more than a minute and then he appeared at the front
of the Academy and set off down the road at a good pace.

When he had gone far enough to be out of sight of the building, he took
a cut through the woods as directed by the supposed Jones at the little
station below.

He walked with both hands in his side jacket pockets, and seemed
absolutely carefree and happy, but he had his wits about him,
nevertheless.

He suspected an ambush and was ready for it.

He had prepared himself for a hazing on his first night at Hilltop, and
he now suspected that another was under way and was prepared for that as
well.

Jack Sheldon had been to school before and knew the ways of boys, being
one himself, although not of the sort that think it funny to play
foolish tricks on others.

He knew many of these, however, and had remedies for nearly all of them,
having put more than one hazing party to route by his thorough command
of resources.

Although he hurried in through the woods in an apparently careless
fashion and seemed to pay no attention to anything, he noticed
everything, heard everything, and was ready for instant action.

He was well in the woods, which were quite thick as he went on, although
there was a path through them, when his quick ear caught the sound of a
sudden rustling in a clump of thick shrub oaks just in front of him, but
he went on as if he had heard nothing, turning a little to one side as
he reached the clump.

In a moment three or four masked figures suddenly sprang out upon him
from two sides of the clump.

Then Jack took his hands out of his pockets.




CHAPTER V

THE HAZERS ARE HAZED


What Jack had in one pocket of his coat was an ammonia gun used by
wheelmen to keep off the attacks of troublesome dogs who attempt to bar
their progress on the road often at the risk of giving them an upset.

This, as most boys know, is shaped like a pistol and has a bulb at one
end.

A slight pressure upon this bulb causes a stream of ammonia, or hot
water, or whatever else one chooses to squirt in the faces of the
annoying dogs and to put them to flight.

When Jack had gone up to the dormitories, after receiving the message
which he had every reason to believe to be spurious, he had taken the
little gun from his suitcase, where he had placed it, in anticipation of
needing it in some such emergency as the present.

As the masked figures came rushing toward him from two sides, he quickly
took account of stock, as one might say, and decided which one of the
maskers was Herring.

Then he aimed his little gun at the fellow's face and gave the bulb a
good squeeze.

There was a howl and a gasp and the boy in the mask and the old clothes
suddenly sat down with more force than elegance.

Jack then turned his gun on one of the intruders from the other side of
the clump.

"Ouch, stop that!" yelled the fellow, dropping a stout stick he held in
his hand and beating a hasty retreat, half stifled by the fumes of the
ammonia.

Jack then turned his attention to the other members of the party of
hazers and discharged another gun at them, holding it in his left hand.

This was worse than the first, for it contained assafoetida instead of
ammonia.

The stench was something dreadful, and two of the hazers got full doses
of the stuff directly in their faces.

Jack was on the windward side of it or he could not have endured the
horrible smell.

The victims simply fell on the ground and began to vomit in spite of
themselves.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! I'm poisoned!" wailed Holt, who was one of the fellows
dosed. "Oh! get me some water. Oh, dear! I shall die, I know I shall!"

"You need a good cleaning out," laughed Jack, who had no sympathy
whatever for the sneak. "You are dirty enough inside and out to make it
necessary. Turn yourself inside out. You need it."

The other victim was retching and gasping and groaning by turns and all
at once, but Jack only laughed.

If one had been in pain and needed his help, no one could have been more
sympathetic, but in this case the victim was simply getting his deserts,
and the boy wasted no sympathy upon him.

"Oh! I am poisoned, I know I am!" howled Holt. "Go send for a doctor. I
know I am going to die!"

"No danger of it, Holt," laughed Jack. "That's nothing but a cleaning
out medicine that will be good for you. Take off that mask of yours and
you will breathe better. If it had not been for that, you would have got
a bigger dose, but it will do, I guess."

Jack had easily recognized Holt, but the other hazer was unknown to him,
as he did not yet know all the boys at the Academy.

Holt retched, and coughed, and choked, and gasped, and was in a very
uncomfortable state, but there was no danger of his dying and Jack knew
it perfectly well.

"I know you, Holt," he said. "I don't know the other fellow, but he will
know me after this, I guess. I haven't got through with you fellows yet,
but first I want to see how Herring and Merritt are coming on. He is a
pickled Herring now, I warrant," and Jack laughed heartily at the
recollection of the bully's sudden retreat.

He hurried back the way he had come, and shortly found Herring bending
over a spring and trying to wash the ammonia from his face and eyes.

He had laid aside his mask and the stick he had carried, and was totally
unprepared for Jack's coming.

"What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the herring," laughed Jack as
he came up behind the bully and suddenly sent him plunging headfirst
into the spring.

Herring sputtered and gasped, and Jack gave him another ducking, and
without the slightest compunction.

"I don't believe in taking a mean advantage of a fellow, as a rule," he
laughed, "but that is the only thing that a fellow like you will
understand. This is the two-four-six degree, Herring."

Then he gave the bully another ducking and finally left him to look for
Merritt, who also deserved something more than he had received.

"I am going to give you a reward of Merritt, Ernest," he laughed, as he
finally came upon the sneak sitting on a stone at the edge of the woods,
looking very miserable.

"Get out of here, I haven't done nothing," snarled Merritt, too weak to
get up. "It wasn't me, it was Pete Herring."

"What is that mask doing on the ground, Merritt?" asked Jack. "And you
have your old clothes on also. How does that happen, if you were not in
this plot the same as Herring?"

"I was going blackberrying and wore my old clothes so's they wouldn't
get hurt. You gotter wear something over your face, too, to keep it from
getting scratched."

"Well, here's something else," laughed Jack as he plunged his hand into
a mudhole close by and brought it up fairly reeking with black ooze.

Then he gave a generous plaster of the stuff to the bully's face, and
chuckled as he went away:

"They say that mud is a sure cure for a lot of things, Merritt, and
maybe it will cure you of trying to haze a fellow unawares. Think it
over. Thinking won't hurt you, anyhow. You don't do enough to injure
you."

Herring had taken himself off by the time Jack went back to the spring,
evidently fearing that he would get another dose, which in his weak
state he had no desire for and the boy did not find him.

"Well, he has had enough to last him for a time, at any rate," he said
with a grin, "and I am not resentful enough to further add to his
troubles. I wonder how those others are doing?"

He found Holt sitting on the ground looking very wretched and said,
wiping his muddy hand on the fellow's face:

"There's a plaster for you, Holt. You don't look very pretty, but it may
do you good."

"Ouch! it stinks!" yelled Holt.

"So does your reputation," laughed Jack. "One will act as a counter
irritant to the other. And like curses like, you know. That's the new
school of medicine. Who got up this little scheme to waylay me?"

"Pete Herring," muttered Holt. "I had nothing to do with it. I was just
going to catch rabbits."

"With a mask? H'm! you are ashamed to look a rabbit in the face, are
you? Well, you are homely enough to give a young rabbit nervous
prostration, so I can't blame you for that."

"I didn't have nothing to do with it," said Holt, trying to wipe the mud
from his face and making it worse.

"How about the telephone?" asked Jack. "Where was Herring when I called
him up?"

"On the switch. How did you know it was him?"

"There are some voices that are so disagreeable that you can actually
smell them, Holt. Herring's is one. Then I did not get the station at
all? I thought not."

"No, you didn't, but if you knew it was Herring, what did you want to
come for? That was foolish."

"Oh, no, it was not. It was foolish for Herring to use the phone and try
to disguise his voice. Why didn't he get some one I did not know at all?
He was the foolish one. And then I thought I might give him a dose of
his own medicine."

"Huh! did you give him as bad as you gave me?"

"Well, it was different," and Jack laughed.

"I don't treat all alike, you see. Have a little more of the mud cure?"

Then, without waiting for an answer, Jack plastered the bully's face and
neck with the sticky mud and left him.

"This is hazing the hazers," he said. "They may not like it, but, then,
that is merely the point of view. There is no reason why I should like
it any better than they do."

The other bully was sneaking away when Jack found him and he let him go,
having really had enough fun with the bullies to last him some time, and
considering that he had punished them enough for one while.

"Four to one was pretty good odds," he laughed, "but I had the advantage
of knowing what they were about. That was stupid of Herring to get on
the wire himself. Why didn't he get some one else? Fellows like these
always make some stupid mistake which betrays them."

Jack then returned to the house, where he found Bucephalus washing the
wagon with warm water and soap.

"Give me a chance to wash my hands, Bucephalus," he said. "Honest Injun,
now, did you know anything about a plan to haze me? That telephone
message was all a hoax."

"Wha' yo' mean by dat, sah?" asked Bucephalus. "Wasn' dere no tullyphome
message? I done heard it mahse'f, sah, an' Ah done give it to yo' same
as Ah heard it m'se'f, sah."

"Then you did not know of any trick to get the best of me?"

"No, sah, 'deed Ah didn't, sah."

The man spoke so earnestly that Jack was convinced that he was telling
the truth and believed him.

When he had finished washing his hands, he went to the doctor's study,
where he found the principal himself, and asked permission to use the
telephone.

Finding the number of the station below, which was not the one given to
him, he called up Mr. Jones and asked if there was any package for him.

The agent said that there was not, and the boy then knew that the whole
affair had been a hoax and that probably Bucephalus was as innocent of
it as the station agent himself.

"They must have come in here when the doctor was out, switched the barn
line on to this one, and taken my call without Jones knowing anything
about it," he said as he hung up the receiver and went out. "It was a
pretty good plot, but one little blunder will spoil the best of plots."

He said nothing to Percival nor any of his new friends about the matter,
being satisfied to have gotten the best of his enemies without
publishing it, and feeling that he would be safe from further annoyance
for a time at least.

It was said at the supper table that Holt and Haddon were sick from
eating too much, and that Merritt had fallen into the brook and taken
cold, and Jack did not take the trouble to correct the rumors.

Herring was there, looking as well dressed and conceited as usual, and
probably he had more ways of getting over his troubles than the others
had, for he showed no effects of the hazing.

He glared at Jack in a manner that promised future trouble, but the boy
paid no attention to it, and did not mention the affair to any of his
friends, although he knew that they would have liked well enough to hear
of it.




CHAPTER VI

BILLY'S LITTLE JOKE


Billy Manners still had an idea of playing some sort of a joke upon Jack
Sheldon, albeit a good-natured one, and not the kind that Herring and
boys of that ilk would be likely to perpetrate.

Now Billy knew nothing of the hazing that Herring had intended to give
Jack, for the latter had not mentioned it, and as a natural consequence
Herring himself, in view of his failure, had said nothing about it to
any one, not even his own cronies.

The bullies of the Academy never had much to say to the better class of
boys in any event, and in this particular case Billy would not be apt to
hear of the affair of the unsuccessful hazing, Herring and the rest
naturally keeping their own counsel.

Consequently Billy knew nothing about it, but had an idea of his own and
determined to work it entirely upon his own responsibility without
taking any of the other boys into his confidence.

He was a pretty good hand at working a joke, and knew that sometimes,
particularly in carrying out a practical joke, too many cooks spoil the
broth, although there is another aphorism which declares that in a
multitude of councillors there is wisdom.

However, Billy concluded to try the first old saw in working out his
plans, and the reader can judge for himself by the sequel whether he
took the wisest course or not.

After supper, when the boys were all supposed to be in the general
schoolroom, Billy got a chance to go up to the dormitories in order to
prepare for the little joke upon Jack.

The beds were all iron, with woven wire mattresses such as are used in
hospitals and preferable as being much more sanitary than the ordinary
wooden beds with slats of the same material.

Billy's idea was to loosen the side supports in such a manner that it
would not be obvious that anything had been done to them, but that the
bed would collapse as soon as any weight was put upon it and let the
occupant down upon the floor in the most summary fashion.

What he did was to lift up the sides and then to fasten them to the head
and foot pieces with very thin cord which was sufficient to hold them in
place only as long as there was no weight put upon them.

The instant that any one got upon the bed the side pieces would drop to
the floor and the occupant would go down with them, much to his
astonishment and the delight of the other boys.

Having fixed up his little trap, Billy replaced the clothes in as neat
a fashion as a chambermaid could have done, and there was apparently
nothing the matter with Jack's bed.

"That will be one on Master Jack for the ducking I got the other night,"
he said, and then he moved the washstand near enough to the bed so that
in the event of the latter's collapsing it would go down as well.

Satisfied with his work, he left the dormitory and returned to the big
schoolroom, his absence having caused no comment apparently, and his
presence and operations upstairs not having been noticed.

"There will be a nice little surprise party for some one at bedtime," he
said to himself, but did not let his satisfaction show on his face, so
that for all that appeared no one knew of the little trick.

He had had his own flashlight with him and had not had to turn up the
lights in the dormitory, a proceeding that might have caused attention,
and he was sure that no one had seen him at work, and indeed no one had.

When the boys went up to bed, Jack, still occupying the same dormitory
as at first, Billy was ready to see the result of his little joke, but
said nothing to any of the boys about it.

"Will you change beds with me to-night, Billy?" presently asked Jack,
taking off his coat and hanging it on a hook. "Mine is a little too
warm, but you don't mind that."

"Now I wonder if he has got onto it?" thought Billy. "He could not have
been up here since."

"It will only be for to-night," Jack added.

"What's the use of changing?" asked Billy. "I don't like too warm a bed
myself."

"Oh, this isn't too warm, just warm enough for you," laughed Jack.

"He has got onto something," thought Billy, "and wants to see me go
down. Not much, I won't."

"Why can't you be obliging, Billy?" asked Arthur. "I'm sure I'd do a
little thing like that if I was asked."

"I wonder if they are both in it?" thought the young joker.

"Oh, well, it doesn't matter," said Jack, taking off his waistcoat and
hanging it up over his coat.

"You can have my bed if you want it, Jack," said Arthur. "I don't see
why Billy is so disobliging."

"Well, I did not mean it for him," thought Billy, "but it will be his
own fault if he makes the change."

"Billy's is better," laughed Jack, "but still I don't mind changing with
you if you don't object."

"Not in the least," said Arthur. "You're an obliging fellow, Mr. William
Manners."

"Very bad manners, I should say," laughed Harry.

"Oh, well, I am a bit particular, I suppose," said Billy, "but I get
accustomed to a thing and don't like to change. It's the same with a
seat at table or a desk in the schoolroom."

Billy had been in a hurry to get ready for bed in case the boys tried to
persuade him to change his mind, and now he threw back the covers and
plumped himself in without further delay.

In a moment there were several surprises.

First, the bed went all to pieces and let the rather stout young fellow
down upon the floor in the most unceremonious fashion.

Then there was a loud report, as if a pistol had been set off, and a lot
of smoke puffed up in Billy's face.

Next the washstand tipped over and Billy received a ducking much worse
than he had got on the night that Jack's water pitcher had been
overturned upon him.

"Hello! what's the matter with Billy?" asked several of the boys.

"Oh, you prefer that sort of bed, do you?" asked Arthur.

"Maybe that is why he did not want to let Jack have it," added Harry.

"Enjoy yourself, Billy," said Jack with a smile, sitting on his own bed.

Nothing happened, much to Billy's surprise and disappointment.

"How is this?" the joker asked as he got up. "Did I fix the wrong bed,
after all?"

"No, that was all right, Billy, but I have been here since," laughed
Jack, taking off his socks.

"Huh! And you found it out?"

"Quite so!" with another smile.

"How did you do it? Sit on it?"

"No, but you left the end of a string sticking out."

"How do you know I did it?" asked Billy.

"Because you are the only fellow that uses green cord in tying up
parcels. I have noticed that, among other things."

"Billy is a bit green himself when it comes to playing jokes on
observant boys," remarked Harry.

"But how did you happen to come up here ahead of time?" asked Billy,
paying no attention to Harry's observation.

"Accident, that's all. I wanted something."

"But I did not see you leave the room," said Billy. "You did not see me
at work?"

"No, but I saw you come in. Even then I did not suspect anything. I was
about to go up when you came in."

"And then you fixed my bed?" with a grunt.

"Certainly. What is good enough for me is equally good for you, isn't
it, my boy?"

"Yes, but, Jack, you offered to swap beds with him," chuckled Arthur.

"To be sure. I knew he would not take me up."

"And if he had?"

"Well, my side of the joke would have been off, but I would not have sat
on the bed."

"Well, but what was the racket?" asked Billy.

"Giant torpedo under the bed," said Jack. "That was an improvement on
your invention."

"Well, that's one on you!" said Harry with a broad grin.

"And it will be one on all of us if we don't get into bed before the
lights are turned off," added Arthur.

"Yes, that's all right and very funny and I acknowledge that Jack has
nicely got the best of me," said Billy somewhat dolefully, "but what am
I going to do? I can't go to sleep in a wet bed."

"I have an extra set of blankets and things," said Jack. "I saved them
out for you when I fixed your little joke to work backward. Here you are
and now hurry and get fixed."

"H'm! I bet you never had a thought of Jack in that line," said a boy of
the name of Sharpe. "Did you, now?"

"Well, no, I didn't," said Billy, making his bed with the dry blankets
and sheets. "That's one on me. Still, no one offered me any dry things
the other night."

"Nor me, either," said Jack. "I was to be put through the mill in fine
shape, but the joke went on the wrong tack."

"And several of us got on more tacks than one," rejoined Arthur. "I did,
at any rate."

"It just shows you that there is little use in trying to play tricks on
Jack Sheldon," said Billy, "and I won't be such a chump again."

"Some one else thinks the same way," said Jack quietly to Arthur.

"What do you mean by that, Jack?" the other boy asked.

"I'll tell you to-morrow if you don't hear of it in the meantime," Jack
answered, and then the lights went down as a warning that they would
presently go out entirely, and the boys all made haste to get to bed.

The next day when the boys came down Arthur and Harry happened to come
upon Herring and Merritt unexpectedly, the two bullies not seeing them,
and heard Merritt say angrily:

"Huh! that was a pretty hazing scheme you got up on Jack Sheldon, Pete
Herring. I got the worst of it."

"You didn't get it any worse than I did," snarled Herring, "but never
mind, I'll get even with him yet."

"What are you two ruffians talking about now?" asked Arthur, and the two
bullies quickly went away.

Later Arthur saw Jack, and said:

"Did Herring and those other sneaks try to haze you, Jack?"

"Yes," said Jack, smiling. "How did you hear of it?"

"They were talking it over when Hal and I came upon them unexpectedly.
I imagine from what was said that it did not work very well."

"No, it did not and now that it has partly come out. I'll tell you about
it, as I promised."




CHAPTER VII

A TOUCH OF EXCITEMENT


One morning in the second week of school, Bucephalus, the coachman,
assistant cook, head waiter, butler and general factotum of the Hilltop
institution, quite astonished the boys by a bit of news he brought and
gave them a touch of excitement they had never expected.

Bucephalus waited on the table at breakfast and then went to the station
at the foot of the hill and brought back the mail, delivering it some
little time before the morning session began.

This morning when the boys came to get their letters the general
factotum said excitedly:

"I done pring de letters, what dey was of dem dis mo'nin' but ef dey was
any come las' night yo' won' get 'em 'cause de post-office was
buglariously entahed some time in de night an' letters an' stamps an'
money done took o't."

"The post-office robbed?" cried the boys as Bucephalus began
distributing the letters he had in his pouch.

"Yas'r an' de station an' de spress office an' mo' dan dat de
post-office on de river was visited, too, in de same buglarious fashion
an' a big lot o' pussonal property misappropriated by de nocturnal
malefactors. Dey done said dat dey was abo't to call on de bank but got
skeered off."

"So, they robbed the Riverton station and post-office as well, did
they?" asked Harry. "Have they any notion as to who did it?"

"Wall, Ah reckon ef dey did dey would have apprehended dem by dis,
Master Harry. All dey know is dat de malcomfactors done come in a auto
an' went away in a hurry."

"Did the same fellows rob both places?"

"Ah reckon dey did and done went to de bigges' place fust. Down at dis
station de postmaster and station agent, bein' one an' de same, as you'
am aware, was woke up by hearin' de noise an' come a runnin' to stop de
robbery. Dey was an exchange of compliments in de way of pistol shots
an' de robbers took deir leave an' as much else as dey could get away
wif an' struck fo' de nex' town below."

"Then the agent saw them go?"

"Yas'r an' dey took de wrong road at fus an' was headin' fo' de little
creek what runs into de river o't'n de ravine jus' back o' here. De
agent tried to catch 'em an' done telephoned to de river station but de
wiahs was cut. Den de robbers done turn de oder way an' got off, goin'
like de wind an' all."

The boys were naturally excited over this piece of news and during the
day more was heard which greatly added to the touch of excitement they
had already received.

After school Dick Percival, who had a little runabout which the doctor
allowed him to keep in the barn, came to Jack and said:

"I am going down to the station to learn some more of this affair of
last night. Will you come along? We won't be away more than an hour and
I have already obtained permission to go."

"Certainly. I want to hear more about it myself and would enjoy the ride
very much."

"All right then, I'll get it out and we'll go at once."

Jack went to the barn with Dick and showed great interest in the little
car, so much so in fact, that Dick said:

"You seem to be interested. Do you know anything about cars?"

"Oh, yes," returned Jack, quietly.

"Would you like to run it down to the station?"

"Yes," and both boys got in and Jack ran it out of the shed and toward
the road.

As they passed the school buildings they saw Peter Herring and some of
his cronies standing together, Herring saying quite audibly:

"There's Percival and his chauffeur. I guess that's what he was before
he came here and we gentlemen have to associate with him. H'm! just an
auto driver mixing in with gentlemen! It's a shame."

Jack did not seem to have heard and gave all his attention to the car,
managing it so well that Dick was astonished and said to himself:

"He handles the thing better than I can do it myself. It's a wonder how
many things that boy can do. He may have driven a car, but what of that?
That's no disgrace."

When they were out of sight of the buildings and going at a good speed
down the hill Jack said quietly:

"I used to drive a motor truck with fruit to the railroad station and
steamboat landing. Most shippers use horses but my man had a big motor
truck and I used to drive it. That's how I know about cars."

"That's all right," laughed Dick. "You are a constant surprise to me. I
am all the time finding out the things you can do. Don't mind that
fellow Herring. Honestly, I feel safer with you at the wheel than if I
were driving myself."

"I have had to do some pretty awkward driving. You know the Hudson River
hills? We have some hard ones up my way and I have driven a car down
them without an accident."

"There's where your cool head comes in. I wish I had it."

They whizzed around one sharp turn and another, down steep grades and
along level stretches at a rapid pace, going smoothly, however, and with
never a jar or a jolt and reached the little station in an incredibly
short time, Percival being delighted at the masterly manner in which
his companion had handled the car.

There was a knot of men and boys around the station and the agent was
telling the story of the robbery of the night before for the fiftieth
time.

"Anything new, Jones?" asked Percival.

"Not much. There's a lot of stamps missing and a package of registered
mail what I hadn't opened. I can't tell what was in it. Maybe much and
maybe little. The fellows went over the creek by the bridge and on,
'stead of coming back as folks said. Guess they knew where they was
going. Smart fellows them."

"Did you see them plain enough to know them again?"

"Guess I did, one of 'em, anyhow. He had a big white mustache and black
eyebrows and hair. Guess his mask must have dropped off."

"How many were there in the car?" and then Dick saw that Jack seemed
greatly agitated about something and stopped short.

"Two, that's all. They got some money out of the drawer and dropped a
package near the bridge. Guess they was in a hurry. Smart trick that,
cutting the telephone wires. I couldn't get connection with no place, up
or down. This morning, though, I heard that they broke into the office
at Cedar Bush and got fifty dollars in stamps besides some money. Guess
they was making a trip of it."

"Did they make a good haul at Riverton?"

"Guess they did and it was lucky they didn't get more. They got into the
bank all right but was scared away before they got much."

"Buck said they got nothing from the bank."

"Well, they did but not all they might have. Folks don't want to say too
much down there."

"I'd like to show you the country around here, Jack," said Dick. "Jump
in. There are all sorts of stories about this affair and we won't get
the truth of it for some time. I'll show you the creek and the bridge
and you may get an idea of the risks these fellows ran unless they knew
the region well, which I imagine they did."

They took the road for a quarter of a mile back from the station and
then saw the banks of the creek ahead of them.

An eighth of a mile farther on the road turned sharply and ran along the
creek but at a short distance from it, making a sudden turn again at the
end of two or three hundred yards and crossing where the banks were
steep and high and the creek itself quite tumultuous.

"This is the same creek that you reach from the ravine back of the
Academy in the woods," said Percival. "The banks there are quite high
and rough. There is a descent from here to the river and there the creek
does not make much trouble. Here, however it is all the time roaring and
tumbling. They tell a number of stories about it. During the American
Revolution it had considerable fame I believe."

"It makes stir enough now to call attention to itself at any rate,"
laughed Jack. "It certainly is a noisy little stream. Here is where the
robbers crossed over? I can see auto tracks close to the rail. They did
go over and back, Dick, although the agent says they did not."

"The stories are greatly confused and you won't find out what really
happened for some time, I don't think. That man with the white mustache
and black hair ought to be readily recognized. If he is a professional
some ought to know him."

"Yes, probably they will," and Dick once more noticed that his companion
seemed agitated.

He asked Jack to turn and go back as he did not feel quite equal to the
task, the road being a bad one so Jack took the wheel and got them back
to the station with little trouble.

Stopping here a few minutes and listening to the talk but learning
nothing new, they went through the little village, made a few trifling
purchases and then returned to the Academy, Jack managing the car and
quite exciting Dick's admiration by the cool manner in which he took the
trying hills, sharp turns and steep ascents.

"I'd like to have you with me whenever I go to the station, Jack," Dick
said. "I fancied I could run a car anywhere but you can beat me all to
bits. Herring can say what he likes but a fellow that can run a car as
steadily and coolly as you can is good enough to associate with the
president himself."

"I am glad you like it," said Jack, smiling, "but long use has made me
well accustomed to our Hudson valley hills and I really do not mind them
nor think them so bad as a stranger would."

The story of the robbery was added to the next day and many conflicting
accounts were related so that one could not readily find out what was
true and what was not.

The man that Jones had seen was identified as a former prisoner in one
of the State institutions but whether he had escaped or had served his
term was very much in doubt.

On the second afternoon succeeding Jack's visit to the station he was
taking a stroll through the woods in the rear of the Academy, expecting
Percival to join him, the two often taking walks together.

He suddenly observed that he was quite near to the bank of the ravine
and was about to turn when all at once a form flew out of the bushes
close at hand, rushed violently against him and sent him in an instant
off his feet and down the steep incline.




CHAPTER VIII

WHAT JACK FOUND IN THE RAVINE


Jack Sheldon uttered a startled cry as he found himself darting through
space and then he struck on his back and went sliding down the bank
toward the creek below unable to stop himself.

Many thoughts passed rapidly through his mind as he went on down the
bank, narrowly missing great rocks, stumps of fallen trees and clumps of
thorn bushes, feeling no pain but wondering where he would land.

What occurred to him with the most startling distinctness, however, was
the fact that he had not lost his footing through his own carelessness
but that some one had pushed him from the bank.

Speculation as to who this person might be seemed absolutely useless for
he had not seen him and had not known of his presence until the very
instant before he had fallen.

What might eventually happen to him did not occupy his thoughts so much
as the identity of this person and it seemed as if he must have turned
this thought over in his mind a thousand times during his descent of the
bank.

His progress was so rapid that he could tell nothing of the objects he
passed nor how long he was in descending, the only thing that was
definite being the fact that the creek lay below and he might or might
not be thrown into it.

At last when it seemed as if he must have slid a thousand feet or more,
although it was much less than that distance, he was suddenly brought up
sharply by his feet striking a great mass of moss, decayed wood and rich
loam at the foot of a short stump almost on the brink of the roaring
creek tumbling over the rocks in its bed.

He was thrown half across this stump by the violence of the contact but
quickly realized that he was not hurt although nearly out of breath and
with a rapidly beating heart.

His coat was about his neck, he had no hat, his shoes were badly scraped
and his trousers had many holes in them but he was alive and evidently
not seriously bruised or scratched by his rapid slide over the rough
ground and coarse grass.

But for his having been stopped by the stump he would have gone into the
water which at this point was right up to the bank.

Standing up and arranging his clothing as much as was possible at the
moment, he took a deep breath or two and looked about him.

At a short distance there was a rude path along the water's edge wide
enough for him to make his way, here and there obstructed by stones or
bushes but wide enough for him to walk on.

There was clearly no use in trying to reach the top of the ravine by
climbing and he might by following the path come to the bridge over
which he and Dick had crossed two days before.

He had no idea how far it was to the station for he could see nothing
but the woods and the ravine and the brook and he set off, therefore,
with no idea how far he would have to go or what obstacles might be in
his way.

Walking on along the tumbling brook, now having to descend at a
considerable angle where the path was just wide enough for his feet, now
having to make his way through tangled bushes, now scrambling over rough
stones and occasionally being turned aside by great thickets of briar
but still keeping the water in sight he at length came to a point whence
he could see the bridge ahead of him.

He judged that he must have gone nearly half a mile although the
difficulties of the way made it seem like five.

The bridge was still some little distance away and the path was no less
easy for travel than at first although it was wider and evidently more
traversed as if used now and then by fishermen or picknickers.

Coming near the bridge he was looking for a good place to leave the path
and reach the road when he saw something half in the water and half on
the ground that at once arrested his attention.

It seemed to be a rubber bag and was evidently heavy by its looks, the
part on the ground being deep in the sand as if it had been thrown from
the bridge.

At once it dawned upon him that here was an important discovery.

"I wonder if that is not some of the plunder stolen from the bank or
from the station?" he thought to himself.

Some had advanced the theory that the robbers had not carried off all
that they had stolen, some had said that the men had gone across the
creek and then back and it at once occurred to Jack that they had not
gone to the bridge for nothing and that here was something that they had
gotten rid of at the time on account of the risk of being discovered
with it and for which they meant to return at some convenient time.

Making his way down the bank, which at this point was quite steep, the
boy rested on one knee, took hold of a stout sapling and tried to lift
the bag half out of water.

It was quite heavy, as he had supposed and considerable of a tug was
required to draw it out of the water and close to him.

This he accomplished, however, and then, using the sapling to aid him,
he drew the bag farther up on the bank and then to the top where he put
it down and started to open it.

There was a stout cord around the neck of the bag but this he loosened
with some little trouble on account of its having been swollen and made
tighter by the water.

Opening the bag he caught sight of a polished tin despatch or cash box,
a bundle of letters, a package of bills and a thick envelope which
probably contained postage stamps by its appearance.

Reaching in and taking out the cash box, the first thing that attracted
his attention were the letters on the cover.

"Hello! Riverton National Bank!" he exclaimed. "Then they did get
something from the bank after all. What is this? Bunch of registered
mail for the little post-office down here. Well, it was lucky I was
thrown down the bank after all."

Putting back the contents of the bag and securing it with the cord, Jack
now made his way toward the end of the bridge, looking up and down and
listening attentively.

"If I am seen with this in my possession some one will be sure to say
that I stole it and yet I must get it either to the station or up to the
Academy. It will be a considerable tug to get it up the hill and perhaps
I had better hide it till I can come after it with a car or a wagon.
That's the best thing to do."

He was looking for a place among the bushes or under the bridge to hide
the bag when he heard the sound of a car coming toward him and got
behind a tree so as not to be observed.

Then, peering out, he saw the car and recognized it as the little
runabout belonging to Dick and saw young Percival himself at the wheel.

"Hello, Dick, come here, I want to see you," he called, stepping out
and beginning to climb the bank.

"Hello! That's you, is it? And all right, of course? I was very much
afraid that I would have----"

"To do what?" for Percival suddenly stopped.

"To carry your remains back to the Academy. They told me you had fallen
down the bank and I scarcely expected to see you alive again. As quick
as I could I got out the car and came down here to look for you."

"They told you that I had fallen down the bank?" asked Jack, in the
greatest excitement.

"Yes, and you look it all right."

"Who told you that, Dick?"

"Pete Herring and Ernest Merritt. They said they had seen you fall and
had tried to warn you but were too late."

"Where did you see them?"

"In the woods. I was going there to meet you as I had promised."

"How long before had it happened, did they tell you? Did you meet them
in the woods?"

"Yes, and very soon after you fell, probably. I heard a scream and
hurried on. Then I met them and they told me what had happened."

"Yes, but not how it happened. Dick, I was thrown down the bank. It was
not an accident at all, it was a deliberate----"

"Do you know which of the two did it?" gasped Dick.

"No, but I am satisfied that one of them did it. However, never mind
that now. Come here. I want to show you something."

Dick got out of his car and followed Jack.

The boy led his friend to where he had deposited the bag, uncovered it
by throwing off the leaves he had thrown over it and said:

"That's what I found down here, a few paces away. What do you suppose is
in it?"

"I have not the least idea. What is?"

"A cash box from the Riverton bank, a packet of registered letters for
our office, some stamps, money and other things."

"And you found it here?"

"Yes, half on the bank and half in the water."

"How did it get there?"

"Thrown from the bridge by the robbers. They did not want to be found
with it on them I suppose. Probably they meant to return for it at some
convenient time."

"You have examined the contents?"

"Not all of them."

"What shall we do with it, Jack?"

"Take it up to the doctor. Later we can take it to the bank. I don't
want to go there now, looking as I do."

"Well, you don't look just the thing to call on a bank president,"
laughed Dick, "but I am glad you are alive. Are you hurt any? No bones
broken, no internal injuries, nothing the matter with you?"

"I don't think there is, Dick. I do feel a bit sore and bruised but I
don't think there is anything serious the matter. A good hot bath will
fix me up all right, I think."

"Come on then and get that bag up to the Academy. Here, don't you lift
it. I can do it better. Can you run the car up, do you think?"

"Yes. Did you raise an alarm about my having fallen down the bank?"

"No. Herring said he would speak to the doctor. I came right away."

"All right. Let them think for the present that I did fall down."

"Very good, but as soon as I am certain which one of those fellows it
was that pushed you down I will make it warm for him."

"I don't believe you ever will know, Dick."




CHAPTER IX

ANOTHER OF JACK'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS


The two boys went up the hill to the Academy with the bag which one of
them had found in the creek and had an interview with Dr. Wise.

The doctor looked his name in some respects and in others he did not.

He was a tall, spare man, dressing habitually in solemn black and a huge
white choker, his face being clean shaven and showing the firmness of
his chin and his square, well-set jaws.

He was very bald, however, and the big round spectacles which he always
wore gave an owlish aspect to his face, the glasses being set in a heavy
black frame which made his eyes look even deeper than they naturally
were.

However, the doctor was of a most kindly nature and all the boys under
his charge, with a few notable exceptions, were greatly attached to him
and treated him with admiration as well as respect.

He listened attentively to Jack's story of falling down the ravine and
finding the rubber bag and then examined the latter, saying:

"H'm, ha! yes, this is a most important discovery. I am not privileged
to examine it closely, that will be the duty of the agent at the station
and the officers of the bank, but I am very glad that the bag has been
recovered. This packet doubtless contains registered letters for me. I
was expecting them and their loss would have caused us all some trouble.
One thing, however. Has no one told you of the danger of wandering
through our woods, especially at night?"

Dick Percival was about to say something which Jack did not want him to
say at the moment and he quickly interposed:

"Yes, sir, they have, and I will admit that I was careless. However, I
will take better precautions in future."

"Do so. I should be very sorry if anything happened to you and I do not
like to restrict the enjoyment of the young gentlemen under my care.
They enjoy walking through the woods but all of them know the danger and
I need not restrict them as long as they know where to go."

"Then these things had better be taken to the station and to the bank at
Riverton?" asked Jack.

"Yes. To-morrow you and Percival may attend to it. Meanwhile, I will
wire the bank officers that some of their property has been found. There
will doubtless be a reward given for its recovery and I am very glad
that this is so, for your sake."

"My finding it was quite accidental, however, Doctor."

"Even so, the reward has been offered and belongs to you. It is
immaterial how the property was found as long as it was found. You must
have had a thrilling adventure but I am glad that only your wearing
apparel and not you suffered injury."

The bag was left with the doctor and the boys left him, Jack to get
whole garments out of his meagre store and Dick to house his car.

Outside they came upon Herring, who turned pale when he saw Jack and
muttered, half under his breath:

"Then you were not killed? I was afraid that----"

"No, he was not," said Dick, "little thanks, however, to----" but Jack
gave him a sudden look and he stopped short.

Herring hurried away to join some of his companions at a little distance
and Dick said:

"I was too much in a hurry, I see, and now it will be harder to discover
the truth. Herring will be on his guard."

"And we don't know that he had anything to do with it."

"It lies between him and Merritt, I am certain, but I will keep still
after this until I am certain."

Those of the boys who had heard of the accident to Jack were quick to
assure him of their satisfaction that he was not seriously hurt and
there the matter rested.

The next day Dick and Jack went in the runabout to the bank where they
delivered the cash box and other things which evidently belonged to it,
leaving the package of registered letters and the postage stamps at the
station at the foot of the hill.

"I am authorized by the bank to pay you a reward of one hundred dollars
for the recovery of this property," said the president, after he had
thoroughly examined the contents of the bag. "Shall I pay it to you or
put it to your credit in the bank? I will have a book made out if you
prefer the latter."

"I think that will be satisfactory," the boy replied. "Then if I desire
to draw against it or add to it I can do so."

"Very good, my dear sir. You show the proper spirit. Many young men
would wish to spend the amount at once."

"I believe I have learned the value of money, sir," said Jack, quietly,
while Dick laughed and said.

"H'm! I am afraid I would have done just what the president hints at.
Perhaps I have not learned the value of money from having so much of
it."

The money was left to the boy's credit and he was supplied with a bank
book and blank checks, feeling quite proud at having so much money as it
would give him an opportunity to help his mother as well as to pay his
bills at the Academy.

"You did not expect to get this, did you, Jack?" asked Dick.

"No, but I am glad to get it just the same. It means a good deal to me,
Dick, although I suppose you regard it as a mere trifle."

"Well, not so much after all," laughed Dick, "but, come on. I want to
stop at the office of the Riverton News. I furnish them with school
items now and then and this is the day before publication. You might
tell the editor of your experience yesterday. I have no doubt that he
will regard it as a bit of valuable news. He does not get much."

"I would like to see him at any rate," Jack returned. "I always did like
to go into a newspaper office."

The newspaper office was down the street a short distance and on the
opposite side from the bank and in a decidedly less pretentious
building, being in a little two-story wooden affair which looked fully a
hundred years old and as if it might fall down at any moment.

They found the editor in his office, sitting at his typewriter in his
shirt sleeves and busy preparing an article for the paper, this being
the eve of publication day.

He was a fat little man; the top of his head being very bald and shiny
with a fringe of black hair all around it and two big tufts at his ears,
his eyebrows being thick and shaggy and standing straight out from twin
caverns.

He held his shoulders high and put his head forward and down, pecking
savagely at the keys of the typewriter with the first fingers of both
hands very much as a hen pecks at the worms or grain of corn in a
dunghill and making the machine rattle at every stroke.

"Busy, Mr. Brooke?" asked Dick. "Want some items?"

"Yes, of course," said the other, never stopping at his savage attack on
the typewriter. "I am doing something about the robbery. Nothing new, I
suppose?"

"Why, yes, I think there is," laughed Dick. "Have you heard----"

"What?" asked the editor sharply, looking up at the two boys. "I've
heard lots of things and it's hard to tell just what's true and what
isn't. What have you got, Percival?"

"Why don't you use all your fingers on your machine?" asked Jack, before
Dick could answer.

"What's that?" snapped the editor quickly, fixing his eyes on the
questioner. "Why don't I use all my fingers? Because it's quicker to use
two, that's why."

"Oh, no it is not," with a quiet smile. "Let me show you. What is this?
Something about the robbery? Let me add a few lines. It is news."

Jack spoke with a quiet air that evidently had its effect on the nervous
little man pecking away at the machine with two fat fingers and he moved
his chair to one side a little so as to make room, but apparently
unwilling to believe that he could be taught anything.

Jack shifted the paper a line or two and then, standing over the
machine, set to work, operating rapidly and writing as he thought.

He not only used all his fingers but did the spacing with his thumbs and
wrote so rapidly that Dick thought he was copying and not writing
off-hand.

What he wrote was a brief account of the finding of the rubber bag
containing the missing cash box near the bridge at the upper station,
not mentioning himself by name, however, nor even saying that the
property had been found by one of the Hilltop boys.

When he had finished the editor looked at the paper and muttered:

"H'm! not an error! Well, you are certainly an expert operator and have
taught me something but I could never write like that. Force of habit, I
suppose."

"Where did you ever learn to use a typewriter, Jack?" asked Dick in
admiration. "Why, you show me some new accomplishment every day."

"Oh, I have used one for some time. I have done work for the lawyers in
our town. I have made a good deal of money that way."

"He gets along faster with all his fingers than you do, playing a sort
of crazy jig with your two first fingers, Mr. Brooke," laughed Dick,
uproariously. "I have seen other fellows play the machine like that and
thought it was the only way, but now I see that it is not."

"You have put it very concisely," said the editor. "By the way, who was
the person who found the money?"

"That was Jack himself," said Dick. "I was there just afterward and took
the thing up to the Academy in my car. Jack is a modest fellow and you
could not get him to say anything about himself."

"Very well put," said the editor. "What do you think about the political
situation? I want a leader on it but hardly feel equal to it."

"Write him an editorial, Jack," laughed Dick. "How much do you pay for
good articles, Mr. Brooke?"

"H'm! the News is not equipped for paying very much for anything,"
replied the other, pecking at the machine, "but if I could get a really
good article on the situation at present or anything, the farming
outlook, for instance, I would be willing to pay something for it."

"I can tell you what I think," said Jack, quietly, "and furnish you with
articles on different subjects. I would like to earn all the money I can
as I am paying for my education out of my own pocket."

"H'm! very commendable spirit," snapped the other. "Is that your case,
Mr. Percival?"

"No, I cannot say that it is. However, I am anxious to see how Jack
makes out as a writer of editorials. Let Mr. John Sheldon have your desk
for a few minutes, Mr. Brooke."

"It won't be long," said Jack, blushing. "Only a few sentences but it is
just what I think."

He sat at the typewriter and wrote rapidly for a few minutes, during
which time both Percival and Mr. Brooke remained perfectly quiet.

When he had finished, Jack took the paper from the machine and handed it
to the editor, saying:

"There, that is my opinion of the situation. You may not agree with it
but that is how I think."

The editor read over the article carefully and then said with more
spirit than he had yet betrayed:

"It is the thing in a nutshell. It is tersely put and carries conviction
with every sentence. If it had been any longer or any shorter it would
have failed of its purpose. I could not express myself any better if I
wrote a column. It will go in just as it is and whenever I want an
editorial written I shall call upon you."

"May I read it?" asked Percival.

The editor passed the sheet over to the boy who read it most carefully
and then said:

"Great, my boy! We have long wanted a good editor for our Academy paper
and the position is yours. If I say so every boy in Hilltop will agree
with me, so it is settled."




CHAPTER X

AN INTERVIEW IN THE WOODS


Dick Percival was as good as his word and lost no time in telling the
Hilltop boys that he had found an ideal editor for the monthly magazine
conducted in the interests of the Academy and contributed to by the
brightest minds among them.

The majority agreed that Jack would make a better editor but there were
some who opposed this choice, not openly but in a sneering, underhand
way that was harder to combat than if they had put on an attitude of
bold defiance.

"You don't want a mere clerk for an editor," said Peter Herring to a
number of his cronies. "If we did we could hire a six-dollar-a-week
typewriter girl to do the work. Any one can work a machine with a little
practice but it takes brains to run a high-class magazine like ours."

"How much do you contribute to it, Pete?" asked Merritt, with a half
laugh.

"Well, I contribute to the expense of the publication and I am not going
to have my money wasted," retorted the other angrily.

"So do all the boys contribute. You don't have to pat yourself on the
back for that."

"Well, do you want this upstart to be editor?" snarled Herring, annoyed
at these interruptions and yet not wishing to pick a quarrel with one
who was useful to him at times.

"No, of course I don't but you don't need to make a fool of yourself for
all that. You are no better than the rest of us."

"I don't say I am and I don't make a fool of myself. What is the matter
with you anyhow?"

"Never mind bickering, you two," said one of the group. "What we want to
get at is to keep Sheldon out of the paper, isn't it?"

"Of course!" said all the rest.

"Then get to work and do it."

"Leave it to me," said Herring in a mysterious tone. "I'll fix it all
right, never fear."

The preparation of the next number of the _Hilltop Gazette_ was begun
under the direction of Jack Sheldon, however, Dick, Harry and a few more
assisting him in the selection and arrangement of articles and the
opposition of Herring and his satellites seemed to have ceased.

Jack had made arrangements with the editor of the _News_ to furnish him
material for the weekly paper and to give him news as well if there
happened to be any and he entered on his duties as contributor under a
regular if not large salary.

Meanwhile, Herring took every opportunity to speak disparagingly of
Jack, to sneer at everything he said or at every word of praise that
was given him and to snub him whenever they met.

Jack cared nothing for this latter treatment and, indeed, seemed not to
notice it and as far as snubbing went he never had anything to say to
the bully and always passed him by without notice.

It was about ten days after the finding of the money in the creek and
Jack was strolling in the woods half way down from the Academy, absorbed
in thought and paying little attention to where he went or to the
objects about him when he heard a sudden sharp hiss and then:

"Well? Do you like it here?"

He looked up suddenly and saw a man in a rough dark grey suit and
wearing a thick black beard, standing close to a tree which had a great
hollow on one side.

"You!" he exclaimed, stepping back a pace and straightening himself as
if wishing to keep away from something defiling.

"Yes, me. So you are going to a high-class school, are you?"

"Why should I not if I pay for it?" asked Jack, coolly.

"And I need the money. Have you any with you?"

"Yes--and I mean to keep it with me," with a slight interruption.

"I can claim all you have. It is mine by right," said the other in a
dogged tone. "Come closer. I want to talk to you. Perhaps I can make a
business proposition."

There was a rustle among the leaves at a little distance and Jack looked
around sharply but saw nothing, the stranger having evidently not taken
note of anything.

"Come here," he said, resting his hand in the hollow of the tree. "Do
you see this hole? You could put something in there and I would get it.
I have used it for a post-office before. It has been very handy. So, you
found the money in the creek, did you? I was coming after it in a day or
so. What have you done with it?"

"Restored it to the bank, whose property it was," came the quiet answer.
"You do not suppose I would keep it?"

"I worked for that money and only for my pals getting frightened I would
have had more. We left the biggest part behind."

"It is not safe for you here since the police have your description and
know your reputation," said Jack, quietly. "I would advise you to go
away at once."

"Who would recognize me?" asked the other with a laugh, whisking off his
beard and restoring it again in a flash but revealing for a brief moment
a large white mustache. "Besides, no one would suppose that I would stay
in this neighborhood."

"Why do you?"

"To get what I left behind," with a laugh. "They say lightning does not
strike twice in the same place but I do and with profit. You know the
bank, don't you? Give me a little idea of the location of things. I am a
little hazy on some points. Of course I could fix that but time is an
item with me. Where is the----"

"I shall tell you nothing!" said Jack, firmly, "and it is useless to
prolong this interview."

"Ain't I your father, Mr. John Shelden, alias----"

"No, you are not!" said Jack, fiercely.

He was retreating when the man said with a laugh and a sneer:

"You won't get people to believe that. Help me and I will keep quiet;
refuse and I will see that your term here is a very short one. Ha! I
still use the old word. Familiar, of course."

"I care nothing for your threats," said Jack, hurrying away and looking
around sharply, the sound he had before heard coming again to his ears.

"The fellow has some confederate hidden in the woods," he thought, and
made his way as rapidly as possible to the road and then went on up the
hill toward the Academy.

The strange man disappeared in the woods but Jack did not look back to
see where he went but kept straight on to the Academy.

Reaching the building he went to the telephone which the boys were
allowed to use on occasion and called up Mr. Brooke.

"Hello! Mr. Brooke? I may have news for you about something. I will
communicate with you as previously arranged in case there is anything to
tell you. Good-bye."

No one hearing this message could guess what it meant and Jack was
purposely cautious and guarded, knowing that some of the operators in
the exchange had told things which they had heard over the wires.

Having sent his message to the editor, he hung up the receiver and went
to find Percival or some other of the boys.

A few minutes after the strange man with whom Jack had had his strange
interview had disappeared in the woods, Peter Herring crept cautiously
out of the bushes and whistled softly to some one.

In a moment he was joined by Merritt and the two hurried toward the road
and took their way down hill.

"You heard the whole business?" asked Herring.

"Yes. That's a nice mix-up."

"I guess it is. Now we've got a hold on Sheldon. The son of a bank
robber and he said his father was dead."

"I'll bet he was in the robbery himself," muttered Merritt.

"Anyhow, we can make it look so," snarled the other with an evil look.




CHAPTER XI

A BIT OF SIGNAL WORK


Jack Sheldon said nothing to Dick Percival or any of his friends in the
Academy of the singular interview he had had in the woods with the
strange man, having kept his own counsel thus far and resolving to keep
it still unless forced to take some one else into his confidence.

No one would have guessed, seeing him among the boys, light-hearted and
gay, apparently, that he had anything on his mind and he took good care
that no one should guess it.

There was a time during the evening that one might absent himself from
the general assembly if he chose although none of the boys was supposed
to leave the grounds.

There was a direct rule against this except in a case of necessity, but
Jack considered that it was necessary for him to leave the place at that
time and he accordingly made his way rapidly down the hill, taking care
that no one should see him leave.

"I cannot explain," he muttered to himself as he hurried on in the
darkness, "and yet I must see if those scoundrels are at work."

He met no one, saw no one and at length reached the old hollow tree
where he had met the strange man that afternoon.

He had his pocket flashlight with him and now, as he reached the tree he
turned a brilliant glare into the hollow, taking care that it went
nowhere else.

There was something at the bottom of the opening and he reached in his
hand and brought it out.

It was a folded bit of coarse paper tied around a stone and, unfolding
it, he read as follows:

    "Dear Bill: Coast is clear. Think we can do the
    crack to-night."

"Very good!" he said to himself as he put the paper in his pocket, shut
off the light and hurried away. "I don't know if this was overlooked or
if it has just been put here but I am glad I have secured it."

He mixed in with the boys and left them to go to his room in one of the
cottages where he was now quartered only a short time before the hour of
retiring.

When ten o'clock struck he waited about ten minutes and, looking out of
the window to assure himself that all was dark, he opened the sash and
flashed his light in the direction of the river, keeping the light on
until an answering flash in the distance told him that his own signal
had been seen.

Then he sent a number of long and short flashes and waited a few moments
until he saw a steady flash of a few seconds in the direction where he
had seen the first.

"All right, he is ready," he said to himself and then sent a number of
flashes as before, holding the light for a longer or shorter period as
required to indicate dots and dashes in the Morse code of telegraphy.

As a matter of fact, he was sending a message in this manner to the
editor of the _News_ as already arranged between them.

His first long flash was to determine if the editor was at his post and,
having ascertained that he was, he announced that he was about to send
an important message and then when the answer came that they were ready
for him he went on.

Leaving out all unnecessary and obvious words, his message to the _News_
man was as follows:

"Inform bank officials attempt robbery be made to-night. Thought they
would keep away from bank account danger."

To telephone at that time of night would be inconvenient as well as not
feasible and Jack had therefore hit upon this method of sending word to
Mr. Brooke as being the safest and surest.

He had signaled before with great success, his light being a powerful
one and capable of carrying to the river without the least difficulty,
providing the night was clear.

"That is all right," he muttered as he shut off his light, closed the
window and turned into bed, having no need of any light and not caring
to have any show from the cottage at that hour.

Unknown to him, however, there were those who saw his signals, or a part
of them, in addition to the man for whom they were intended.

Peter Herring and Ernest Merritt, returning from a clandestine visit to
the village after hours were coming along the road, keeping as much in
the shadows as possible, not caring to be seen, when Herring whispered:

"See that light?"

"Yes, what is it? Keeps winking and blinking like a----"

"Sh! some one is signaling. H'm! regular dots and dashes, that's what
they are. H'm! do you know the code?"

"Yes, a little bit. We used to practise it----"

"Watch 'em. H'm! I've got some of it. It's a regular message to----"

The two prowlers advanced as close as they dared and watched the
signals, muttering to each other as one word and another was flashed
out.

"What do you make it, Pete? 'Keep away from something on account of
danger.' Is that it?"

"Yes, 'keep away from bank,' that's it."

"Keep away from the bank? What bank? The river or the ravine?"

"No, stupid! The bank in the town. The one that was robbed. Are you so
stupid you can't put two and two together? That's Sheldon's room where
the lights came from. He was warning his father to keep away from the
bank on account of danger. Don't you see? He is not the fine honorable
fellow he makes himself out to be."

"H'm! that gives us another hold on him. If he puts on any airs with us
now we'll spit upon him."

"Sh! not so loud. We've got to get in without being found out. It is not
late but it's after hours and a half minute or a half hour over time is
all the same with the doctor."

"It's a good thing we were late, Pete. Otherwise, we wouldn't have seen
this high-toned burglar's son signaling to----"

"No, but keep still," whispered Herring and the two hurried on in the
darkness till they reached the rear of the building where an associate
was waiting to let them in at their signal.

Jack went to sleep feeling assured that if the bank robbers made another
attempt to rob the Riverton institution they would meet with a warm
reception and satisfied that he had done his duty.

In the morning when Bucephalus came with the mail he quite astonished
the boys by announcing:

"Dem robbers was at deir wo'k again las' night, down at de bank on de
river an' one of dem was shooted bad an' am in jail, so dey tell me down
at de station."

"Tried to rob the bank again, did they?" cried one or two of the boys
excitedly.

"Yas'r, but the bank kind o' suspected dat dey was coming and was
prepared for them. The robbers did not suspicion that anything was
wrong for the bank was playing 'possum and the robbers was caught at
their surreptitious employment and----"

"Which one got away and how many were there, Buck?" asked Herring, who
seemed puzzled over something.

"Ah donno sah, Ah don' keep acco'nt of such obnoxious individuals as
bank robbers, sah," replied Bucephalus, with great dignity.

"Was the fellow with the white mustache caught?"

"Ah donno, sah, and----"

"What is it to you which one was caught and how do you happen to know so
much about them, Herring?" asked Harry.

"It is not much to me, of course," returned Herring, "although I fancy
it is a lot to somebody not a hundred miles away."

"What do you mean by that?" demanded Harry. "You are hinting at
something. Out with it if you are man enough."

Herring flushed scarlet and then, feeling that he was defied, he said
doggedly:

"You'd better ask Sheldon how he is interested in the matter."

"What has he got to do with it?" asked Percival, hotly, having just
arrived on the scene.

"What has he got to do with it?" sneered Herring. "Oh, nothing very
much. He signaled to the robbers to keep away from the bank last night,
that's all. He must have some interest in them to do that."

Jack said nothing, although he was clearly agitated and Percival turned
to him and asked kindly:

"It is not so, is it, Jack? Say that it is not so."

"No, it is not so. I signaled to Brooke and told him to warn the bank
officials that there was to be another attempt to rob it."

"You knew this, Jack?" asked Dick.

"Yes, I knew it," quietly.

"Of course he knew it," said Herring, with a disagreeable laugh. "Why
wouldn't he know it when he had a meeting with the chief robber
yesterday afternoon and told him that he would keep him and his pal
posted as to a good time to rob the bank?"

"Peter Herring," said Jack, turning white but retaining full command of
himself, "you are a miserable liar!"

"Oh, am I?" and Herring began to bluster, feeling sure of his ground.
"You won't deny that you had a meeting with a disguised man yesterday
afternoon in the woods near the foot of the Academy hill, will you? Will
you deny that you telegraphed with your pocket flashlight, 'Keep away
from the bank on account of danger?' You did not do that?"

"That was only a part of my message. It was sent to Mr. Brooke, the
editor of the _News_ at Riverton and not to the robbers."

"Why should he send warning to the robbers, you toad?" demanded Dick,
angrily.

"Stop, Dick, never mind," said Jack, putting a hand on his friend's arm.
"The fellow is lying and he knows it."

"Oh, I do, hey?" and Herring turned purple with rage. "Maybe I am lying
when I tell the boys that you had a secret interview with your father
yesterday afternoon and that he is the chief robber, the one with the
white mustache, the one that Jones shot at. Maybe you will deny that you
have a father?"

"I do deny it," said Jack, quietly. "My father is dead, as I told you
once before."

"You are a liar!" roared Herring, "and I'll bet that you are just as bad
as this----"

That was as far as he got for in an instant Jack had knocked him down.




CHAPTER XII

THE TROUBLES OF AN EDITOR


There was great excitement among the boys in an instant and while the
greater part of them sympathized with Jack, there were some who took
sides with Herring and one of these now ejaculated:

"Ha! if he wants to fight let him go at it fair. Get a ring and----"

"Young ge'men," said the negro coachman, pushing forward and throwing
aside the boys who were rushing at Jack, "Ah beg of yo' to remembah dat
dis am against de rules and dat you will be severely chastised if not
punished for dis."

Herring picked himself up, brushed his clothes hastily and cried in
angry tones:

"You will have to give me satisfaction for that, Sheldon. You called me
a liar and you struck me without provocation. I don't stand for anything
like that I can tell you and----"

"What is this?" a newcomer said and the boys suddenly found the drill
master among them. "A fight? I shall have something to say about that.
Disperse at once and proceed to the drill ground."

"Sheldon called me a liar and struck me!" blustered Herring. "I am not
going to have----"

"We will hear this case later," said Colonel Bull, severely. "Do as I
command or I shall put you all under arrest."

Some of the boys smiled at the idea of putting the whole school under
arrest but they all moved away and were shortly in regular formation
going through their customary morning exercises.

After drill Percival went to Jack and said:

"There is some mystery here, old chap. Won't you tell me what it is?"

"Not now, Dick," answered Jack. "Some other time, perhaps, but not now.
I have no father as I told you once before."

"But you know this man that claimed----"

"Yes, but I would rather not say any more about it."

"All right, Jack, I won't urge you," and the two went together into the
main building and took their seats in the great schoolroom.

The boys had been at their tasks for some little time when the doctor
sent in for Jack to come and see him in his study.

Jack left the room and was gone some little time, returning at length
with the doctor who said:

"There is no blame attaching to this young gentleman for what has lately
happened in the neighboring town and his rank is as high now as it ever
was. I wish you to treat him with the same respect that you have always
shown him and which he richly deserves."

"H'm! that does not tell us very much," muttered Harry to Arthur who sat
next to him. "We always did like Jack but the mystery is no more clear
than it was before."

"I trust that there will be no repetition of the scene of this morning,"
the doctor went on. "There may have been provocation on both sides but
we will not allude further to this and the rest of you will forget it or
at any rate not speak of it."

"That is not so easy," murmured Arthur to Harry. "It clears Jack in a
way, at any rate, and that is enough for me."

Jack went to his place and the doctor took his seat at his desk and
matters went on as usual.

Herring gave Jack the blackest of black looks when next they met but
Jack paid no more attention to this than if he had not seen it and
Herring muttered something under his breath which Jack did not hear.

"It seems rather strange," said Percival to some of the boys at recess,
"that Wise did not more thoroughly disapprove of the squabble of this
morning, but the reason I suppose is that he respected the mystery
surrounding Jack and did not care to clear it up by making too great an
investigation. Jack says his father is dead and I shall believe him and
that liar Herring had better keep his lips closed tight on the subject."

"You are breaking the doctor's injunction that we were to say nothing
about it, Dick," laughed Billy Manners, "but I suppose you couldn't
just help it. I know I couldn't."

"Well, that is all I am going to say about it," replied Percival and the
matter was not mentioned although, none of the boys could help thinking
of it at odd times.

Herring still treated Jack with disdain but was careful to avoid an open
rupture, the recollection of the stunning blow which the apparently
slight young fellow had given him acting as a deterrent to his wrath so
that he avoided the boy as much as possible while he still retained his
rancor.

Percival said nothing to Jack about his past life, preferring to let the
boy take his own time about clearing up the mystery which was no clearer
than before.

"I'll get even with Sheldon before I leave the Academy," declared
Herring to Ernest Merritt and another of his satellites a day or so
after the exciting scene in front of the school. "He can't walk over me
if he has got Dick Percival for his friend."

"You can't lick him," laughed Merritt, who did not have the same fear of
his associate that he formerly had. "He has a fist like a rock for all
that he looks so slight. You were three or four minutes coming round the
other day."

"Suppose he has?" snarled Herring. "I can train, can't I? If I send him
a challenge to fight, he can't refuse to take it up and keep his
self-respect, can he?"

"Yah! what do you know about self-respect or honor?" laughed Merritt.
"You haven't got either and----"

He was obliged to retreat and leave the sentence unfinished to avoid the
swinging blow that Herring aimed at him, the third boy narrowly missing
catching it in his stead.

"Here! Look out what you are about!" he roared. "Look where you're
hitting, can't you?"

"Pete Herring means to do Jack an injury, Art," said Harry who had seen
the three talking together, "and we shall have to watch him."

"I guess Jack can watch himself," chuckled Arthur. "He is not afraid of
Pete Herring and he is not a boy to be caught napping."

"But some one threw him down the ravine."

"Yes, but it won't happen again and so we won't have to keep a watch
upon this fellow. I'd like to know if it were really Pete who did it.
Dick met him and Merritt right after the thing happened and puts it down
to one of them."

"I think it was Pete myself," said Harry, "and that's why I think he
needs looking after."

The new number of the Academy magazine was expected to come out in a day
or so and promised to be a very interesting one, Percival and the
assisting members of the editorial staff having gone over the proofs and
found them satisfactory.

There was still some little matter to go in and Jack promised to furnish
this, taking or sending it to Mr. Brooke who did the printing.

On Friday afternoon, having written the last of his copy, Jack took
Percival's runabout which he now had permission to do at any time, and
set off for Riverton and the office of the _News_.

He saw Dick as he was leaving and said:

"I am going down with the last of the matter for the magazine. Will you
come along?"

"No, I guess not. I am getting up for examination next week. I am a bit
behind in my work. You won't hurt the machine."

"Very good. Brooke will want to print the paper and have it sent up
to-morrow and so I am giving him the last of the stuff for it. It will
not take long to set it up and then he can print it to-morrow."

"All right, I can trust you with it. Guess I don't have to revise what
you write."

The run to Riverton was made in a short time and Jack left the car
outside and went into the office, being somewhat surprised to hear the
sound of presses going as he entered.

They were not usually started till the next day but Jack surmised that
the editor might be running off some special job to save time and went
straight to the inner office where he saw Mr. Brooke pecking away at the
typewriter.

"Pretty busy now, Mr. Sheldon," said the little man, looking up for an
instant. "You'll have to excuse me."

"But I have brought the last of the copy for the _Gazette_. Shall I give
it to the foreman?"

"The last of it? Why, you sent it this morning and told us to go ahead
with the magazine."

"I sent you copy this morning?" exclaimed Jack in some surprise.

"Yes, this morning or early this afternoon. We set it up and they are
now running off----"

"But I sent you nothing, Mr. Brooke. You say they are running off the
paper now?"

"Yes, of course. You said you wanted it the first thing in the morning."

With a vague sense of apprehension that something was wrong and yet
unable to say why, Jack went out into the printing office and picked up
a newly printed sheet from a pile that lay in front of the press then
being worked.

The sheet was not folded and several pages of the matter were visible at
once.

Quickly glancing his eye over the sheet he suddenly came upon an article
on the first page which had no business there.

It was not more than four or five lines in length and was a bitter and
most scurrilous attack on Dr. Wise, signed "Jack Sheldon."

"Stop the press," cried Jack to the boy who was feeding the sheets.
"Stop the press! This thing must not go in!"

"Hey?" shouted the boy.

"Stop the press!" cried Jack and in a moment he had thrown off the belt
and the machine came to a standstill.

"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Brooke, missing the noise of the press
and coming out to learn the reason.

"This!" said Jack, pointing out the offensive article. "Did you allow
this to be set up, Mr. Brooke?"

"I? No, indeed. I did not know it was here. If you don't want it, why
did you send it in?"

"I did not. I am not in the habit of signing my nickname to things I
write. There was something else on this page and this rubbish has been
inserted in its place. You can see that there is a break somewhere. How
did you get this? Unlock the forms. It must be taken out at once. Where
are the proofs? It will be easy enough to get the right matter to put
back or it may be on one of the galleys."

While the press boy was looking for the missing type and the foreman was
unlocking the forms, Jack questioned Mr. Brooke regarding the orders to
hasten the printing of the magazine and the identity of the person who
had brought them.

"The foreman took the order," said the editor, "and told me about it. I
supposed it was all right. I don't know who set up the article you
naturally object to. If I did I would discharge him."

"What do you know about this?" Jack asked the foreman who was busy at
the forms. "Did you see the copy or the proofs?"

"No, I did not," the man replied. "I had your order to go ahead with the
printing but knew nothing of any extra matter to be set up. I never saw
this article before. It has been set up and inserted without my
knowledge."

"Here is some matter on a galley," said the boy. "Is that what you are
looking for?"

"Yes," said Jack, looking over the type, for Mr. Brooke could not afford
a typesetting machine and set his paper by hand. "Put it where it
belongs and when the magazines are printed send the bundle direct to me.
If anything is in them that I do not approve we will not pay for the
printing and in the future will have our work done elsewhere."

"You do not hold me responsible for this?" asked Brooke.

"No, but I mean to find out who is."




CHAPTER XIII

TRYING TO FIX THE BLAME


Saving out two or three of the sheets containing the spurious article,
folding them neatly and putting them carefully in the inside pocket of
his coat, Jack ordered the rest to be burned in the office stove and
personally witnessed their destruction.

Then the missing lines were put in the form, the latter locked up and
the printing proceeded, the inserted lines being speedily put into "pi."

"Send the bundle addressed to me at the Academy to-morrow morning," Jack
said, "and remember that if there is any change whatever, the editors
will not be responsible for the payment."

"But you don't hold me responsible for this rascality?" sputtered Brooke
in the same nervous manner he used when pecking at his typewriter. "You
can't expect that----"

"I have said all that I have to say at present," replied Jack.

"Yes, but I want to understand the situation."

"I have said nothing about what has already happened. I allude to any
future happenings. Send me the bundle in the morning."

"Couldn't you call for it? That is generally done. It won't take you any
time at all to run down in the car and to-morrow is Saturday and a
holiday. With me it is a busy day."

The editor seemed to be in such real distress that Jack answered:

"I will flash you an answer to-night at ten o'clock by the Morse
international."

The boy and the editor were now in the latter's sanctum and not in the
main office so that there were no hearers to the conversation.

"International, not American?" asked the editor.

"Yes. Every one does not know the International but every local
telegrapher knows the American."

"Yes, but I don't see why----"

"If some unscrupulous person should send you a message purporting to
come from me you would know that it did not if my instructions were not
carried out, wouldn't you?"

"Certainly, but have you any apprehension that----"

"It is possible. I will let you know to-night. I do not want to
telephone and will flash you instead."

"Very good."

Jack then left the building, entered the car and in a quarter of an hour
was at the Academy.

He saw Harry and Arthur on the grounds and called to them to go with him
as soon as he put up the car.

The three went to Percival's room where they found the young fellow busy
over a Greek translation.

"Read this, you fellows," said Jack, distributing the printed sheets he
had brought up from the office of the _News_.

"But, I say, Jack!" exclaimed Percival. "You don't mean----"

"Why, this is positively awful!" gasped Harry.

"There will be no more _Gazettes_ after this," wailed Arthur.

"You don't imagine, any of you, that I wrote that?" asked Jack in his
coolest tone. "Here, let me have one of the sheets."

"But how did it get in then?"

"This is not the revised sheet. In the first place I do not sign my
articles 'Jack Sheldon,' do I?"

"I never knew that you did."

"And in the next a very careless compositor set this up. It is badly
spaced, has many errors and is ungrammatical."

"Yes, I can see that but I don't know anything about the spacing."

"It looks as if a green hand had set it up and that gives me an idea."

"Yes, but Jack, how did it get in at all?" asked Percival, still in the
dark regarding the article.

"It won't be in the paper to-morrow," and then Jack told of his
accidental discovery of the obnoxious article and what he had done about
it.

Percival thought a few minutes and said:

"Some one who doesn't like you has done this, Jack, or had it done. You
don't suspect Brooke?"

"No, for it would mean the loss of all our patronage to him. He is not
such a fool."

"No, of course not. Who is it then?"

"That I don't know. There was collusion with some one in the _News_
office, of course, and it will be difficult to find just where it comes
in. This thing was done to throw discredit on me and to stop the life of
the _Gazette_."

"That's just what it would mean if the thing had gone through."

"It was done by some one who knows the Academy and the fellows,"
declared Harry. "It was aimed at Jack, principally. We know who does not
like him here and it should not be a hard matter to find who is
responsible."

"It may be one for all that," replied Jack. "This is a serious business
and the perpetrators will cover their tracks. One thing is certain. You
must watch every boy that reads the _Gazette_ to-morrow. Shall I have
the bundle sent up here or go after it?"

"We have generally gone after them and done the distributing ourselves
in the past," said Percival. "If we do that now the fellow who
engineered this business will be the first to get a copy of the paper
and to make it public. Did any one see you leave this afternoon or did
any one know why you went to Riverton?"

"No, there was no one around when I left except yourself and only Hal
and Art saw me return."

"Then no one suspects that you have discovered this article and
suppressed it. I will take a run down in the morning and get the papers.
You were to let Brooke know?"

"Yes, to-night."

"Good! Tell him that I will call for the papers and to deliver them to
no one else."

"Why don't you phone him?" asked Arthur. "That will save a lot of
trouble."

"And perhaps cause more," laughed Jack. "I don't like telephoning
myself. There are too many listeners."

"I have a wire," said Dick. "You may use it if you like. I do often and
I don't know that I am bothered much."

"Just now the old ladies on the party wire are not doing their afternoon
gossip," chuckled Arthur. "They are busy getting supper instead. I don't
believe we would have any trouble. Go ahead, Jack."

Thus urged Jack stepped to the telephone, took down the receiver and
called:

"Let me have one two three Riverton, please. Office of the _News_, yes.
They are not busy?"

"Here's your party," said the operator on the other end of the wire.

At the same moment Jack heard some one say, not at the 'phone but
evidently in the room where the instrument was kept:

"Well, I done it but I wanted the money."

Jack recognized the voice as that of the boy in the _News_ office.

"How much did you get?"

This time the speaker was the editor, Mr. Brooke.

"Five dollars."

"Who paid you? Here, wait, till I answer that confounded call. Hello!
who is this?"

"John Sheldon, of Hilltop. Is this Mr. Brooke? Dick Percival will call
for the bundle in the morning."

"Very good. Now then, you rascal----" the voice being less plainly
heard, "who was it paid you for doing it?"

"Keep still, boys," said Jack, turning his head. "I am on the track."




CHAPTER XIV

"SUSPICION IS NOT PROOF"


Jack listened attentively to catch the reply of the boy for upon it much
depended.

Some one had paid the boy to set up and insert the obnoxious article and
Jack knew that his theory that a poor compositor had done the work was
correct.

Now the thing to be learned was who had paid him for what he had done
and Jack believed that he was about to be enlightened.

Then he heard the click of the receiver being put back upon the hook and
the connection was cut off.

"That's too bad!" he muttered as he hung up. "I thought I was going to
find out something. Maybe I can yet."

"Did you get him?" asked Percival.

"Yes," and Jack told what he had heard over the wire.

"It's too bad that Brooke hung up so soon," said Dick, "but can't you
get him again?"

"I suppose I might."

"And ask him pointblank who it was that hired the office boy to do this
dirty work."

"I will, for he must know that I could hear all that was said in the
room. That is a common occurrence."

Jack took down the receiver again and called up the office of the
_News_, presently getting an answer after some delay:

"Line is busy."

"Call me up when it is not, please," said Jack, giving the number of
Dick's 'phone.

Then he hung up again and said to the eager boys:

"The line is busy, of course. It always is when you want it
particularly. However, they will call me up when it is free."

"Somebody paid the boy to get this thing into the _Gazette_," observed
Percival, "and that somebody was an enemy of ours. Who was it?"

"Some one who wants to do Jack an injury," said Harry. "There are Pete
Herring, Ernest Merritt and a few others like them but Herring and his
side partner are the most likely ones."

"It is really narrowed down to those two when you come to it," suggested
Arthur, "for they hate him the worst and are more active than the
others."

"I think we'd better take that for granted," added Harry, "and work
along those lines. I think it was one of them, just as I think it was
one of them who pushed Jack off the bank."

"They may have hired a third party to do the work," remarked Percival.
"They would know that they would be suspected on account of their
opposition to Jack and so wish to hide their tracks."

"That's all right on the supposition that they are clever fellows,"
laughed Harry, "but your rascals are always weak somewhere and trip
themselves up. They say it takes a smart man to be a rogue and neither
Herring nor Merritt has any medals for brilliancy of intellect."

"No, and yet they have a certain shrewdness. Detection in a case of this
sort would mean expulsion from the Academy and I do not believe either
of them would care to face that."

"No, but all the same I think it was one of them and I believe we will
eventually discover this."

"Aren't they a long time in calling you up, Jack?" asked Percival with
some impatience. "Try them again."

Jack took up the receiver again, therefore, and called the _News_
office.

After some delay the girl at the central office said:

"They don't answer. I guess they must have gone home."

"Central cannot get the _News_," said Jack, hanging up. "She thinks
everybody must have gone home. It is rather late for a fact," glancing
at his watch. "I had not thought of that."

"Has Brooke a telephone in his house?" asked Percival.

"I don't know, I'll look," and Jack took down the address book hanging
at the side of the instrument.

"I don't remember that he has," murmured Percival.

"No, he has not, only one at his office," reported Jack, after looking
in the directory. "We cannot catch him now."

"That's too bad," grumbled Harry. "I would have liked to know positively
about the business before supper."

"I can call him up after supper," suggested Dick. "He often goes back to
the office of an evening. If he knows anything he will tell me, of
course."

"If he does?" cried Harry. "Won't he?"

"If the boy tells him, but the boy may not."

"He couldn't refuse. He'd lose his job if he did."

"But the boy may not know the person who hired him. All the Hilltop boys
are not known in Riverton and it is not positive that one of the boys of
the Academy hired him. It may have been a third party."

The three boys now left the room, leaving Percival alone and not seeing
him until supper time.

Later, Jack went to his friend's room to learn if anything had been
heard from the editor.

"I have not been able to get him yet," reported Dick, "but I will try
again later."

Up to the time of the boy's retiring for the night, however, nothing
had been heard from Brooke and the boys were as much in the dark as
ever.

In the morning Dick went in the runabout and got the bundle of papers
from Brooke.

"Well, did you find out who hired the boy to put in that outrageous
article?" the young fellow asked.

"No, I did not," said Brooke. "He said he did not know the young man and
could not tell him again if he saw him."

"Where is he now, the boy I mean?"

"I don't know. He did not come to work this morning and his mother says
he has gone up the river to take a job somewhere else."

"Did the foreman see the man who gave the order supposedly from Mr.
Sheldon?"

"He says he had the order by telephone and never saw the copy which he
was told would be sent in. Please look over the papers now to see if
they are all right."

Dick read over one of the magazines, compared it hastily with a dozen
others and found that no extraneous matter had been introduced.

"Yes, they are all right," he said, "and we will pay you for them but I
would very much like to find out who was juggling with them. It is a
queer thing all around. Wouldn't the foreman know Jack's voice?"

"He says he never thought to question it when some one said over the
wire that he was Sheldon. He never had to do with your friend anyhow. I
did most of the talking."

"But didn't you think it odd to send such a message over the 'phone?"

"I was pretty busy at the time working at the paper and we had some job
work besides so that I left things to the foreman. He is rather hard of
hearing and cannot distinguish voices very well. You have to yell at him
to make him understand but the more noise there is in the office the
better he can hear."

"Well, I don't suppose we will see the boy again and I wouldn't know him
if I did see him. Jack might, for he remembers faces. What's the boy's
name, anyhow?"

"Joe Jackson. He is red headed and squints. He always did get on my
nerves and I am not sorry that he has gone but I shall have to find
another."

"Well, the papers are all right and we will give you the job again but I
hope we will not have any more such trouble. You can trust to Jack to
see if there is anything wrong, however."

Dick took the papers, put them in the car and started for the Academy,
reaching which in something less than half an hour, he found a big crowd
of the Hilltop boys waiting for him.

They all clamored for the papers and Dick rapidly distributed them,
giving Jack a significant look to indicate that everything was all right
and that the conspirators, whoever they might be, would be greatly
disappointed when they examined the _Gazette_.

Harry, Arthur, Billy Manners and Jack himself kept their eyes upon the
suspected boys to see how the perusal of the magazine affected them.

"Oh, I say, fellows, here's something rich!" Arthur heard Merritt say as
he opened the paper. "Let me read--why, that's nothing."

"He is one of the disappointed ones," thought Arthur, "but he may have
only had knowledge of the thing rather than participated in it."

Harry kept his eyes upon Herring when the latter began to look at the
paper and noticed that he seemed disappointed for he turned page after
page evidently without finding what he wanted.

"There's nothing in that!" he sputtered in disgust. "It is not worth the
paper it is printed on and wouldn't be if it were printed on the worst
kind of brown wrapping paper. I won't subscribe for it again."

"What is the matter with it?" asked Harry.

"There's nothing in it, that's what."

"You mean that you expected to find something that is not----" and then
Harry caught a warning look from Jack and stopped short.

Herring flushed crimson, however, and looked guilty, throwing the paper
on the ground with an angry exclamation and walking hurriedly off the
campus.

"That's one of the fellows if not the principal one," said Harry to
Jack with a triumphant tone. "I have always suspected him."

"Suspicion is not proof, Harry," answered Jack, "and we must have more
evidence before we can convict him."

"Just wait till we do, then. I wouldn't be in his slippers at the time,
not for a hundred dollars!"




CHAPTER XV

FUN AND EXCITEMENT


The new number of the _Gazette_ was liked by all the boys with a few
exceptions, which were to be expected and nowhere was anything but
praise heard in regard to Jack Sheldon's first appearance as an editor
for the disaffected ones were wise enough to remain quiet after the
first outbreak of disapproval.

"Herring will keep still," said Dick to a few of his chief cronies who
were in the secret. "He does not understand just how the thing happened,
but he knows that he is suspected and will keep under cover for a time.
Don't say anything to arouse his suspicions."

"I came pretty near letting the cat out of the bag," laughed Harry, "but
I will be careful after this."

"Yes, you must be. You are too apt to sputter out what you think without
any regard to the consequences."

The _Gazette_ was circulated among the boys of the Academy and also sent
to their parents and to many other schools which exchanged with them,
so that it had a considerable circulation.

In a short time there were complimentary notices of the latest number of
the _Gazette_ in several of the school periodicals, all of them noticing
its improvement and speaking highly of the new editor.

"Somebody thought that the _Gazette_ would be a dead one," laughed Billy
Manners one afternoon when reading over one of the other papers with a
number of his chums, "but it will be livelier than ever now. Jack is
just the boy to run it and make it one of the best there is."

Billy Manners was one of the chief funmakers of the Academy, although he
was a good student as well and stood high in his classes.

He was fond of a joke even if it happened to be at his own expense but
more often it was at that of some one else.

Billy and the others were so much interested in reading the
complimentary notice of the _Gazette_ that they failed to observe the
coming of Colonel Bull, the military instructor of the Academy.

Now the Colonel was a bit of a stickler for ceremony and the boys were
always obliged to salute him when they met him.

Failing to notice his approach, however, he was upon them before they
saw him and the only warning of his coming was the hearing of a sharp
command:

"Attention! Where are your manners, you cubs? Salute me this instant
and keep your eyes about you another time."

The boys were at attention in a moment and gave the salute in the
customary stiff and wooden fashion to which they were used.

"What are you reading?" demanded the Colonel. "Some sentimental rubbish,
I suppose. Let me see it."

Billy handed over the magazine and the Colonel looked at it, being
obliged to put on his glasses in order to read it, however.

"H'm! foolish but not as bad as I thought. Now you may go but at another
time keep your eyes about you. Break ranks!"

The boys assumed a natural attitude and Billy stooped to pick up the
paper which the Colonel had thrown contemptuously upon the ground.

Billy was not a ventriloquist but he did have a way of altering his
voice and now, feeling a bit sore at the pompous Colonel and desiring to
be revenged suddenly shouted in an ear-piercing tone:

"Look out! Mad dog!"

At once the Colonel, who was fat and more than forty, let out a sudden
ejaculation and bolted for the nearest tree.

His hat flew off, his glasses dangled at the end of their cord and
thrashed around like mad and the colonel's short, fat legs ate up space
in a most remarkable manner.

There was a tree in the way which the colonel had not noticed and he
ran into it with considerable force, knocking off his wig which the
boys, up to that time, had never seen except upon his head.

He got up in great haste, grabbed his wig from the ground, clapped it on
his head hind side before and at once started to climb the tree.

The sight of the short, fat, bald drillmaster, with his wig awry,
endeavoring to climb a little tree was too much for the dignity of the
boys and they burst into a roar of laughter.

They had no thought of consequences, no fear of future punishment, but
just laughed as hard as they could.

Then there was a sudden cry of alarm around a turn in the road.

"Hallo! what's that?" cried Arthur.

"Great Scott! there is a mad dog after all!" gasped Harry.

A number of the smaller boys of the Academy suddenly appeared in full
flight pursued by a panting, yelping, foam-covered dog whose every look
showed that he was mad.

"H'm! the alarm was not given for nothing after all," muttered Billy,
looking for a place of safety.

Harry and Arthur turned toward the Academy and ran as fast as they
could, thinking nothing of fun now.

"Here, here, I must do something for those kids!" cried Billy, pausing
in his flight.

There was some one else ready to do something for them, however.

The dog had almost reached the hindmost and smallest of the boys when
Jack Sheldon suddenly came out of one of the cottages.

He saw the danger of the boys in an instant and plunged forward as if
making a tackle in a game of football.

The dog was right in front of him at this moment and six feet away.

Suddenly the weight of a boy of a hundred and twenty-five pounds was
dropped upon the dog's back with a force that laid him flat and gave him
a start for which he was not looking.

In an instant he was flat on his belly on the ground with all the breath
and the greater part of his desire to injure some one knocked out of
him.

He was able to give one yelp and then Jack suddenly sprang off his back,
gave him a contemptuous shove with his foot and said:

"Get out of here and go about your business!"

With his tail between his legs and a yelp of fright the dog suddenly
turned and went down the road as fast as he had come up.

"Well! that was some way of dealing with a mad dog!" said Billy, with a
laugh. "You knocked all the fight out of him in a jiffy."

"Has he gone for sure?" asked one of the small boys of Jack.

"Yes, and you need not be afraid. Whose dog was it and what brought him
up here?"

"H'm, has he gone?" asked the Colonel who had reached the crotch of the
tree, fortunately not far from the ground and now turned a very red and
sweaty face upon the group below.

"Yes, sir," said Jack, saluting and at the same time having the greatest
difficulty to refrain from smiling or even laughing outright at the
comical appearance of the doughty warrior.

"Go and enquire more about the matter, Sheldon," said the Colonel and
Jack went away, smiling broadly now but fortunately holding in his
laugh.

"He wants a chance to get down from the tree, adjust his wig and get
back his dignity," whispered Billy, who went off with Jack.

"Yes, but how did he get there?"

"It was one of my jokes and I'll get a wigging if he finds it out,"
chuckled Billy. "There wasn't any mad dog at first but I made him think
there was. You should have seen him climb that tree, Jack. It would've
delighted your heart. He won't be scoring us again in a hurry but if
there had not been a mad dog I guess I would have caught it."

"Be careful how you play jokes on the Colonel, Billy," said Jack, when
he heard the whole story and laughed over it. "There are some persons at
whom it is not safe to poke fun and Colonel Bull is one."

"He forgot to put the last letter to his name, that's all," laughed
Billy, "for he is a bully all right, but your advice is good and I will
take it--or at least I will try."

"That is well put," said Jack, dryly, "for I don't believe you could
help making jokes if you did try."




CHAPTER XVI

AN ANONYMOUS ACCUSATION


When next Jack saw the Colonel the latter had regained his wig, his
natural complexion and his dignity, the last being so great that it was
a perfect danger signal warning away all levity or even the slightest
sign of it on the part of the boys.

"You showed very commendable bravery, Sheldon," said the Colonel, "and I
congratulate you for your spirit. Rescuing those in danger is more
commendable than conducting an imitation newspaper."

"Thank you, sir," said Jack, saluting and going back to his friends.

"What has Bull got against the _Gazette_?" he asked Arthur and Harry.

"Oh, it poked a little quiet fun at him once and he has never recovered
from it," laughed Harry. "The Colonel is a bit of a martinet and
imagines that the army lost one of its brightest officers when he was
retired."

"But he was a Colonel?"

"Only by courtesy. He would have stayed on till he was a hundred years
old if he could, the pay being a consideration, but was retired some
twenty years ago and now earns his living by instructing us boys and by
occasional articles to the educational magazines."

"It was all I could do to keep from laughing and I can imagine what
Billy would get if the Colonel knew how he had been humbugged. He can be
a very disagreeable person when he is aroused, I imagine."

The boy had not the slightest apprehension of having any trouble with
the drillmaster, always treating him with the respect due his position
and giving no cause for any complaint on the other's part.

The term was progressing smoothly, the majority of the Hilltop boys
attending sedulously to their duties and trying to make a good record,
the exceptions being very few, even some of the disagreeable set like
Herring and his cronies working with considerable vigor.

Jack was already high in his classes and it looked as if he might be
still higher before the end of the term for he was working with a
purpose and meant to finish as near the top as possible.

"If you don't see Jack Sheldon at the head of his class by the end of
the term I shall miss my guess," said Harry to Percival and one or two
others one afternoon as some of the boys were taking a stroll through
the woods near the bottom of the hill.

"I would not mind seeing him there even if he passes me," said Dick.
"Jack is a good fellow and if he can win a scholarship it will mean much
to him. He deserves it at any rate."

"But he is not in your classes," said Harry.

"No, but he might make a better average and next year he might be up
with me and then I should have to look out. I was not thinking of just
now alone."

The boys passed on, not knowing that Herring and Merritt were hiding
behind some bushes within easy hearing.

"That gives me an idea," muttered Herring when the others had gone. "I
can smash Sheldon's chances and I am going to do it."

"How will you manage it?" asked Merritt.

"You leave it to me," with a chuckle. "I may want you to help me a bit
but I'll put a spoke in his wheel all right and the doctor won't admire
him as much as he does when I get through with him."

"Look out that the thing does not fall through like that matter of
cooking the _Gazette_ to suit yourself," sneered the other.

"You were as much in that as I was," snarled Herring, "and if you split
on me you will hurt yourself."

"I ain't going to split," whined Merritt, "but I know when a fellow
makes a mess of a thing. You came near giving yourself away on that."

"Me? It was you that did it. Some of the fellows suspect you but they
can't prove anything."

"Well, never mind that. How are you going to fix Sheldon this time?"

"I'll let you know. I've an idea but I want to get it in shape so that
there won't be any slip. He won't come out on top nor anywhere near it
when this thing gets to going."

"All right, I'll help you for I don't like Sheldon any better than you
and I'd like to spoil his chances."

One morning a day or so after this Dr. Wise received an anonymous letter
written and addressed in typewriting and posted at Riverton, which
caused him some little uneasiness.

During the morning session when all of the boys were in the great
schoolroom, he called for attention and said, evidently with the
greatest reluctance:

"It is not my custom to notice unsigned communications but I have one
here which I feel must be investigated in common justice to the person
accused. I will read it."

The boys looked at each other, wondering what was coming and the doctor
read the half sheet of note paper which he held in his hand.

"J. S. has a pony in his desk. You had better search it. This may
account for his standing in class."

The boys all understand that by a "pony" was meant a translation of some
work in one of the dead languages which they were studying at the time.

"This is a serious accusation," the doctor went on. "What boy has the
initials J. S.?"

"I have, sir," spoke up Jack, promptly. "My name is John Sheldon."

"So have I!" cried the other boy. "I am Jasper Sawyer. Maybe it's me he
means."

"That's nothing, my name is James Sharpe," said another.

"And I answer to the name of Jesse W. Smith!" piped up one of the
smallest boys in the Academy.

There was a titter among the boys and Harry whispered to Arthur:

"Somebody has made a miscalculation here. I wonder who it is?"

"Smith is out of the question," remarked the doctor. "You are not
studying Greek or Latin, are you, Smith?"

"No, sir," and the boys laughed again for Jesse W. Smith was not even in
the Latin grammar as yet.

"Have any of the rest of you bearing the initials J. S. a translation in
your desks?" the doctor asked. "I will take your word for it."

"No, sir," answered Sawyer and Sharpe.

"I have none, sir," said Jack, "but if you wish to search my desk you
are at perfect liberty to do so. In fact, I will search it myself."

"That is not necessary, Sheldon," replied the doctor quickly, but Jack
was already hunting through his desk, taking out everything at hand in a
rapid fashion.

"Of course it is not!" sputtered Harry. "No one accuses him of----"

"Here is a translation, sir," said Jack, suddenly, when he came to the
bottom of his desk, "but I need not tell you that it does not belong to
me. It is a Cæsar."

"Sheldon has been out of Cæsar all this term," exclaimed Percival. "It
is absurd to think that the pony----"

"Might it have belonged to you at some time, Sheldon?" asked the doctor,
not noticing Dick's interruption. "I do not say that it did, you
understand."

"No, sir, it might not. I never used a translation in my life and never
will!"

Jack was hurriedly examining the book as he spoke and now noticed that
the fly leaf was torn out, evidently in haste, the edges being ragged
and a bit of writing on one of them.

"This bo----" was on one line and "erty of" on the next.

"I give you my word of honor, Doctor, that this is not my property,"
said Jack, "but I would like to keep it for the present," and he put the
little book in his pocket.

"Very well, Sheldon," said Dr. Wise. "You are clearly exonerated from
this charge."

"But Jack has something up his sleeve as well as in his pocket, believe
me," whispered Billy Manners to Arthur.




CHAPTER XVII

THE MATTER SETTLED


Lessons were resumed and no more was said concerning the charge against
Jack or any of the boys having the same initials, Sawyer and Sharpe
being ready to turn out their desks for the doctor's satisfaction but
not being required to do so.

Jack's friends did not believe in his guilt, even without his saying
that the book was not his and they all regarded the affair as a very
clumsy one.

"Whoever it was ought to know that Jack was not in Cæsar," said Harry.
"If he had put in a translation of something Jack was doing at this time
there would have been more reason."

"And nobody sends an anonymous letter who has any spunk," muttered Billy
Manners. "The doctor would have done right to have paid no attention to
it but he is a good old fellow and wants to do right by all."

"I'd like to know what Jack is going to do about it," thought Dick. "He
won't let it rest. I have an idea who did this for it was just his
clumsy way of working that betrays him but I won't say anything."

When the forenoon recess arrived, the boys generally went out upon the
campus but Jack went straight to the cellar where the negro coachman and
general caretaker was at work cleaning up.

"What do you do with the papers and stuff you sweep up of a morning,
Bucephalus?" asked Jack.

"Ah gather them in a receptickle fo' de puppose, sah, and den Ah
communicate dem to de fiah, sah," answered the man.

"Have you done so as yet?"

"Ah have not yet consigned the rubbish to the fiah, sah. Dere it is in
dem baskets yondah. You done lose something, sah?"

"No, I want to find something," replied Jack.

He went over to the waste paper baskets standing on the floor in one
corner and began to turn out their contents.

"The fellow may have torn out the fly leaf before," he thought, "but it
looks like a fresh tear. If so, and he did not keep the leaf or throw it
away somewhere it will probably be here."

Turning out the bits of torn paper, old exercises and other things, Jack
looked carefully at every scrap in search of the missing fly leaf.

"It's only a fool who would put his name in a translation, to betray him
at any time," he mused, "but there are just such fools in the world."

There were many bits of paper which were obviously not the one he wanted
and he passed them over rapidly and threw them aside.

He came upon more than one crumpled bit and picked them up but upon
smoothing them out found that they were not the thing he wanted.

At length he saw a tight ball of crumpled paper which he was about to
pass over as being nothing and then took up and unrolled carefully.

Smoothing it out he saw that it was a piece of book paper and was
written on.

When it was nicely smoothed out and laid upon the inside of the book
found in his desk and now produced from his pocket, he read the
following inscription written in a scrawly hand:

"This book is the property of Peter Herring, Hilltop. Don't steal."

The torn edges fitted perfectly and the letters remaining on the inner
edge of the leaf were followed regularly by those on the other side.

"That accuses Peter Herring all right," said Jack. "This is his book and
if he did not put it in my desk who would? At any rate, it will be safe
enough to make the accusation."

Putting the book back in his pocket, the torn leaf being now in its
place, Jack went up stairs and out upon the grounds.

There were some of his chums at a little distance and Herring and
Merritt were just going around the corner of the building toward the
barn, being evidently engaged in earnest conversation.

Jack waited a minute and then followed them into the barn.

"Maybe it didn't work all right," Herring was saying, "but folks'll
suspect him just the same."

"It wouldn't have went all right if I hadn't seen your name in it,"
snapped Merritt, "and made you tear it out before you slipped it in his
desk last night."

"That's all right, he didn't see it and I did tear it out."

"Burn it up?"

"I guess so. Anyhow, no one won't find it and if they do so long as it
ain't in the book--what the mischief!"

Herring suddenly found a book placed in front of his nose and, turning
his head quickly, saw Jack Sheldon standing behind him.

"They will know that it belongs to this particular book now, won't they,
when the edges match so perfectly, Herring?" asked Jack. "You were very
clumsy in putting a Cæsar in my desk when I am not studying it and more
so in having your name in it."

Herring turned crimson and tried to snatch the book out of Jack's hand.

"You can have it now, for I no longer have any use for it," said the
boy, slapping Herring's face with the book, "and now I am going to give
you the thrashing you have so long deserved."

"You are, eh?" snarled Herring, backing away.

"Yes. It is the only thing you understand."

"You see fair play, Ern," blustered the bully.

Jack only smiled and then without further notice attacked his enemy and
administered what he had promised, a sound thrashing.

In a very few minutes he forced Herring to cry for a respite and to
acknowledge that he was beaten.

"I could make you apologize before the doctor and the whole school,"
said Jack, as he heard the bell ring to call the boys back to their
duties, "but there is no shaming a fellow who is without shame and the
way I have taken is much more efficacious and you will remember it."

Then Jack left the barn and went back to the building, meeting Percival
and Billy Manners at the door.

"Where have you been, Jack?" asked Dick.

"Wrestling with a passage from Cæsar," said Jack, with a laugh.

"Did you get the best of it?"

"I think I did."

"Yes, but you are not studying Cæsar. What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you later if you don't guess," and Jack passed on and into
the room and took his accustomed seat.

Merritt came in rather late and some of the boys noticed that he looked
excited over something.

It was nearly ten minutes before Herring took his seat and then it was
seen that his face was wet and evidently lately washed and that there
was a discoloration around his nose and another under one of his eyes.

"Hello! I guess he has been wrestling with something, too," thought
Percival. "I wonder if it had anything to do with Cæsar?"

"You are very late, Herring," said the doctor. "What is the reason?"

"Fell down and bruised my face," muttered Herring. "Had to wash up
before I came in. My nose bled."

"See that it does not occur again," said Dr. Wise, using the customary
phrase which had become a habit with him.

"It will if he fools with Jack Sheldon," chuckled Percival. "I'll bet
anything that he was the one who put the Cæsar in Jack's desk and got
paid up for it."

Neither Percival nor any of the other boys had a chance to speak to Jack
about the matter until dinner when a knot of them interviewed him at the
door of the dining hall.

"Were you the cause of Herring's being late to class after recess,
Jack?" asked Percival.

"Did you find out anything?" put in Harry. "I had a bet that it was Pete
who tried to undermine you in his generally clumsy fashion."

"The affair is settled, boys," said Jack, quietly. "We need not think
any more about it."

And that was all he would say, for all their coaxing.




CHAPTER XVIII

AN EXPLORING TRIP THROUGH THE WOODS


After school was over that day Percival came to Jack and said:

"We are going off into the woods, some of us, to explore things
generally. Won't you come along, Jack?"

"Of course he will," put in Billy Manners, who came along at that moment
with Harry and Arthur. "He will want to make some more discoveries to
add to those he has already made. The place is new to us where we are
going and, consequently, will be new to him."

"We are going into a part of the woods beyond here that is new to us,
and you will enjoy it as well as the rest," said Percival.

"I shall be glad to go with you, Dick," said Jack. "Are you going to
take your lunch, Billy? Shall we be away as long as that?"

The other boys now noticed that Billy carried a black box under his arm,
but until Jack had spoken of it they had not observed it.

"That is not a lunch box," laughed Billy, "but you have eyes all the
same. No one else noticed it."

"What is it, anyhow?" asked Kenneth Blaisdell, one of the new boys at
the Academy. "Box for botanic specimens?"

"No, it is not and I am not going to satisfy your curiosity by telling
you what it is just now," chuckled Billy. "Come on, Dick, we have a
large enough party now."

There were Percival, Jack, Harry, Arthur, Billy Manners, Blaisdell and
Jasper Sawyer, the boy whose initials were the same as Jack's, seven in
all, and each of the party well liked by all the rest.

They set off without delay, and passing through the woods back of the
Academy, and avoiding the ravine down which Jack had fallen, kept on
down the hill on the side away from the station at the foot, and then up
another and through a very rough, extremely wild section, where travel
at times was most difficult.

"There is not much wonder that we have not been here before," laughed
Billy Manners, as he sat on a rock and puffed for breath after they had
gone some distance through the thicket, and stopped in an opening where
the travel was better.

"Yes, we should have brought axes with us," said Percival. "I had no
idea the country through here was so rough."

"Well, the doctor said it was and so did some of the fellows," said
Arthur; "so we cannot say anything."

"Did they tell you about this gully?" asked Jack, who had gone ahead a
few paces, and paused in front of a deep gully stretching right across
their path, and presenting an obstacle which there seemed to be no way
of getting over.

The gully was quite wide in front of them, and to the left extended into
the woods as far as they could see, while on the right it presently
ended at a great mass of ledge rock, which towered well above their
heads, and was crowned with trees, some of them very big, while at
different points, as far as the bottom, there were trees of various
sizes growing from crevices in the rock.

"H'm! I guess they did not know about this," muttered Percival. "This
gully can be bridged all right, and it will be a nice job for us; just
the sort I like, but in the meantime, how are we going to get over and
go on with our exploring?"

"You ought to know that," laughed Billy Manners. "You are an engineer,
you know. A little thing like that ought not to bother you."

"Well, it does all the same," said Percival with some impatience, as
Billy took the black box from under his arm. "What are you going to do
now, you funny fellow?"

"Take a picture of that ledge," said Billy, looking around for a flat
rock or a stump upon which to place his box.

"Wait a minute till we get back," said Blaisdell, who had joined Jack at
the gully. "It looks to me as if there was a cave down there. There is
some sort of an opening at the bottom of the ledge, seems to me."

"Yes, so there is. I never noticed it before. How are you going to get a
picture, Billy? That is no camera you have. Where is your lens?"

"Haven't any! I can take a picture without a lens, only it will require
more time to make the exposure."

"Take a photograph without a lens?" said Percival in a tone of doubt,
mixed with scorn. "You must be crazy!"

Several of the boys thought the same as Dick, and laughed heartily at
what they considered one of Billy's harum scarum schemes.

"Go ahead and laugh, boys," said the good-natured fellow, as he placed
his small square box on top of a flat rock he had found, and pointed it
toward the ledge at the foot of which Blaisdell had discovered his
supposed cave entrance. "I know something that you fellows do not, and I
am going to get a picture. The light is fine, for it just sifts nicely
through the trees, and the sun is quite high enough yet."

"Yes, but Billy, if you have no lens nor shutter, how are you going to
take a photograph?" asked Blaisdell. "That doesn't look like anything
but a square box."

"That is all it is, but it is a camera just the same. Did you never hear
tell of a pinhole camera, my boy?"

"No, I did not. What is it?"

"I have a plate in this box, and it is set at what they call a universal
focus. That is, I can take a picture of something not too close, and
one at a distance. The box is lined with black paper, and in front there
is a very small hole, now covered by a flap of the same stuff. This hole
will admit the light fast enough, and yet not too fast, and as my plate
is sensitized, I can get a picture even if I have no lens. Did you ever
see a 'camera obscura,' as they call them?"

"Oh, you mean one of those things that take a panoramic view of the
beach and everything in sight? People get shown up sometimes when they
don't know it."

"Yes, that's the thing. You don't get a real photograph there, but you
see everything shown up on a table, as the thing at the top revolves.
Well, I will get a picture with my pinhole camera even if I have no
lens. Why, they used to sell these things, maybe they do yet."

"Why, yes, seems to me I have seen something about them in the
advertisements."

"No doubt," and Billy, having seen that his out-of-the-way camera was
perfectly level, carefully removed the black flap from the tiny hole in
the front of the box and said:

"That's all right. You fellows cannot get in front of it, and so there
will be no harm done. It will take some time to get a picture, but I
will have it all the same. The light is fine and I can afford to wait."

"There's a cave down there all right, Dick," said Jack. "Don't you think
so?"

"Yes, it looks like a cave," said Percival. "How would you like to go
down and explore it?"

"All right, if we can manage it. Got a light? We can make torches I
suppose. There is plenty of pine wood about. Anyhow, I have my pocket
flash with me."

"You fellows can go down there if you like," laughed Arthur, "but none
of it for me."

"Or for me either," said Harry.

"Come on, Dick," said Jack. "Here is a good place to get down, I think."

The two boys supplied themselves with stout sticks with which to aid
them in getting down, and then began to make the descent, the other boys
sitting or standing around.

Step by step, from rock to rock, and from one tree root to another the
two chums made their way down into the gully and toward the hole in the
face of the ledge, which they could at length see was of considerable
depth, and high enough for them to pass through without stooping.

They finally reached the bottom, and then were not far from the hole
into which they made their way, finding that it extended for some
distance at an incline part of the way, and then on a level, as it
seemed.

"There are lots of these holes in the Hudson valley," said Jack, "and
sometimes they are interesting, while at other times they are nothing
but holes, don't go very far, and have nothing in them after all."

"You don't expect stalactites or anything of that sort, do you, Jack?"
asked Dick.

"No, for this is not a limestone region, like that in Kentucky or in
Virginia, where there are some of the famous caves. However, it will be
worth our while to go down here, I think, or I would not have undertaken
it. We do not need to go very far. This place may be known, although the
people in the woods hereabout don't take much stock in such things, as
they say and think tourists and summer boarders who want to explore them
just a lot of crazy fools."

"It's an easy thing to call a man a fool because he can understand or
like things that you don't," laughed Dick.

The boys at length got so far into the hole in the rocks that they had
to make use of Jack's pocket electric torch, and they proceeded, still
on a down grade, and finding the way a bit rough in spots, but at last
finding it better traveling and more level.

They had turned somewhat, and looking back, could not see the entrance
where they had come in, nor the gully beyond, nor any light, Percival
saying with a bit of a shudder:

"H'm! it is a bit creepy in here, isn't it, Jack?"

"Oh, I don't know," laughed Jack. "I think other people have been here
before us, Dick. I can see black spots on the rock overhead, as if smoke
from torches had made them. Then the rock under our feet is worn
somewhat. Some one has been in here before, although not recently."

"H'm! you notice everything, as Ken Blaisdell said just now," laughed
Percival. "Does anything escape your notice?"

"Well, Dick, I have had to keep my eyes about me pretty much all of my
life in order to make my way, and I suppose it has got to be a habit,
but am I any more observant than most boys? They say that little
children notice everything, certainly a good deal more than their
parents like, sometimes. Perhaps I have not gotten over my childish
habits."

"Oh, I don't believe you were one of those young nuisances that call
attention to everything, the grandmother's wig, the maiden aunt's false
teeth and the like," chuckled Percival. "Yes, I think you are
particularly observant and--hello! what's that?" as a dull sound broke
upon their ears.

"It might be thunder," said Jack. "It sounds somewhere behind us. That's
all right. This place begins to look interesting, Dick. Suppose we go
on."

The floor of the cave was quite level here, and the place wider and
higher than before, so that it was really much more a cave than a mere
hole in the ground, and the boys pushed on, having plenty of light from
Jack's torch, and being in no danger of stumbling or falling.

They pushed on for a few hundred feet, and then came upon a narrow
passage where they at first thought the cave ended.

Jack flashed his light ahead of him, and saw that there was evidently a
chamber beyond the passage, and in a few moments they came out in it,
and, to the amazement of both, saw a rude table and a bench, and on the
floor some old clothes, a black mask or two, some burglars' tools and a
coarse sack.

"Hello! here's a discovery, Jack," cried Percival. "I shouldn't wonder
if this was some more of the plunder taken by the man with the white
mustache and his accomplices."

"It certainly looks like it," said Jack, examining the sack and finding
nothing in it; "but it strikes me that I can see a light ahead of us.
Suppose we go on."

"All right," agreed Dick, and Jack led the way forward.




CHAPTER XIX

MORE THAN ONE WAY OUT


Pushing on, Jack made his way, followed by Dick, through a narrow
passage and out into an open space where they could see the sky and a
lot of trees and bushes above them with a rough path leading to the
ground above.

"Well, we have found the way out, as well as the way in," said Jack,
"and we might as well go out this way as to return the way we came."

"But can we find the boys?"

"Certainly. You have a pocket compass?"

"No, I have not."

"Well, I have one or had, and anyhow, I don't think we need it. It is
daylight, and we know the direction we want to go. We should not have
any trouble in finding our way back."

"How are you going to do it when there is no road that we know of?"
asked Percival, as Jack began making his way toward the top of the
unnatural bowl in which they found themselves.

"I'll show you, Dick," Jack replied, pushing on, now using the stick to
assist him and now getting along without it.

They reached the top at last, and then Jack began examining the trees
about him, and presently said, pointing off into the woods:

"That is the south, and the boys are in that direction."

"How do you know it is the south?" asked Percival.

"Because the trees are more worn on this side, from frost and exposure.
Look on the other side and you will see a difference."

"Yes, I see it. The other side is smooth, while this is rough and of a
different color. And that is the north side, is it? I have noticed trees
looking like that, but did not think of settling direction by it."

"Yes, you can, and you will never go wrong. Come on, I think we can find
the boys all right," and with a look at the sun, which could be seen
above the treetops, Jack started off, Percival following.

Jack knew from the position of the sun and from the exposed side of the
trees which way to go, and he pushed on in a straight line without
deviating a foot to either side toward where he judged he would find the
boys, keeping an eye for ledge rock and listening for any sounds which
would tell him that he was nearing the other end of the cave.

In the meantime, unknown to the two chums, the boys remaining at the
gully were having a bit of excitement of their own, and were seriously
alarmed about the two in the cave.

The sound that Dick and Jack had heard in the cave was not thunder, as
Jack had suggested, but something entirely different.

When the boys had been in the cave a short time, there came a sudden
rustling on a part of the ledge Billy had aimed his camera at, and all
of a sudden a great boulder fell into the gully.

"Hello!" exclaimed Arthur. "That's bad. Who would have thought of it?
Jack and Dick are shut in there!"

A considerable mass of earth had been carried down with the boulder, and
now the entrance to the cave was completely filled by the rubbish.

"I am afraid they are shut in, Art," said Blaisdell seriously.

"Who would have thought of that?" cried Harry, going forward and looking
into the gully. "Certainly Jack did not, or he would not have gone in
there."

Blaisdell and three or four others stepped to the brink of the gully,
and looked down, as the dust began to settle.

"It's closed up all right," said Billy Manners, covering the aperture of
his pinhole camera.

"Do you mean the mouth of the cave or your picture box?" asked
Blaisdell. "You are a funny fellow, Billy."

"Both," said Billy tersely.

"I guess it is as far as the cave goes," remarked Jasper Sawyer. "Now
the question is how are we going to get the boys out?"

"H'm! we've got to take away that stuff, I suppose," said Harry. "It
won't be so hard getting down there, but there's a lot of stuff to get
rid of. Come on, boys, get down there and set to work."

"My! but there's a lot of this stuff!" exclaimed Sawyer, getting to
work. "I wonder if we can get rid of it before the boys get back? Do you
suppose they heard the noise and knew what it was?"

"How would they know?" asked Arthur, throwing aside a lot of stones and
earth. "The place is probably pretty big, or they would have been back
by this time."

There were four or five boys at work, but as Harry had remarked, there
was a lot of the earth and stones to remove, and they were more or less
in each other's way.

"We might call to them," suggested Jasper Sawyer at length. "If they are
not too far off they will hear us."

"That's all right," agreed Blaisdell, and he and the rest of the boys
shouted at the top of their voices.

There was no reply, and, indeed, Jack and Dick did not hear them, being
at some distance from the mouth of the cave at this moment.

The boys presently shouted again, but still there was no response, and
Harry said in great disgust:

"We are only wasting our breath. They can't hear through all this
rubbish, and they may be a good way off. I should not wonder if the cave
was a big one. There are some such in the mountains along the Hudson
valley, especially in these counties. Nobody bothers with them very
much, but they're here all the same."

The boys kept hard at work removing the debris that had fallen into the
entrance of the cave, but some of this consisted of great rocks, which
were impossible to get rid of with the means at their disposal, and
Harry presently growled, as he wiped his perspiring forehead with one
hand while he leaned against the ledge with the other:

"We'll have to blow this stuff up. If it were only earth and gravel we
could do something, but there are rocks as big as a house in the hole,
and we can never get rid of them."

Several of these boulders had been uncovered by throwing aside the
earth, so that Harry's statement was seen not to be an exaggerated one,
and Arthur replied:

"We have nothing to blow it up with. Would prying do any good, do you
think? We have no bars, but we can get plenty of stout poles from the
trees, and they will help us."

"I shouldn't wonder. It is clear enough that we cannot do much with the
shovels alone."

"Hark!" cried young Sawyer, who was too little to do a great amount of
the kind of work the boys were doing at the moment, but who seemed to be
on the alert; "don't you hear something?"

"Keep still, boys," said Billy Manners. "Sawyer has heard something.
There is not much of him, but it is all good stuff."

"Keep still!" said the smaller boy impatiently, and there was silence.

In a few moments there was an unmistakable shout heard, distant, it was
true, but still a well-defined shout.

"That's Percival!" cried young Sawyer.

"Hello!" shouted Harry. "Keep her up, boys! Give a good shout all of us.
Now then!"

All of the boys shouted at the same time, and then kept quiet to hear
the answering shout.

"All right, we are coming!" they heard Jack shout in a clear, shrill
tone, which had great carrying power.

"Where are they?" asked Billy. "That does not sound from the cave.
Hello! Are you in the cave, you fellows?"

"No, we found a way out," came the answer in a few moments.

"Bully!" shouted Billy. "That lets you out, boys. We don't need to dig
any more."

The boys in the gully scrambled out of it in great glee, and then set up
a shout which was soon answered at a less distance than before, and
shortly after that they heard Jack's voice from somewhere above them
saying:

"Hello, you fellows! We are up here. How are we going to get down?"

The boys all looked up and saw Jack Sheldon and Dick Percival standing
on top of the ledge, at the foot of which was the entrance of the cave.

"How did you get there?" asked Blaisdell. "We were trying to dig you
out, but we are glad we don't have to."

"Dig us out?" asked Percival in astonishment.

"Yes. When the boulder fell it sent down a lot of stones and earth, and
completely blocked the entrance of the cave."

"Then it was fortunate we found the other entrance," said Jack.

"Another one?"

"Yes, in the woods over yonder, a wild place, wilder than this. We'll
tell you all about it when we get down."

Jack and Percival now quickly joined their companions, who were eager to
learn of their experiences in the cave.

The boys were greatly interested in hearing of what Jack and Dick had
discovered in the cave, and speculated about the presence of the
burglars' tools, some of them wondering if the bank robbers made the
cave their headquarters, and why the tools had not been taken away
before.

"Well, if the place is closed I shall have a picture of it at any rate,"
declared Billy.

"Which cannot amount to much," laughed Harry, "seeing that your camera
has neither shutter nor lens."

"Never you mind," said Billy. "That camera of mine is going to surprise
you boys."




CHAPTER XX

WHAT BILLY'S CAMERA REVEALED


As it was now getting well along in the afternoon, and as the way back
was a difficult one, Percival and Jack decided that they would better
return without making any further explorations.

"We have found out a lot that we did not know, anyhow," said Percival,
"and we can come here again."

"Certainly I never knew about that cave," remarked Arthur, "although I
have been here two years."

"That is not so much to be wondered at," declared Harry. "The place is
hard to get at and out of the way, and I don't believe you could get
many of the boys to come here even if you told them there was a cave to
be seen. I don't think I would care to come again."

"I would," said Sawyer, "but it is not an easy job all the same."

"Bother the thing!" sputtered Billy Manners. "It is nothing but a hiding
place for burglars and thieves. Pity you did not find some more of the
stolen property, Jack."

"It has probably been taken out. They could afford to leave their tools
behind, but they would take everything else."

The boys talked about the place as they made their way back to the
Academy, which they reached shortly before supper, and all agreed that
it was rather too great an undertaking to visit the cave again, all
being tired and glad to rest after their tramp.

"I want to see how my picture turned out, Jack," said Billy Manners
after supper when it was quite dark. "Then I want to get the laugh on
those fellows that said my makeshift was no good. I know it is."

"All right, Billy," laughed Jack. "I can fix you up a dark room in the
cottage. I have developers and all that, though I suppose you have
also."

"Yes, I have everything. Have you a camera, Jack? You never said
anything about it."

"Well, I have not had much occasion to say anything or to use it, but I
have one. Come ahead, get your plate and we will develop it."

On the way to the cottage they met Dick Percival, who was greatly
interested when he heard what they were going to do and said:

"I'd like to see you develop that plate, for, to tell the truth, I don't
have much faith in these photographic freaks. Do you think there will be
anything on the plate, Jack?"

"Yes," said Jack shortly.

"All right, then. If you have faith in it I have nothing to say."

Reaching the room in the cottage, Jack locked the door to keep out all
possible intruders, got out his ruby lamp and developers, and set to
work.

Billy had faith in his pinhole camera, because it was his. Jack was
certain that he would get a picture, because he knew about such things,
and Dick was interested because Jack was, and therefore the three
watched the process of developing with considerable interest.

Jack had running water and all the facilities for doing good work, and
it was also apparent that he had done a good deal of it.

"By Jove! you are a wonder, Jack," laughed Percival. "I am all the time
finding out new things that you can do. If we were not with you so much
we would not know how much you can do. You never tell about it."

"What is the use?" said Jack quietly. "If I can accomplish anything it
is bound to be found out some time."

"Of course, but most fellows would tell you ahead that they were going
to do so and so and make a lot of talk about it. You just go ahead and
do it without making any fuss."

"Why, no, of course not, but it is so different from the ordinary
fellow's way of doing things."

The boys watched the picture appear on Billy's plate, and the funny
fellow said with a grin of great satisfaction:

"There is something there all right, Jack. It is good and sharp, too, if
I know anything. Why, you can see each individual leaf and the rocks
stand out fine."

"Yes, I think the boys are going to be surprised," declared Jack, as he
watched the developing, and removed the plate from the bath just at the
right time and put it in another tray.

After fixing the image and washing the plate well with several waters,
having everything convenient to his hand, he examined the plate
carefully by the white light, which could do it no harm, and suddenly
said in a tone of the greatest astonishment:

"My word, Billy, we are going to surprise somebody and no mistake. You
don't know everything that is on this plate."

"Well, what is it?" Billy and Percival both asked, being greatly excited
by Jack's impressive tone.

"I'll show you shortly. I am going to make an enlargement of this so
that you will have no trouble in seeing just what I see."

"Yes, but Jack, can't you show us?" asked Percival with some impatience.
"Must you make a secret of it?"

"For a little while, Dick," laughed Jack; "but you won't say anything
when I show you the enlargement. You will be perfectly satisfied at
having waited a little."

"All right," muttered both boys.

Jack had all the appliances for making an enlargement, and he could do
it as well by night as in daylight, having flash powders which would
give an instant's light or be continued for as long as he chose,
together with plates, paper and everything convenient.

The boys watched him at work and were greatly interested, now and then
catching the sound of the Hilltop boys singing outside, but generally
paying little attention to anything except what was going on just around
them.

In the course of something more than an hour Jack had completed his work
and showed a much larger print of Billy's pinhole photograph than was
possible from the original plate, and also a print from the latter.

"Now look at these two, first the little one and then the big," he said,
"and tell me what is the difference."

"You've got an eight by ten, and mine is less than a four by five,"
answered Billy. "The figures are naturally four times as large. By
Jinks! you have a handsome picture, Jack."

"Yes, but tell me what you see on one that you don't see on the other.
You should see it on both, of course, but it stands out stronger in the
enlargement, as it naturally would."

Percival looked at the larger picture and said:

"Hello! there is a man looking out from among the rocks on the ledge.
Did you know he was there, Billy?"

"No, I did not. He must have kept pretty still, for that was a long time
exposure. He is not as strong as the objects around him, however. How is
that, Jack? H'm! I know. He came in after I had started to take the
scene."

"That's it, and he kept still because he wanted to hear what you boys
were talking about, and did not wish to be discovered himself. Do you
see him on the smaller print, Billy?"

"Yes, now, but I did not at first. Golly! but you have eyes, Jack! You
saw this on the plate?"

"Yes, and that is why I wished to get the enlargement. Do you recognize
the man, boys?"

"I never saw him," said Percival, "but if that is not the man with the
white mustache and the black eyebrows I am very much mistaken. My! but
how he glares!"

"It is the man with the white mustache," said Jack. "I have reason to
recognize him. That is the bank robber. He is glaring, as you say, Dick.
There was something on his mind. What do you suppose it was?"

"I am sure I don't know. Do you suppose he was afraid we might find his
hiding place. By Jove! we found the burglars' tools, Jack, and now you
have found the burglar himself on Billy's plate."

"Yes, and you said there would not be anything on it," laughed the
good-natured fellow.

"Why, no, Billy, I did not altogether say----"

"No, you didn't say it, but you intimated it just the same. Well, my
pinhole camera has turned out all right, hasn't it?"

"Yes, and I must say that I am surprised."

"The rock fell down shortly after we had gone inside the cave, Billy?"
asked Jack.

"Yes. None of us had any suspicion that such a thing would happen, and
we were very anxious about you. I don't see now why it should have
happened. We have not had any rains to loosen things."

"I will tell you how it happened," said Jack earnestly. "Your man here,
with his fierce eyes, like those of a hunted wild beast, was plotting
our death when he shoved down that boulder, for it was he who shoved it
down I am certain. He probably did not know of the other exit and
imagined that we would be imprisoned with no way of getting out."

"He looks as if he wished you and everybody else dead," said Billy. "He
has a face to make you have bad dreams. Well, we have proved two things
to-day."

"That your pinhole camera is all right," said Percival, "and that this
mysterious man with the white mustache is still in the neighborhood.
H'm! I should think he would avoid it."

"I hoped he might," said Jack musingly. "It is clear enough from this
print that he did not mean any good to you and me, Dick."

"Yes, and as Billy says, his face is one to haunt you. Well, if he is
hanging around these woods we don't care to make any more exploring
trips until we are sure he is out of them. What are you going to do with
the big print, Jack?"

"Keep it if the man makes any more trouble," said Jack shortly. "It will
be of use to detectives in identifying him."

"I suppose I had better not show my print?" said Billy questioningly.
"You would rather I would not? I don't know what you are to this fellow,
Jack, and I don't want to know. You say he is not your father, and that
is enough for me."

"No, he is not," said Jack, "and just now I don't care to say any more
about it. Show your plate if you want to convince the boys that your odd
sort of camera can do something. They may not notice the man on it. They
will probably simply notice the trees and rocks, which are very sharp
and distinct."

"All right," said Billy. "I would like to show it to those wiseacres
just to convince them that the thing was all right, and to get the laugh
on them."

"Revenge is sweet," laughed Percival.

"Of course it is," said Billy, "but I guess we fellows had better get to
bed or the doctor will be giving us fits. Is there time to show this
picture to the fellows?"

"I should think so," replied Jack. "I will keep the enlargement in case
I need it, and I would rather you did not say anything about it to the
boys."

"Of course not!" said Billy promptly.

Billy and Percival now took their leave and Jack put away his developing
outfit, locked the enlargement in his bureau drawer and turned on the
lights and threw aside the curtains, so that any one in any of the other
cottages or in the Academy could see him.

"Still in the neighborhood," he muttered, as he sat by the window and
looked out on the calm Autumn night. "I wish he would leave it. I am not
safe as long as he remains. At any rate, I shall do my duty as I have
always done it, no matter what happens."

An hour later Jack went to bed, and no one who saw him at that time
would have imagined that anything was on his mind, his face was so calm
and tranquil.




CHAPTER XXI

A PUZZLING AFFAIR


The mysterious stranger with the white mustache and dark hair who had
caused so much speculation among the Hilltop boys had not been seen
since the second attempt to rob the Riverton bank and none of those most
interested knew where he was.

His confederate, badly wounded at the time, was in jail and likely to
remain there for some time, but of his principal nothing was known.

He had made his escape and had probably left the region for good and
all, being satisfied that a third attempt to get at the money of the
bank would be fatal.

The Hilltop boys were anxious to know what relation he bore to Jack
Sheldon, who, it will be remembered, had been visibly agitated when he
was first mentioned but as the boy did not seem inclined to enlighten
them they did not ask him any more questions.

Herring avoided Jack after the stirring scene in the barn but neglected
no opportunity to speak ill or slightingly of the boy to his cronies
and to Jack's friends when he dared.

There were not many of these occasions, however, for the first time that
he spoke slurringly of Jack to Billy Manners, that fun-loving young
gentleman said hotly:

"Look here, Herring, I'll pickle you if I hear you talk that way of Jack
Sheldon again. A word to the wise is sufficient."

Billy was not as big nor as strong as Jack but there was a determination
in his look which Herring did not care to see there nor to provoke and
he laughed carelessly and retorted:

"Oh, well, you don't need to get mad about it. I was only joking about
it."

"I don't see anything funny in any such jokes," returned Billy, "and I
would advise you to take them to a market where they are better
appreciated than they are here."

"Ah, you think Sheldon is a lot," sneered Herring, "but he isn't any
better than any one else."

"Maybe not. It depends who the any one else is," laughed Billy.

From the words that the bully dropped to his associates, however, it was
clear that he meant mischief to Jack and would pay off his supposed
debts as soon as opportunity offered and there was the least chance of
detection.

There were examinations coming on and Jack was getting ready for them,
devoting all of his spare time to studying so that he would be able to
pass with the greatest credit to himself and his instructors.

The next number of the Hilltop _Gazette_ would give the results of the
examination but there was other matter to be prepared for it, the
standings being the last matter to go in.

On the afternoon before the examinations were to begin Jack borrowed
Percival's runabout and set out for Riverton with the copy for the
school paper and something he had written for the weekly _News_,
furnishing something now every week.

It was rather late when he started, as he had been busy up to the last
moment and when he left the office after seeing Mr. Brooke and looking
over the matter already set up it was growing dark, the sun being
already behind the hills.

He would be back in time for supper, however, and as he had his lights
in good order he had no fear of being out after dark.

He had left the town and was about to put on speed so as to carry him
easily up a hill just ahead of him when he saw a man suddenly come
around a turn just ahead of him.

He slacked up in an instant and then heard a sharp whistle behind him
and at the next moment heard rapid footsteps, the man in front suddenly
running toward him.

Before he was aware some one had sprung over the back of the car and had
thrown a pair of strong arms around him.

Then the man in front ran up, jumped in and took the steering wheel,
quickly backing the car and turning into a narrow lane a few rods
behind.

Jack, meanwhile, had been blindfolded and gagged by the man who had
seized him from behind and had no idea where he was going.

He was held tight as well and could not move, his captor being evidently
a very powerful man.

"I'd like to know what this means, so close to town," he thought. "If it
were two or three miles out I should not wonder and yet I have never
been molested as long as I have been driving the car, or was I when I
carried fruit and returned with money in my pocket."

By this time it was dark but if it had not been it would have made
little difference to Jack with a heavy bandage over his eyes which shut
out all light.

They were running on the level, as he knew by the motion but at length
they began to ascend a considerable rise, the speed being increased and
the car being higher in front.

The boy was utterly in the dark as to the identity of his captors or
their intentions and could not hazard a guess on either point.

If robbery were intended why had they not searched him at the start and
if they only wanted the car why had they taken him along with them
instead of getting rid of him at once?

All these things set him to thinking and he had plenty of time for it as
the car seemed to have no intention of stopping but kept right on, now
up, now down, but all the time at a rapid gait.

It must have been fully an hour from the time he had been seized when
the car began to slow down and then stopped but where he was Jack could
not, of course, have any idea.

"I wonder if this is a hazing joke of some of the fellows?" he asked
himself. "Billy Manners would be up to just such a trick. Perhaps we are
at the Academy now and they are ready to have a great laugh at my
expense. I don't see what else it could be."

There was no sound to be heard, however, as there would be if they were
near the Academy and Jack was as much puzzled as ever when he was lifted
out of the car and taken somewhere, where he could not tell.

He was placed upon a bench but whether it were out of doors or in he had
no notion.

He knew no more when the bandage was taken off his eyes and the gag
removed, for all was as dark as pitch, the car either having been taken
away or the lights put out, for he could see nothing.

"You set quiet," some one said to him. "We ain't going to hurt you but
you're goin' to stay with us for a spell."

"Who are you and where am I and what are you going to do?" Jack asked,
being unable to see any one.

"Never mind askin' questions," returned the other. "We ain't goin' to
hurt you, that's all, an' you needn't be afraid o' nothing."

"Yes, but why have I been brought here and where am I anyhow?"

There was no answer and Jack suddenly became aware that he was alone.

He had not been bound and now he arose, felt in his pockets and
presently produced matches, not having carried his pocket flashlight
with him.

He struck a match and looked around him, finding that he was in a
roughly finished room like a shop or a workman's shack, with two barred
windows on one side and a closed door opposite, there being a straight
ladder reaching to some place above, probably the sleeping quarters of
the men who worked here.

This much he saw before the match burned out, seeing no one and hearing
not a sound.

He tried the door and found it locked, the shutters of the windows being
fastened on the outside for he could not open them.

"It is clear enough that I am a prisoner here," he mused, "but for what
purpose?"

There seemed to be no answer to the question and he gave up trying to
find one but sat down and waited for somebody to return.




CHAPTER XXII

LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT


Jack had been sitting in the dark for several minutes when he heard a
sound from the loft overhead.

Some one was stirring, there was a yawn, then a step on the floor and
then some one said impatiently:

"Hello, down there! Can't you show a light? Where are you all, anyway,
and what time is it?"

The boy started for he knew that voice and had hoped that he would never
again hear it.

It was that of the man with the white mustache and the dark hair and
eyebrows whom he had met in the woods near the foot of the hill leading
from the Academy.

He said nothing and then he heard steps moving about in the loft and the
man spoke again.

"I'll fall down there before I know it. There's a hole somewhere, but
where is it? Hello, there! can't you show a light? Isn't there anyone
about? Where have you all gone?"

Then he heard a footstep on the ladder and knew that the man was coming
down, grumbling as before.

"What's that man doing here?" he thought. "I had hoped I would never see
him again. If he is not careful he will be taken and spend more of his
time in prison."

Then a thought occurred to him and he said quietly:

"Wait a moment and I will give you a light."

There was a startled exclamation and then the man asked:

"Who is that? Is that you, John Sheldon?"

"Yes, it is I."

"What are you doing here? Have you come to hunt me down?"

"No, I am a prisoner but I don't know who brought me here. I have not
come to hunt you down. I did not know that you were anywhere about and I
don't know where I am myself."

Then the boy lighted a match and looked around him, seeing an old rusty
tin candlestick with the butt of a candle in it on a shelf under one of
the windows.

He lighted this and the man came forward, looked fixedly in his face and
said:

"You say you are a prisoner here? How did that happen?"

"I was run away with by two men who jumped into the runabout I was
driving when I stopped but I don't know who they are nor why they did
it. Why do you remain in this neighborhood? Don't you know it's
dangerous to be so near the place where----"

"You had a runabout? Yours?"

"No, a friend's. I was down at Riverton on business and was just going
back to the Academy."

"Where is it? Is it a fast one?"

"Yes, but----"

"You are right about the danger of remaining here but we are not as near
the place as you think. This place must be miles away and nowhere near
the river. It is safe enough but if I had a good car and a fair start I
could----"

There was a step outside and then the turning of a key in a lock and the
door was opened.

Two men were outside, both rough looking fellows whom Jack had not seen
before and one of them now said:

"Waitin' for your supper? Hungry, are you? Well, we'll fix up something
in a jiffy and then you can go to bed as soon as you like. Hello! there
wasn't two of you, was there?"

"What are you keeping the boy here for?" asked the man with Jack.

"I donno, some business of keeping him away from school till arter
examinations, I guess, but I don't see why that should worry him. I
never was anxious to go to school myself and if anybody had said I
shouldn't it wouldn't have bothered me none," with a hoarse laugh.

"Keep me away from school till after examination?" thought Jack. "Oh, I
see! This is a plot of some of the Hilltop boys, Herring and his set, no
doubt. No one else would do it."

"Where have Byke and Tyke gone?" asked the man.

"To take back a car. We don't want it."

"Ha! I might have wanted it myself," muttered the other. "Why didn't
they let me know?"

"Couldn't tell you. Friend of theirs, hey? Well, they'll come back after
a bit. Folks don't like to have other fellows' autos with 'em. It ain't
allus safe."

"No, but I could have taken it back as well as they could and I wanted
to go that way besides."

"Well, we come to get supper for the boy and to see that he didn't get
away. If you want to go it ain't nothin' to us as I know."

One of the men now unfastened one of the windows while the other went
outside where there was a rusty little cook stove and began to make a
fire.

Then the other got some bacon and a half dozen potatoes from a locker
under the shelf, produced a greasy frying-pan from a dusty corner and
went outside to get the supper.

"I would have taken the car and got away," muttered the strange man.
"This is far enough away but it might not be safe for all that and the
sooner I get away the better."

"The car will be missed and advertised," replied Jack, "and you would be
taken. Where were you going?"

"Out West somewhere. It is not safe around here nowadays."

"If you had lived a decent life it would have been safe for you
anywhere, George Williamson," said Jack.

"Sh! not a word! they don't know me and I don't want them to," cautioned
the man, looking anxiously about him. "What you say may be true but it's
too late now. Don't you feel sorry for your father, Jack?"

"You are not my father and I wish that neither my mother nor I had ever
seen you. You made her life miserable, wasted the money my father had
left her, ill-treated and abused her and then showed yourself what you
were, a burglar and thief! Is it any wonder that my mother should want
to take her first husband's name again when we moved as far away as we
could from the scene of your evil deeds?"

"Maybe not," said the other carelessly. "Have you any money, Jack? I
would like to have some to get me to the nearest seaport town."

"You said you were going west."

"Well, to some good and far away town, then. That will do."

"I have very little money with me but I could get it if I thought you
would go away never to see my mother again. There is little use in
asking you to promise for you have promised before."

"I saw you this time only by accident, Jack," replied the man. "Never
mind. I will go so far away this time that you will never see me. So
you would help me, would you?" with an odd smile.

"Only to keep you away from my mother," Jack answered. "You never did me
any good and I have no reason to like you. If I helped you it would be
for my mother's sake alone."

"And you are a prisoner here, so that you will not be able to pass the
examinations?" asked the other carelessly.

"Yes, so it seems, but I do not mean to be kept here."

"You can get away now, Jack, if you wish it," said the other in a low
tone. "I'll do that much for you for all that you don't do things for me
on my own account. Do you wish to leave here?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then I will help you get away, will go with you till everything is
safe. Maybe I did not treat your mother right, Jack. Never mind that
now. I can help you and I will. Come, there is no time like the
present."

The two stepped to the door when one of the rough fellows said, putting
himself in the way:

"Here, Mister, you can go if you like but not the boy. We've got orders
to keep him here."

"And I have a notion to take him away with me and if you oppose me it
will be the worst for you."

The man attempted to argue the point and was promptly knocked down.




CHAPTER XXIII

ON THE WAY HOME


Jack and the stranger flew out of the house, the latter saying in a low
tone:

"Follow me! I know the way out of this tangle better than you do."

There was a rough road in front of the shack but lost itself in the
woods in one direction and wandered off among the mountains in another
so that it was necessary for one to know all its changes and branches to
keep from getting lost.

The man who had been knocked down raised a shout and he and his
companion set off in pursuit of Jack.

His guide ran swiftly but Jack was a good runner and kept up with him,
the two pursuers being speedily left behind.

They at length came out into a more open part of the road and here the
moon shone bright and gave them all the light they needed.

"Keep on this way for a time," said Jack's guide, "and we will be far
enough away to elude those scamps. I don't think they care to keep up
the race long in any event."

They hurried on although at a less swift pace for ten minutes and then,
neither seeing nor hearing any sign of pursuit, went less rapidly.

"We can slow up a bit again in a few minutes," said the stranger. "It is
a good distance from your place, I take it and you will need some time
to reach it. Perhaps you can get a conveyance but the country is not
very thickly settled about here."

At last, after going at a fast walk for some little time they came out
into an open space where the moon shone brightly and there was an
extensive view of the country.

In the distance Jack could see the river flowing on majestically in the
moonlight between the towering hills which here and there cast deep
shadows, here the channel being quite narrow and again widening into
broad lakes where all was bright.

They were at a considerable height and, pausing for some moments and
looking down upon the river he at length began to recognize certain
points and said to his guide:

"I think I know where I am but it is some distance still to go where I
wish to go. I can take a road through the mountain passes and reach home
by daylight."

"Home?" questioned the other.

"Well, I mean the Academy. I call it home while I am there."

"It is cold and it will be colder when you get into the passes where it
is dark."

"Yes, but I can walk fast. I know many of these passes and I can take
short cuts. You will not wish to return to the river?"

"No, but come on, I am in haste."

They hurried on, descending a little and passed through some woods where
they could not see the river.

When they came in sight of it again the man said:

"Go on and rejoin your comrades. I will go another way. You can get back
from here?"

"Yes, without much trouble. Where are you going?"

"Away, where you will never see me again!" and the man suddenly darted
down a forest path.

"I hope he will do better," said Jack to himself, "but I don't know. He
says he has tried to do so before but he never succeeded. I hope he will
do so this time but I do not want to see him again. I cannot get over my
past recollections."

He took another path and at length came to a pass through the hills
which would cut off a considerable distance provided he did not lose his
way by taking a wrong turn and he decided to hazard it.

Overhead there were great round peaks about which the clouds always
seemed to hover, about him were giant trees which seemed to be hundreds
of years old and as he walked on the shadows stretched deep and
mysterious before him so that he might well pause for fear of going
astray or of meeting unwelcome companions.

In a short time he came out upon a level stretch of ground whence he
could easily see how the land lay and pick out a path back to the river
and the nearest town to Hilltop.

He set out at a good walk and reached a village below the station at the
foot of the hill whence he could make his way across at about eight
o'clock in the morning.

"I can get to the Academy in time for school," he said to himself, "and
give somebody a surprise. I'd like to know what they are thinking of now
but I know what they will think when they see me walk in to take my
examinations."

He had calculated the time correctly for as he reached the top of the
hill in front of the Academy and saw the well-known buildings stretching
out before him he heard the warning bell which told him he must hasten.

The boys were already indoors and Jack hurried on, entered and went to
the great schoolroom, taking his seat and saying quietly while all the
boys looked at him in astonishment:

"I am sorry to have been detained, sir but I trust that I am in here in
time for the first examination."

Then, although it was against the rules, the majority of the boys raised
a joyous shout and gave three hearty cheers.




CHAPTER XXIV

HOW IT ALL CAME OUT


There had been a good deal of anxiety the night before when Jack had
failed to return and all sorts of reasons were assigned for his absence.

Then late at night Dick's car was returned by a constable who said he
had found it in the road just outside the town of Riverton and,
recognizing it and knowing that there had been inquiries made about it,
had brought it back.

This did not explain Jack's absence, however, and many telephone
messages were sent to various parts of the town, enquiring for him.

Mr. Brooke reported his having been to the office and others remembered
having seen him but where he had gone and why the car had been abandoned
were puzzles that no one could solve.

When Jack himself appeared at the last moment and announced that he was
ready to begin his examinations there was a general rejoicing but the
mystery was as deep as ever for the boy would not answer any questions
at the time, merely repeating that he had been detained but was glad
that he was no later.

Then he set to work upon the first of his papers and no one disturbed
him for two hours when he went outside and said to Percival who had
finished his paper:

"Somebody did not want me to take this examination but I am taking it
and that is all there is to say about it."

"But where have you been, Jack?"

"Up in the hills, miles away from here. I stayed with a hermit who might
have been Rip Van Winkle himself during a part of the night and set out
for Hilltop some time after sunrise, just making it in time."

"Yes, but Jack, what did you do it for?" and Dick showed that he was
greatly puzzled as well as distressed. "Didn't you know that the boys
would be worried?"

"I am not so fond of going off miles away by myself and then walking
back as to do a thing of that sort willingly, Dick," laughed Jack. "I
was run away with, abducted, kept a prisoner, released by a man who has
been a prisoner himself, walked for miles through the mountain passes,
stayed with a hermit and his dog and finally got back here just in time.
Did you get your car?"

"Yes, and that's what worried us for we did not know what had become of
you. Tell me all about it?"

"There is not time," with a laugh, "but I will tell you some things. You
remember the man with the white mustache?"

"Yes, of course."

"He was up in the mountains where my captors took me and it was he who
got me free and afterward left me, going I know not where. I told you I
would tell you who he is one day."

"Yes, so you did but if you don't like to----"

"I don't mind telling you, Dick. The man is my stepfather and you can
easily see why I was agitated when I heard that he was about and then
when I met him. He has been in prison for a number of years and then my
mother was happy, safe and comfortable. His being free again made me
worry for I hoped that he never would trouble us again."

"So you would."

"Now he has gone I don't know where and we need not say any more or
think any more about him."

"But who ran off with you, Jack, and why?"

"Men I had never seen before. They were hired by some one who does not
want me to take the examinations and so lose my standing in school. It
does not really matter who they are, Dick."

"It does matter to me, Jack," said Percival, excitedly, "for if I find
out who they are they will be glad enough to leave the school
themselves. Have you no idea, Jack?"

"Oh, I have an idea, of course, but suspicion is not proof as I told you
once before so suppose we let it pass."

"Well, just as you like but that is not what I should do," returned
Dick, evidently disappointed.

"But as I am the person most interested and as that is the way I feel
about it, why not let it go at that?" and Jack smiled.

"Oh, very well, just as you like," and no more was said.

Dick told the other boys what Jack had told him of his adventures and
many of them were for making an investigation but as Dick told them that
their friend did not care for this they concluded to let the matter drop
and there it rested.

Herring and Merritt and others were suspected but nothing was said to
them and they kept away from Jack and his particular friends and it was
not long before this affair was forgotten.

The examinations continued and at the end of them when the reports were
made, Jack was found to have passed the highest of any one in his class
in all but two of his studies and within one or two of first place in
the others.

This would give him a good lead for the rest of the term and help him in
the final examinations at the end of the school year, his standing
having greatly improved since he had come to the Academy.

"You have done well, old chap," said Billy. Manners, "and I want to see
you do better yet the next time."

"I am going to try to at any rate, Billy," said Jack.

"Old Bull is getting very cranky these days," Billy added. "He is
getting to be more of a martinet than ever and would keep us drilling
from morning till night if he had his way. I fancy he thinks this is
another West Point."

"Perhaps he remembers how you fooled him with the mad dog alarm,"
laughed Jack.

"He did not know it at the time or I would have been put on guard duty
all night. Anyhow, there will be trouble if he keeps up this everlasting
drilling. I don't believe the doctor cares for it but the doctor is a
good old fellow and never says anything about what any of his
instructors does. He is as mild mannered as an old woman."

"How did you come out yourself in your examinations?" Jack asked.

"Pretty good, but I like fun too much to do any overtime in study. Maybe
I would have done better but for that."

"Perhaps you would but I would rather have you full of fun than going
about grumbling and complaining against everybody as some of the boys
here are in the habit of doing."

"Yes, I know who you mean and they did not pass very high either. If
they are not more studious for the rest of this term they will be told
to go somewhere else at the end of it."

The work began again in a short time and Jack devoted himself as
sedulously to his work as before, while, at the same time, he indulged
in all the sports that boys like best and excelled in them, making more
friends every day and making those he had already made more and more
fond of him.

Percival stood high in his classes as usual for, as he said, he was
looking for Jack to catch up with him and, therefore, wanted to keep as
far ahead as possible and to make himself stronger to meet his friend
when the latter should have reached his rank.

As Billy Manners had said, there seemed to be trouble brewing in the
Academy, not only on account of Colonel Bull but for other reasons and
those who were in the way of observing the signs closely in such
institutions were of the opinion that the clouds would not be long in
breaking.

Those who have been interested in the careers of Jack Sheldon and his
friends at the Academy thus far may find something more of this in the
next volume which is called "The Hilltop Boys in Camp," wherein are told
many things now only hinted at.

"It is my opinion that if troubles do arise we will find Jack taking as
strong a part for the right as he always has," said Dick to Harry and
Arthur one day when they were talking of these matters.

"Then if we happen to be in the wrong he will go against us, do you
mean?" Harry asked.

"I should not be surprised."

"Yes, but how do you know we will be in the wrong?"

"I don't; we must wait and see."


THE END