CHAPTER XXI
BAD NEWS
Attention was divided, on the part of the crowd, between the man who hadbeen rescued, and the fire. The old factory was now burning fiercely andit was useless to try to save the structure. In fact, nearly everyonewas glad that it had been destroyed, for it would harbor no moretramps. So the man who had been so thrillingly rescued was the greaterattraction.
Fortunately there was a doctor in the throng, and he gave Mr. Benjaminsome stimulants which quickly brought him out of his faint. Then acarriage was secured, and the man was taken to the village hotel, Joeagreeing to be responsible for his board. Though Mr. Benjamin hadtreated Mr. Matson most unjustly, and had tried to ruin him, yet the sonthought he could do no less than to give him some aid, especially afterthe warning.
"Well, I guess it's all over but the shouting, as they say at thebaseball games," remarked Tom to Joe. "Let's get home. I'm cold," forthey had both been drenched over the upper part of their bodies by theinitiation, and the night wind was cold, in spite of the fact thatSpring was well advanced.
"So am I," admitted Joe, as he watched the carriage containing Mr.Benjamin drive off. "I'd like some good hot lemonade."
The fire now held little attraction for our friends and they hastenedback to the dormitory, Joe explaining on the way how he had unexpectedlyrescued a former enemy of his father's.
"And aren't you going to send some word home about that warning he gaveyou?" asked Tom, as Joe finished. "That Holdney scoundrel may be workinghis scheme now."
"Oh, yes, sure. I'm going to write to dad as soon as we get back to ourroom. Sure I'm going to warn him. I'm mighty sorry for Mr. Benjamin.He's a smart man, but he went wrong, and now he's down and out, as hesays. But he did me a good service."
"It doesn't even things up!" spoke Teeter. "He surely would have been agone one but for you."
"Oh, some one else might have thought of that way of getting him downif I hadn't," replied Joe modestly. "I remember a story I read in one ofthe books I had when I was a kid. A fellow was on a high chimney, and arope he had used to haul himself up slipped down. A big crowd gatheredand no one knew how to help him. His wife came to bring his dinner andshe got onto a scheme right away.
"'Hey, John!' she called 'unravel your sock. Begin at the toe!' You seehe had on knitted socks. Well, he unravelled one, got a nice long pieceof yarn and lowered it to the ground. He tied on his knife, or somethingfor a weight. Then they fastened a cord to the yarn, and a rope to thecord, he pulled the rope up and got down off the chimney."
"Your process, only reversed," commented Tom. "I say fellows," he added,"let's run and get warmed up. I'm shivering."
"It was warm enough back there at the fire," said Teeter, as he lookedto where the blaze was now dying out for lack of material on which tofeed.
"Beastly mean of Hiram and Luke," commented Peaches. "They're gettingscared I guess. I hope we get 'em out of the nine before the season'sover."
Joe and Tom entertained their friends with crackers and hot lemonade,and none of the professors or monitors annoyed them with attentions.They must have known of it, when Peaches went to get the hot water inthe dormitory kitchen, but it is something to have a hero in a school,and Joe was certainly the hero of the night.
The two lads, who had been thoroughly soaked, stripped and took a goodrub down, and this, with the hot lemonade, set them into a warm glow.Then they sat about and talked and talked until nearly midnight.
Joe wrote a long letter to his father explaining all the circumstancesand warned him to be on the lookout. One of the janitors who had toarise early to attend to his duties promised to see that the missive gotoff on the first morning mail.
"There, now, I guess we'll go to bed," announced Joe.
There was much subdued excitement in chapel the next morning, and Dr.Fillmore made a reference to the events of the night before.
"I am very proud of the way you young gentlemen behaved at the fire," hesaid. "It was an exciting occasion, and yet you held yourselves wellwithin bounds. We have reason to be very proud of one of our number whodistinguished himself, and----"
"Three cheers for Joe Matson!" yelled Peaches, and they were givenheartily--something that had never before happened in chapel. Dr.Fillmore looked surprised, and Professor Rodd was evidently pained, butDr. Rudden was observed to join in the ovation, over which Joe blushedpainfully.
Joe caught a cold from his wetting and exposure. It was nothing serious,but the school physician thought he had better stay in bed for a coupleof days, and, much against his will the young pitcher did so.
"How is baseball practice going on?" he asked Tom after the first day."I wish I could get out and watch it."
"Oh, it's going pretty good. We scrubs have a hard job holding theschool nine down when you're not there to pitch. There's a game withWoodside Hall to-morrow, and I guess we'll win."
Excelsior Hall did win that contest, but not by as big a score as theyshould have done. It was the old story of Hiram and Luke not managingthings right, and having weak pitchers. Still it was a victory, andserved to elate the bully and his crony.
It was on the third day of Joe's imprisonment in his room, and his coldwas much better. He had heard that Mr. Benjamin had recovered and leftthe hotel; no one knew for what place.
He sent Joe a note of thanks, however, and it came in with some mailfrom home. Joe opened the home letters first. There was one from hisfather, enclosed in one from his mother and Clara.
"Dear Joe," wrote Mr. Matson. "I got your warning, but it was too late. Why didn't you telegraph me? The night before your letter got here some valuable papers and models were stolen from my new shop. I have no doubt but that Holdney did it--he or some of his tools. It will cripple me badly, but I may be able to pull through. I appreciate what Benjamin did for us, and it was mighty smart of you to save him that way. But why didn't you telegraph me about the danger to my models?"
"That's it!" exclaimed Joe bitterly to himself. "What a chump I was. Whydidn't I telegraph dad, and then it would have been in time. Why didn'tI?"