CHAPTER XXV
OFF FOR A SWIM
Bobby sat as if stunned. There was bitter revolt in his heart againstthe injustice of it all. And, in addition, he felt as though he wouldlike to get at Hicksley and thrash him well.
But for the moment he was helpless. The evidence was against him, and hewas too proud to make any further protest or appeal to Mr. Leith.
To the rest of the boys, the sentence came like a clap of thunder. Theywere fond of Bobby and believed he was telling the truth. They wouldhave been sorry to see him punished for any reason. But it was not onlythe fact of the punishment, but the nature of it, that filled them withconsternation. Bobby Blake off the ball team! Where would Rockledge benow in the race for the pennant of the Monatook Lake League?
The lessons proceeded, but the class might as well have been dismissedat once, for only one thought filled the minds of all. And when at lastthe gong rang, there was a rush for Bobby on the campus, and a buzzingarose that resembled a hive of angry bees.
It was well for the bullies that, sitting on the rear seats, they hadslipped out of the door quickly and disappeared. They would surely havecome to grief in the present excited condition of the boys.
Fred slammed his books so violently on the ground that he broke thestrap that held them.
"Just wait!" he stormed, "just wait! I'll pitch into that Tom Hicksleythe minute I see him, big as he is."
"It would have been bad enough of him to tell, even if Bobby had doneit," growled Mouser.
"He ought to have his head knocked off," raged Skeets.
"Swell chance now we'll have of winning the pennant," groaned Shiner.
"Not a Chinaman's chance," mourned Pee Wee.
"I can see us coming in as tail-enders," prophesied Sparrow.
"Was such a dirty trick ever heard of?" wailed Billy Bassett, appealingto high heaven, as though even in his grief he was asking the answer toa riddle.
Bobby had had time now to get a grip on himself, and although his heartwas hot within him, he was outwardly the coolest of them all.
"Tom Hicksley will pay for this all right," he declared. "Some time thetruth will come out and I hope it will be soon. I haven't any doubt ofcourse that he did it himself. Then he got cold feet when he saw howangry Mr. Leith was and fibbed out of it."
"Of course, he'd fib out of it!" exclaimed Fred. "Nobody who knows TomHicksley would expect him to do anything else. But why did he put it onyou?"
"Because he's sore at me, I suppose," Bobby answered. "He's always hatedme since that afternoon on the train."
"Yes, but he's just as sore at the rest of us who butted in, as he callsit," persisted Fred. "It's something more than that, Bobby. It's becauseyou saved the game when he had almost lost it."
"He's never forgiven you for that," agreed Mouser.
"Well, whatever his reason was, I'm the goat all right," said Bobby, ina feeble attempt to put the best face on the matter.
"It isn't only you, but it's Rockledge that's the goat," amendedSparrow. "We'll be licked out of our boots."
"You fellows will have to play all the harder," said Bobby. "Mr. Leithmay change his mind when he comes to think it over. I have a hunch thatHicksley isn't going to get away with such a whopper as that."
"I'd like to have him by the throat and choke the truth out of him,"snapped Fred wrathfully.
"It would be a pretty big job to get any truth out of that fellow,"grunted Mouser.
"What did the old weather want to go and get so hot for all of asudden?" burst out Pee Wee. "If it hadn't been for that, the fanwouldn't have been going and the whole thing wouldn't have happened."
This kick against nature struck the boys as comical, and the laugh thatfollowed cleared the air somewhat and relieved their excited feelings.But for the rest of the day and evening, there was but one topic thatheld the attention of any of them.
Bobby felt blue and depressed. He would rather have had any otherpenalty put on him than to be ordered not to play on the team. The verysight of his glove and uniform made him miserable.
It would have been bad enough, even if he had been guilty of thatspecial bit of mischief. But then he would have "taken his medicine"with as good grace as possible. But it made him raging angry to feelthat he had been made the victim of a contemptible plot by such a fellowas Tom Hicksley.
What made it still more exasperating was the fact that he did not seeany way to get at the real truth. Hicksley had been on the rear row ofseats, and his only companions were Bronson and Jinks, who were just asbad as himself. No one but they had seen the egg thrown, if, as Bobbyfelt sure, Hicksley had thrown it. And now that they had put it onBobby, they had to stand by the falsehood. One was as deep in the mud asthe others were in the mire, and there was not a chance in the world oftheir confessing.
It hurt Bobby, too, to know that he rested under a cloud in the eyes ofMr. Leith, who had practically told him that afternoon that he did notbelieve him. He was a truthful boy and it came hard to have his wordquestioned.
All the next morning he was gloomy and downhearted. In the afternoon,Fred, like the loyal friend he was, tried to get his mind off histroubles by suggesting that they go swimming.
"Don't let's go to the lake this time," said Fred. "Let's go toBeekman's Pond up in the woods. There's a dandy place there for diving."
It was a little early in the season yet for a swim, but the warmweather, which still continued, made the prospect an agreeable one. So,shortly after dinner, having received permission to go out of bounds,Bobby and Fred with half a dozen of the other boys started out for thepond.
"Say, fellows," asked Billy as they trudged along, "what's the dif--"
"There goes the human question mark again," interrupted Mouser.
"He's not to blame, he was born that way," said Skeets with largetoleration.
"Honestly, Billy," chaffed Fred, "I don't believe you can say a singlesentence that isn't a question."
"Can't I?" said Billy, a little nettled.
"There! what did I tell you?" said Fred, trapping him neatly.
The boys roared, and even Billy grinned.
"Well," he said, "I might as well have the game as the name. What's thedifference--"
"Stop him, somebody," cried Sparrow, wringing his hands in pretendedagony.
Billy looked at him scornfully.
"Oh, let him get it out," said Bobby resignedly. "Go ahead, Billy."
"Shoot," said Fred.
"What's the difference," asked Billy, "between a fisherman and a lazyscholar?"
"Ask Pee Wee," replied Skeets. "He ought to know."
"Pee Wee isn't a fisherman," objected Mouser.
"Who said he was?" retorted Skeets.
"If you're hinting that I'm a lazy scholar," remarked Pee Wee, "all I'vegot to say is that I'll never be lonesome among you boobs."
"Stop your chinning," said Billy, "and answer my question."
"One catches fish and the other catches a licking," ventured Fred.
"Each one sometimes finds himself in deep water," guessed Skeets.
"No," said Billy. "They're not so bad, but neither one's the realanswer."
Finally the boys gave it up.
"One baits his hooks and the other hates his books," chirped Billy.
A groan went up from the sufferers.
"I think that's a pippin," remarked Billy proudly; "but I've got anotherone that's better still. Why is a--"
"Sic the dog on him!" ejaculated Mouser.
"What's the use of letting him live?" asked Fred.
"He seems to be human, but is he?" queried Sparrow.
As Beekman's Pond came in sight just then, they broke into a run, andBilly had to save his masterpiece for another time.
They found a secluded spot, and with a whoop and a shout were out oftheir clothes in a hurry. Then with a shiver each took the plunge intothe clear waters of the pond.