CHAPTER XXI
BOB SAYS SO
Willard's heart sank. There was no need to pick the thing up for closerexamination. Its crumpled, distasteful folds showed one border missing,and, if evidence had still been lacking, closer inspection would haveelicited the fact that, half obliterated by a paint smudge, the word"Harmon" was plainly printed on a corner. It was the handkerchief thathe had given to Bob Newhall Saturday night to wipe his hands on.
"Yes, sir," replied Willard.
"When and where?" asked the Doctor quietly.
"Last Saturday night, sir, at Hillsport."
The Doctor picked the object up gingerly and dropped it back in thedrawer. Then he closed the drawer slowly and gazed thoughtfully for ashort moment at the book he had laid aside.
"I have received a very indignant letter from Doctor Handley, atHillsport School," he said presently. "He tells me that some timeduring Saturday night the wall of his residence was defaced with blackpaint in--um--in ill-advised celebration of Alton's football victoryover Hillsport."
Willard gasped. "We--I didn't know it was his wall, sir!" he exclaimed.
"Is that true? You didn't know that Doctor Handley's residence stood atthe corner, across from the school entrance?"
"No, sir," answered the boy earnestly. "I'd never been there before,sir."
"But the others? They must have known."
"The others?" stammered Willard.
"Yes," replied the Doctor gently. "You said 'we' a moment ago."
Willard reddened. "I--I corrected myself," he answered.
Doctor McPherson smiled whimsically and shook his head. "I wouldn'tcall it a correction, Harmon. You see, it's extremely unlikely that youwould have engaged in such a--such an amusement by yourself. Defacingproperty in that manner is 'gang work': I've never known it otherwise."
Willard gulped. "Yes, sir. Well, none of us knew that wall wasDoctor--Doctor--"
"Handley's?" asked the Principal helpfully.
"Yes, sir. We wouldn't have done it for anything if we had known.We--we just wanted to get even with those--fellows for what they didto us last year. They painted green signs all around town here, sir,and we thought it was perfectly fair to get back at them. That's allthere was to it."
"A very silly proceeding, Harmon. Defacing the property of others is aparticularly mean and contemptible form of mischief. And the fact thatthe Hillsport boys indulged in it was no excuse. Indeed, the appearanceof your own town should have shown you how atrocious such vandalismis. I sympathize with the resentment that was felt here last fall whenit was found that Hillsport had scrawled the score on our fences andwalls, but I do not sympathize in the least with the motive that ledyou and your companions to commit the same indecency, Harmon. Anotherthing is that Hillsport was careful not to deface school property.Indeed, as I recall, she displayed some care in the selection of oldfences and such places for her--um--decorations. In your case you seemto have tried to do as much damage as possible."
"But we didn't know, sir!" protested Willard again.
"And that I find hard to believe," replied the Doctor, shaking hishead. "How many times did you paint the score up?"
"Only twice. The first time on a stable or something. We looked forfences and things like that, but there weren't any, sir. And we wantedto put it where the Hillsport fellows would be sure to see it, andfinally we found that wall! It was outside the school grounds and wedidn't any of us know it was the Principal's house. We wouldn't havethought of doing it there if we'd known. It was just--just a joke, sir!"
"A frightfully poor one, Harmon! Who were the others with you?"
Willard dropped his gaze and a moment of silence passed. When he raisedhis eyes again it was to look rather miserably at the Doctor and shakehis head. "I guess I oughtn't to say, sir," he answered in low tones.
"I shan't insist," said the Doctor gently. "I know how you fellows lookat such things. I can't help reflecting, however, Harmon, that yourcode of honor as regards matters amongst yourselves is somewhat finerthan you display in other matters. You don't hesitate, it appears, todaub black paint over a man's brick wall, although that man has neveroffended you in the least, but you're outraged at the mere thoughtof giving information against companions who have aided you in youroffenses. Well, you shall suit yourself. I think it my duty, though,to point out to you that, in deciding on the proper punishment in yourcase, the question of whether you knew or did not know that you weredefacing property belonging to the school and occupied by the schoolPrincipal is important. You tell me that you did now know and that theothers did not know. If, as you say, you had not been in Hillsportbefore, I am inclined to believe what you tell me of yourself, but Icannot take your word for the others, Harmon. It seems to me extremelyunlikely that one or more of them did not know whose property it was.If I knew their names I could question them and find out. As I don'tknow their names I am forced to give more credence to the probabilitiesthan to your testimony. You see, Harmon, the affair looks very muchlike a deliberate insult to Doctor Handley, and it certainly calls foran apology. In apologizing I'd like greatly to be able to assure himthat the affair was merely a schoolboy prank and that the depredatorswere not aware that it was his property they were defiling. But I can'ttell him that without more evidence than your unsupported testimonyaffords me. Is that clear to you?"
"Yes, sir," answered Willard unhappily.
"And you still prefer not to give me the names of the others? Rememberthat I shall make every effort to find out and shall doubtless succeed."
"I--I'd rather not, sir," answered Willard steadily.
"In that case there is no more to be said. Pending a decision as towhat disciplinary measures shall be taken, Harmon, you will observehall restrictions. I am very sorry this has happened, my boy, and Ihope it will lead you to a--um--greater respect for the rights andproperty of others. Good morning, Harmon."
Willard stood up, rather pale but very straight. "I'm sorry I can'ttell you about the others, sir," he said earnestly, "but--but I don'tbelieve you'd act any different yourself if you were in my place. AndI'll take the punishment without kicking, Doctor McPherson. But, justthe same, it doesn't seem fair to me that those fellows should get awaywith what they did and we--I should get punished for doing no more.We didn't know we were painting up Doctor Handley's wall. You needn'tbelieve me unless you want to, but it's so! What--what's he want tolive outside the school for, anyway?" Willard ended in an indignantwail and the Doctor's mouth trembled in a smile.
"If your idea is to shift the blame to Doctor Handley," answered thePrincipal dryly, "I'm afraid it won't work! You'll hear from me later,Harmon. Good morning."
"Good morning, sir," murmured Willard.
He found Martin hidden behind a newspaper when he got back to the room,and so absorbed was the reader that not until the door had slammed shutdid he know of Willard's entry. Then he showed perturbed countenanceabove the Darlington _Daily Messenger_. "Seen this, Brand?" he askedominously. Willard shook his head and took the proffered paper. TheHillsport correspondent had made quite a story of it.
VISITING VANDALS DEFACE PROPERTY
Saturday's Football Game at Hillsport Commemorated by Smears of Paint
"Hillsport, Nov. 4: This town awoke on Sunday morning to find that some time during the preceding night vandals had been at work with paint and brush. In a number of conspicuous places the score of Saturday's football game between Hillsport and Alton Academy was set forth in great black figures. To the youthful perpetrators of the outrage no place was sacred, for the ornamental brick wall about Principal Handley's residence, adjoining the school campus, was one of the sites selected for the derisive inscription. On Parker Street, the stable belonging to Chief of Police Starbuck likewise tells the story of Alton Academy's football victory. Probably other instances of property defacement will be found, but these so far are the most glaring that have come to light. Indignation
is widespread and both town and school authorities propose to use every effort to bring the guilty persons to justice. While complete evidence is still lacking, it is generally believed that certain of the visiting party of Alton Academy students, over-excited by an unusual and unlooked for triumph over the local school, remained behind on Saturday evening and celebrated the victory in this reprehensible fashion. Indeed, it has been already established that four or five Alton youths were seen about town as late as half-past six or seven that evening. Unfortunately for them, the miscreants left a clue which if followed will undoubtedly lead to their apprehension. This is now in the hands of Chief of Police Starbuck. We understand that Principal Handley is already in correspondence with the authorities at Alton Academy and that the wanton defacement of school property will not be allowed to pass unpunished."
Willard handed the paper back in silence. Martin grinned. "Have youanything to say before sentence is passed?" he asked sepulchrally.
"Sentence has been passed, so far as I'm concerned," answered Willard.Martin stared. Then:
"What do you mean?" he demanded anxiously.
"I mean that I've just come from a fine moment with Doctor McPherson.That Principal over there, Handley or whatever his silly name is, haswritten to the Doctor, and sent that clue along, too."
"Wow!" muttered Martin awedly. "Wha--what was the clue?"
"My handkerchief."
"_Good night!_"
"And sweet dreams," added Willard ironically.
"What did he say?" asked Martin after a moment of painful thought.Willard shrugged.
"He said a lot! He wasn't so bad, though. I'll have to say that forhim. I'm on hall bounds until the faculty gets together and decideswhether I'm to be boiled in oil or merely drawn and quartered. Youfellows may get by all right, though. I'm the only one they're sure ofso far. Why the dickens didn't someone say that that brick wall was thePrincipal's?"
"How were we to know?" demanded Martin. "Why doesn't he live insidewhere he ought to? Say, we managed to pick a couple of fine spots,didn't we? It was a clever idea to paint up the side of the Chief ofPolice's barn! Oh, we were a grand little bunch of nuts!" And Martinlaughed mirthlessly.
"Yes," agreed Willard, "we surely managed to do things up brown whilewe were doing!"
"Didn't you tell 'Mac' that you didn't have anything to do with it?"
"That would have been a fine song-and-dance!" jeered Willard. "Whatif I didn't do any of the actual painting? I went along, didn't I?Besides, there was my handkerchief, all stuck up with black paint. Hedidn't waste any time asking me whether I'd done it. All he wanted toknow was who the others were."
"You might as well have told him," said Martin gloomily. "He'll findout quick enough."
"I don't think so," answered Willard. "No one saw us come back, andshort of taking the whole school over there and letting the restaurantfolks pick you fellows out, I don't see how they're going to tell."
Martin brightened. Then his face fell again. "We'll have to fess up,Brand. It wouldn't be fair to let you stand the whole racket."
"That's a swell idea," answered the other derisively. "You and Bob offthe team would help a lot, wouldn't it?"
"We-ell--" Martin scowled in concentrated study of the problem. Then:"Look here," he said, "a fellow's got to eat, anyway. Let's go todinner. Afterwards we'll find Bob and--"
His remark was interrupted by a knock at the door followed by theentrance of Bob himself, a somewhat troubled looking Bob who, withoutnoticing anything unusual in the looks of the roommates, plunged intospeech. "Say, fellows," he announced, lowering himself into a chairand viewing them frowningly, "I'm not quite easy in my mind about thatbusiness the other night."
"Really?" asked Martin. "How strange!"
The sarcasm was lost, however. Bob shook his head and went on. "No,because I have a horrible suspicion that I tied that handkerchief tothe handle of the paint can, Brand. And if I did they'll find it, sureas shooting. I--I suppose it had your initials on it, eh?"
Willard shook his head. "No," he answered gently.
"Honest?" Bob perked up. "Then it won't matter if they do find it, willit? Gee, I was getting sort of worried! You see, I thought first I'dgiven it back to you, Brand, and then I thought I'd thrown it away, butCal said last night that he sort of remembered feeling it around thehandle and I sort of half remember putting it there. But if it didn'thave any mark on it, we shouldn't worry."
"I didn't say that," corrected Willard. "I said it didn't have anyinitials, and it didn't. All it had was 'Harmon', in nice big letters."
"Great Scott!" gasped Bob.
"By the way, you haven't cast your eye over the Darlington paper by anychance, have you?" drawled Martin.
"No. Is there anything in it?" asked Bob anxiously.
"Why, yes, you might say so. Like to look at it?"
Bob viewed the others with growing disquiet. "What's the joke?" hedemanded, scowling. "What are you two fellows so blamed creepy about?Let's see that paper!"
Willard and Martin said nothing until Bob had finished the story. Then:"Looks like we might have a bit o' weather," drawled Martin.
Bob laid the paper down softly and grinned in sickly fashion.
"I'll say so," he answered.