CHAPTER XX
“WHO TOLD?”
For a moment Bob and Ned gazed silently at their tall chum. Then theyspoke.
“Take the Boxwood picture?” gasped Ned.
“And put it on the flagpole?” added Bob.
“Why not?” asked Jerry. “Worse, or better, jokes, as you choose to callthem, have been perpetrated here. It beats taking a goat up to a classroom, or taking the knob off a prof’s door so he can’t get out to makeyou flunk.”
“But it doesn’t beat taking two of the highbrows off and making themforget to come back,” chuckled Ned.
“Maybe not,” admitted Jerry, with a smile. “That was some little trick,if I do say it myself.”
“It sure was!” agreed Bob.
“But about this picture,” went on the tall lad. “Are you going to helpme get it, or not?”
“Just us three?” asked Ned.
“That’s enough,” said Jerry. “The more you have in a game like that,the more danger there is in getting found out. We three can do italone.”
“All right,” said Bob, smiling. “I’m with you.”
“Same here,” added Ned. “But how are we going to do it?”
“Oh, I have it all planned,” Jerry told his chums. “We’ll wait until itgets a little later, and then we’ll go into chapel by the little sidedoor near Martin’s house.” (Martin was the janitor who looked afterchapel.) “He hardly ever locks the door,” went on Jerry, “but if hedoes I have some extra keys that I think will work. We can sneak inthere, take the picture off the wall, slip around back of the gym andup to the flagpole. No one goes there at night. The flag will be down,and the halyards will be in the little box on the pole. That isn’tlocked. All we’ll have to do will be to fasten the picture to the ropesand hoist it up, fasten the ropes and get back to our own little beds.Of course, we’re taking a chance in being out of the dormitory afterhours, but that’s done every night, and at worst it means only someextra lines.”
“But if we’re caught out, and they find the picture up on the pole inthe morning, won’t they suspect us?” asked Ned.
“You don’t suppose we’ll be the _only_ ones out to-night; do you?”asked Jerry. “They won’t suspect us any more than they will any oneelse.”
“It’s taking a risk,” objected Bob.
“Of course it is!” admitted his tall chum. “What would be the fun ifthere were no risk?”
“We shan’t damage the picture any; shall we?” Ned demanded.
“Not a scratch, if we can help it,” promised Jerry. “We’ll just hoistit up and leave it where a good view can be had of it. Are you game?”
Again Bob and Ned said they were. They were mildly excited, too. AsJerry had stated, matters had been a bit dull at Boxwood Hall of late.Nothing of interest had been done, save that a few of the old-timejokes--“standardized plays”--Jerry called them, had been executed. Theboys welcomed any sort of change.
Jerry went carefully over all the details with his chums.
“We’ll have to work quickly,” he told them. “And I’ll lay out the workso each one of us will have just certain things to do. And do ’emfast--that’s the word--fast!”
The boys waited until it was near the hour when lights must beextinguished and every student, who had not permission to remain out,must be in his room. Then, with a final word of instruction, Jerryled his chums forth. As he left his room he took up a black robe theysometimes used in the automobile when it was chilly.
“What’s that for?” asked Ned.
“To throw over the picture. The gold frame might shine when we passedsome lamp and give the game away. I’ll cover it with this robe.”
“Good idea,” said Bob.
Carefully and cautiously the three chums made their way to the chapel.It stood well away from the other college buildings. The only structurenear it was the cottage of Martin, the janitor, an elderly man fond ofa pipe and a book after supper, so there was little danger of his beingabroad. At this hour it was dark and deserted.
“Got your keys?” whispered Bob.
“Yes,” answered Jerry, in the same low voice. “But maybe I won’t need’em.”
As they neared the chapel, and swung around to the side where the doorleading to the vestry was, a black form rushed out of the bushes towardthem.
“What’s that?” exclaimed Ned, nervously.
“Martin’s dog. Keep still!” commanded Jerry. “Here, Jack, lie down! Goback!” he ordered.
The dog, which had not barked, was a friend of every lad in thecollege. He fawned upon the three plotters and then, satisfied thatthey did not want to romp with him, Jack went back to his kennel.
“Got out of that easy,” commented Jerry.
Cautiously they ascended the steps and tried the door.
“Open,” announced Jerry. “I won’t have to use the keys. Come on in, anddon’t stumble over a chair or any of the kneeling benches.”
They entered the dark vestry and closed the door behind them.
“Bear cats and little kittens!” muttered Ned. “It’s as black as abottle of ink.”
“I’ve got a flashlight,” announced Jerry, producing a pocket electriclamp. By its light the boys made their way out of the vestry, up on theplatform and over to where the picture hung.
“Got to have a ladder to reach it,” announced Bob.
“Put one of the big pulpit chairs on top of another and we can reachit,” said Jerry. “I figured that out when I was here this morning.”
“Big head!” ejaculated Ned.
Jerry was right about the chairs, and on this rather shaky pyramid,while Ned and Bob steadied it, Jerry reached up and lifted down thepicture, no easy task, for it was in a heavy gold frame.
The Boxwood picture was one of the treasures of the institution; notbecause of its intrinsic worth, but because of the associations.
The Reverend Doctor Ebenezer Boxwood, to give him his proper title,had founded the college as a religious school, and the chapel was oneof the first buildings erected. He had been a clergyman of greatscholarly attainments, and a natural instructor.
Gradually, like many others of its kind, Boxwood Hall broadened,and became a college in which the divinity side was less and lessemphasized each year, though the institution still conferred the degreeof Doctor of Divinity upon those who wished it, and who passed thenecessary tests.
So it was that the faculty of the college revered the picture of thefounder, even though the boys did not. For, of course, none of thepresent undergraduates had known the Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Boxwood.
“Now hustle!” advised Jerry, when the picture was safely down. “Putback the chairs, and we’ll cut out of here.”
This was soon done, and, with the picture covered with the blackrobe, the conspirators, first looking about to make sure they wereunobserved, sneaked out the side door, and made their way toward theflagpole.
Here was where the greatest danger of detection lay, for they were outin the open, and though the flagpole was not near any of the buildingsit was in a conspicuous place on the campus, and the boys might beobserved by some passing professor.
However, luck seemed to be with them, and they quickly made the flaghalyards fast to the picture and hoisted it up to the top of the pole,making sure the fastenings were secure so the portrait would not fall.
THEY MADE THE FLAG HALYARDS FAST TO THE PICTURE ANDHOISTED IT UP.]
“Well, I guess that’s some nifty little trick,” chuckled Jerry, as theyhurried back to their rooms.
“It’ll make ’em sit up and have gravy on their eggs all right,” addedNed.
Chuckling over the success of their plot, the three chums prepared togo to bed, for it was a little past the hour for lights to be out, andthey did not want any suspicion to attach to them.
So sound and healthful was the sleep of Ned, Bob and Jerry that itseemed but a few minutes from the time they crawled into their bedsuntil their alarm clocks rattled in the morning, and they sprang up.For they ?
??cut things pretty fine,” to quote Jerry, and only gavethemselves just enough time to jump into their clothes and run forchapel.
As they scudded across the campus, arranging ties on the route, theylooked across to the flagpole, where they saw a group of studentsgathered about, gazing up at the suspended portrait.
“It’s working!” chuckled Jerry.
The final bell rang, and the students about the pole rushed to chapel.
“Some little trick--that of yours!” exclaimed Tom Bacon, with a laugh.
There was no time for further talk as they had to go to their seats,and there an air of subdued excitement testified to the success of thetrick.
The doors were closed, Dr. Cole arose as usual, but the usualannouncement, that of an invitation to all present to take part in themorning prayer, was wanting.
“Young gentlemen, I regret to mention to you, what the most of youprobably know, that the portrait of our revered founder is not in itsusual place,” Dr. Cole said in his deep voice.
“And before we go on with the devotional exercises this morning I willrequest Hopkins, Baker and Slade to proceed to the flagpole, where theyshamelessly hung the portrait, and bring it back!”
There was a gasp of astonishment, and the three chums looked guiltilyat one another.
“Go at once!” sternly ordered Dr. Cole.
Amid the smiles of their fellow students Jerry, Ned and Bob filed outof chapel.
And when they reached the pole they saw a card tacked on it, just belowwhere the halyards were made fast, and the card read:
“This picture was placed here by
“Jerry Hopkins,
“Ned Slade,
“Bob Baker.”