CHAPTER XIII
SOME MYSTERY
Frank gulped down his astonishment. Then he sat still without a rustle. Hewas afraid that Bob might snore, wake up talking, and had an idea to creepcloser to his chum, wake him up softly, and warn him to remain perfectlyquiet.
Before Frank could act, however, there came a sudden interruption to theconversation between the men below, Jem and Dan. There was a thunderingknock at the door.
"It's the gov at last!" shouted Jem, jumping to his feet.
"No one else!" echoed Dan.
Jem opened the door and a man staggered in. His slouch hat, dripping wet,was pulled down over his face. He was completely enveloped in a great rainblanket. The hole in its center fitted about his neck and covered himnearly to the feet, even to his arms. These held something under the cloak,for its bulging surface showed that he was carrying something.
"Help me out of this," growled the newcomer. "Good I borrowed this blanketin a convenient barn, or everything would have been soaked."
"Borrowed!" guffawed Jem.
"Haw! haw!" roared Dan, as if it was a great joke. "There you are, mate."
If Frank had been surprised and startled at the secret concerning SamuelMace's missing diamond bracelet, he was dumfounded at the face of thenewcomer.
"Why," he breathed in wonderment, "it's the man I drove off from botheringthat traveling scissors grinding boy at Tipton, Ned Foreman. Yes, this isthe man the boy called Tim Brady, and--whew!"
Frank's thoughts seemed to come as swift as lightning. He had marveled atthe strange series of events that had given him a clue as to the personswho had stolen the diamond bracelet that had got him into so much trouble.Now that the tramp, Brady, had appeared on the scene, Frank saw how it allcould have happened, for Brady was in Tipton the day the diamond braceletwas stolen.
The only thing that mystified Frank was why these people should be atBellwood, so far away from Tipton. There was scarcely a chance in athousand that they could have come accidentally.
When the two men had pulled the blanket from Brady, he disclosed twopackages in his hand, one resembling a hat box. He placed them on thefloor.
"Got the togs there?" inquired Jem.
"Yes," nodded Brady. "I'm famished; give me something to eat."
Frank did not stir. He felt that it was important that he should remainwhere he was. These men knew about Samuel Mace's missing bracelet. That wasone point of interest. They were up to something now; that was another.
Frank listened to every word they said, but they did not just then againrefer to the bracelet nor discuss their plans. They talked generally of howeasy the farmers they had met gave away meals. They discussed variousstores and houses that might be robbed readily. Frank realized that theywere very bad men.
Finally, having finished his meal, Brady got up from the box he had beenseated on. He went over to the bundles he had brought, undoing one of them.He took out a long black dress coat. This he tried on. It buttoned up tohis neck closely, like some clerical garb.
He opened the other box and took out a silk hat. As he put this on his headhe straightened up and drew his face down in mock seriousness.
"My friends," he sniffled, "you see in me a penitent and reformed man."
"Hold me!" yelled Jem, rolling around on the straw in a paroxysm oflaughter.
"Will it do?" smirked Brady. "Ter-rewly, my friends, I seek only now tomake amends for my wicked, misspent life--a--ah!"
"Wow! Oh, you actor! It's enough to make a cow laugh!"
"Will it work?"
"Work!" chuckled the man Jem. "Why, you'd win over the president of thecollege himself."
Bang!
"What was that?" demanded Brady sharply.
Frank was in dismay. In his sleep Bob Upton had groaned, then moved.Probably, in some nightmare, dreaming he was back among his old tyrantmasters on the farm, he had kicked out his foot, landing heavily on thefloor of the loft.
"Oh, I guess it was the wind rattling some loose timber about the old ruinof a place," observed Jem.
Frank crept cautiously to the side of his sleeping comrade.
Bob was muttering restlessly in his sleep, and Frank feared anotheroutbreak. He placed his hand over Bob's mouth.
"Wake up--quietly, now--there is somebody below," he whispered.
"What's the row?" droned Bob.
"S--st! Follow me. Get out of this. It's stopped raining."
Frank managed to get himself and his friend out of the place withoutdisturbing the three men in the hut or apprising them of their presence.The rain had nearly stopped. Bob rubbed his eyes sleepily.
"Some tramps came into the cabin yonder after you went to sleep," explainedFrank. "They are hard characters, and it is best to steer clear of them."
It took the two boys an hour to find their way to Bellwood School. Bob wastired out and sleepy, and Frank was by no means in a mood for chatting. Hewas absorbed in thinking out his strange discoveries of the night.
"I've got a clue to that diamond bracelet of Mace's," he reflected. "Macedon't deserve any favors from me after the outrageous way he's acted, butif I can do anything toward getting it back for him, all right. I wonder,though, what it means--that man, Brady, being here, and what trick he is upto with the high hat and the dress coat? His friend spoke of the presidentof the college and some 'kid.' Are they up to some thieving trick? If so, Iwant to be alert to balk them."
When the two boys reached the academy, they had some difficulty in locatinga loose window, and they had to use caution in getting to their room. Thebed felt so good after the rough experiences of the night that Frank soonjoined his snoring companion in the land of dreams, leaving action as tothe crowd at the cabin for the morrow.
They met their friendly persecutors of the evening before good-naturedly atbreakfast. It was easy for Frank to see that Ritchie and his associateswere ready to accept them as gritty comrades who could take a joke as amatter of course.
"You've paid your initiation fee in pluck and endurance, Jordan," said MarkPrescott, the able lieutenant of Dean Ritchie in his rounds of mischief."You and Upton can consider yourselves full-fledged members of the TwilightClub."
"Good!" laughed Frank as he started for the campus. Before he was out ofthe building, however, Frank got thinking of his adventures of the eveningbefore. And instead of immediately joining his fellows he strolled aroundto the side of the academy.
There was a walk, not much used by the students, leading past the kitchenand laundry quarters of the school. As Frank got nearly to the end of thisa baseball whizzed by him and he saw Banbury and a crony named Durkinmaking for it.
Just at that moment, too, Frank noticed a boy wearing a long apron sittingon a stone step just outside the kitchen door.
He was peeling potatoes, and he was peeling them right, fully engrossed inhis labors, as though it were some artistic and agreeable occupation.
"Well! well! well!" irresistibly ejaculated Frank. "If it isn't NedForeman!"