CHAPTER XI
HARRY FINDS A CLUE
When Chub left Roy lying gasping for breath in the bushes and took upthe race again he was a good hundred yards behind Jack and Pryor, whowere just dropping from sight beyond the brow of one of the littlehills.
"Keep over that way--get back to the road," he turned and shouted. Hesaw Roy nod wearily. Then he set out in earnest to make up lost ground.That was the hardest bit of the whole run for Chub and it took him thebetter part of a mile to make up that hundred yards. Jack and Pryor didtheir level best to maintain their advantage. But when they were back onthe road once more Chub was running even with them. Pryor tried to slipaside and make him take the lead and set the pace, but Chub was toowary. It could scarcely be called running now, for with less than a mileto go it became a question with each one of them whether they could stayon their feet long enough to finish and their pace was a slow jog thatwas little like the springy gait with which they had started out.
There was no breath wasted now in talk. They cast quick looks at eachother, searching for signs of weakness and discouragement. It was everyman for himself, Pryor struggling along with drooping head for the gloryof the Middle Class, Jack resolved to win the honor for the FirstSeniors, and Chub equally determined to gain it for the Second Seniors.A quarter of a mile from the school, just as they turned into the SilverCove road, Pryor's time came. He faltered once, stumbled, and Chubturning aside to avoid him, slowed down to a walk, his breath coming inagonized gasps. Chub and Jack went on without a turn of the head, sideby side, their eyes glued doggedly on the red-tiled tower of thegymnasium visible now above the tree-tops a few hundred yards away. Thenthe road turned a bit and a group of waiting boys marked the corner ofthe school grounds.
Chub looked at Jack and the latter shook his head with a wry twistedsmile. But when Chub threw his head back and strove to draw away fromhim Jack responded gallantly and refused to own himself beaten. So theyhad it nip and tuck down to the corner, pounding the hard road like carthorses and yet making but slow work of it, while the audience shoutedthem on, scattering away from the rail fence that they might have plentyof room. And they needed it. Twice Chub strove to throw his leg acrossthe topmost bar and twice he failed. Jack, with set teeth, got over onthe second attempt, and when Chub came tumbling after him he had a goodsix yards of lead. Ahead, at the gate across the field, stood Doctor andMrs Emery and Harry.
"Hurry! Hurry!" cried the latter, dancing excitedly about. "Oh, it'sJack Rogers and Chub Eaton! Hurry, Jack! Hurry, Chub! Oh, _can't_ yourun faster?"
"Which do you want to win, my dear?" asked her mother smilingly. Harryanswered breathlessly without turning.
"Oh, I don't know! Both!"
Meanwhile across the gridiron Chub and Jack, accompanied by applaudingfriends and partisans, were fighting it out gamely. Chub had almost madeup the distance between him and Jack when the track was reached. Acrossthe cinders they staggered, the gate and finish but a few yards away.Then fortune, thus far quite impartial, turned her face to Chub. Jackstumbled on the wooden rim of the track and, while he saved himself fromfalling, gave Chub his chance, and in another second the latter youthwas through the gate and lying with tossing arms on the lawn. Jackfinished a scant yard behind him and keeled over in his turn.
Horace Burlen set down the times on the list he held and others sprangto the aid of the exhausted runners. Then all eyes turned again towardthe corner of the field, for someone was struggling over the fencethere. Down he jumped and came trotting across, apparently much fresherthan Chub and Jack. It was Townsend, of the Middle Class. When he washalf way across the field a fourth runner appeared, made severalattempts to surmount the bars, leaned against them a moment, and foundhis breath and then came over.
"It's Pryor," said Horace. "That's two for the Middlers, and one eachfor the First and Second Seniors."
"What was Chub Eaton's time?" asked Forrest as Townsend finished.
"Four and three-eighths minutes better than the record made four yearsago by Gooch," answered Horace.
"Well, I'm glad Roy Porter didn't win," said Harry vindictively. Chubrolled over on his elbows.
"He went down and out--two miles back," said Chub. He looked across atJack, who was sitting up and breathing like a steam-engine. "Sorry Ibeat you, Jack. I wouldn't have if you hadn't stumbled."
Jack nodded with a smile.
"Glad you won, old man," he said. "It was a tough old run, and you canbet I'm glad it's over. Phew! but I'm tuckered."
"Same here. That last mile was the dickens. There's someone elsecoming--two, three of them! One of 'em's fallen off the fence. Gee! Ithought I'd never get over that thing!" He got up, followed by Jack, andpassed through the gate. "Hello, Townsend! How was the road?"
"Rutty as anything and mighty hard running. I got a stitch in my sideabout a mile back and had to let up for a while. Passed Pryor moseyingalong down near the corner. Who's that coming?"
"Porter, by Jove!" cried Chub.
"Porter nothing!" said Horace. "That's Warren. And the next two areGlidden and Chase. That makes First and Second Seniors and Middlerstied for first so far. Chase is a Junior, isn't he?"
"Yes," answered Townsend.
Chase, a youngster of thirteen, made a plucky race across the field andbeat Glidden of the Second Senior Class by three yards. Then for a whileno more finished. Chub and Jack and the others disappeared into thegymnasium, and Doctor and Mrs. Emery returned to the Cottage. Harry,however, still remained. It was getting dim now, and when, after five orsix minutes had passed, more runners reached the fence it was impossibleto identify them. But when they drew near a shout went up. Two of themwere First Seniors, one was a Middler and one a Junior. The FirstSeniors needed but one more runner now to give them the cup. And a fewminutes later he came in the person of Bacon and received the biggestsort of a welcome. From then on until almost dinner time the othersstraggled in to find the finish deserted and to crawl weariedly up thegymnasium steps. Harry had taken her departure when Bacon had finished,returning to the Cottage through the gathering twilight, looking, unlessher face belied her, rather disappointed, and telling herself over andover that she was awfully glad Roy Porter hadn't won.
Dinner that evening was a jolly meal. Every fellow was franticallyhungry for his turkey and sweet potatoes and mince pie and theappropriate "trimmings." The First Seniors drank their sweet cider outof the mug they had captured, passing it from one to another like aloving cup. Perhaps there was no one there who had a bigger appetite ormore to tell in the way of adventures than Sidney Welch, and he talked asteady streak until Chub told him he'd choke himself.
It was not until dinner was well-nigh over that Roy's absence was notedby any save Chub. But when, at half-past nine, he had not returned, thematter was reported to Doctor Emery and the telephone became busy. Butneither Carroll nor Silver Cove knew anything of the missing boy. ThePrincipal waited until eleven o'clock, and then a searching party wasmade up. Mr. Cobb and Mr. Buckman took charge and with four of the olderboys and Chub, who was taken along to show where Roy had last been seen,left the Cottage at a little after eleven. They carried two lanterns andJack Rogers had slipped a revolver into his pocket which, he said, couldbe heard where a shout couldn't. But he said nothing to the instructorsabout it, since firearms were forbidden and Jack feared confiscation.Mr. Emery saw them off from the Cottage porch and instructed Mr. Cobb totelephone him from Carroll or Silver Cove if he had a chance. It was asdark as pitch as they made their way across the field and found theroad, and the wavering light from a couple of lanterns seemed only toaccentuate the gloom. Once away from the school they began to call atintervals but got no response. Chub and Jack had some difficulty infinding the place where they had returned to the road from the uplands,but at last they discovered it and the party took off up the hill. Itwas soon after that that Mr. Buckman stopped and asked:
"How many are there in this party, anyhow?"
"Should be seven of us," answered Mr. Cobb. "Why?"
/> "Because, unless I'm much mistaken, I counted eight a minute ago. Who'sthat over there, the last one?"
"Warren, sir."
"No, I don't mean you. Who's next to you?"
There was a moment's silence. Then,
"Blest if I know, sir," answered Warren in puzzled tones.
"It's me," said an apologetic voice.
"Who's me?" asked Mr. Cobb moving toward the speaker.
"Harry," was the answer.
"Harry! Harry Emery?" exclaimed Mr. Cobb, forgetting his politeness.
"Yes, I--I thought I'd come along."
"Well, if that isn't the greatest! Did the Doctor say you could come?"
"I--I didn't ask him," answered Harry. "Please don't send me back, Mr.Cobb. I won't be in the way a bit and I can walk miles!"
"Send you back! Why, I can't send you back now--that is--not alone. Isuppose you'll have to come, but supposing your mother finds you'remissing?"
"Oh, she won't," answered Harry cheerfully. "She thinks I'm in bed andasleep. And I was--that is, I was in bed."
"Well, come along then, but see that you stick close to us," grumbledMr. Cobb. "We don't want to loose any more persons to-night!"
So Harry trudged along at the tail of the party, keeping close to JackRogers and Chub and starting nervously when she heard strange noises inthe bushes along the way.
It was slow going and when they were well up on the hills the night windstung hands and faces. It was well upon midnight when Chub announcedthat they should have reached the place where he had left Roy. But alocality looks very different at night by the light of a waveringlantern than it does in the daytime, and when they had cast about for awhile, calling and shouting, Chub was forced to acknowledge that hewasn't certain of the place.
"It ought to be about here," he said anxiously, "but somehow thisdoesn't look like it. It doesn't seem to me it was quite so hilly; andthere weren't any trees about that I remember."
After a quarter of an hour more of unsuccessful search Mr. Cobb and Mr.Buckman held a consultation and decided that the best thing to do,unless they wanted to get lost themselves, was to stay where they wereand wait for dawn. So they found a sheltered spot in the lee of a bigrock and made themselves as comfortable as they could. Warren suggesteda fire and a half-hour was spent in finding fuel within the radius oflantern-light. Finally, however, the flames were leaping and the sparksflying and the party regained some of their ebbing spirits.
Mr. Cobb and the search-party looking for Roy.]
"If he sees the light he will look it up," said Mr. Buckman. "That was agood idea of yours, Warren."
"What I'm afraid of," said Mr. Cobb, "is that he has met with anaccident of some sort. Seems to me that if he had the use of his limbshe would have reached the school before this, or at least havecommunicated with us. Well, we'll have to make the best of things untilthe light comes. Better take a nap, fellows, if you can."
But they were in no mood for napping. The leaping flames lent theirtinge of romance to a situation already sufficiently out of the commonto be exciting and the boys wanted to live every moment of it. Theuncertainty as to Roy's fate added a qualm of uneasiness, but when onceWarren had got well into his story of the Wyoming outlaws who lived in acave and robbed trains and stage coaches, even Chub forgot the purposeof the expedition for whole minutes at a time. I think Harryunconsciously dozed several times, although she always denied itindignantly. Now and then one of the party would mend the fire and thencrawl back to the protection of the ledge and the waving bushes. Mr.Cobb followed Warren with some stories of Cornwall wreckers which he hadread, and after that every member of the party save Harry, who happenedto be very quiet about that time, contributed some tale of dark deeds.Presently Jack made the discovery that it was possible to see thebranches of the wind-whipped bushes behind them. Chub climbed to thesummit of the ledge and announced that there was light away down on thehorizon toward the east. Then followed an hour of waiting during whichthe world gradually turned from black to gray. The fire died out forlack of fuel and the boys snuggled into the collars of their sweaters,for it seemed to grow more chill each moment. Then, when objects a fewyards away could be distinguished, Mr. Cobb suggested that they "breakcamp." So they spread out in a line and took up the search again,calling as they went. The light grew quickly and in the east the skytook on a tinge of rose. Mr. Cobb stopped once and picked something fromthe ground.
"Must be slate quarries about here," he said. "There's a lot of brokenpieces here and loose gravel. Yes, here's a hole," he went on, walkingforward, "but they only went down a few feet. I wonder if there are moreof them?"
Suddenly there was a cry from the other end of the line.
"Mr. Cobb, come see what I've found!"
It was Harry's voice and Mr. Cobb made his way to her where she stood atthe edge of a thicket of leafless brambles.
"What is it, Harry?" he asked.
For answer she held up a tiny bit of crimson yarn.
"What do you make of this?" asked the instructor, looking at it in apuzzled way.
"I think it came from his sweater!" declared Harry triumphantly. "It wason that branch there."
"Good for you, Harry!" cried Chub, who had joined them ahead of theothers. "Roy had his red sweater on and it's money to muffins thatthread was pulled out as he went by."
"He didn't go by, though," said Harry. "He went through. Don't you seehow the bushes are trampled down? Come on!"