Part 17 (1/2)

”There's a bond of sympathy between us,” declared the other boy, with a grin. ”I was expelled from Berkley for fighting, and before that I got into trouble in the public school of my own town. Like you, it's my mother who wants me to have an education. The old man was for putting me to work with my coat off after the Berkley affair.”

They had paused near the academy gate.

”Going home?” asked Ned.

”Home?” exclaimed Charley, misunderstanding him. ”If I've got to get out of this town I'll strike out for myself; I'll keep away from home.”

”I mean are you going, now, to your boarding place?”

”Oh! I guess not yet. I'll walk up with you. I want to talk this thing over a little more.”

To avoid pa.s.sing through the center of the village, they crossed the yard to a field behind it, which brought them to Middle Street. As they went along, Shultz was saying:

”My people aren't such swells as yours, Ned, though the old man is making some money. They're German, but I was born in this country. It's only lately that my father has been sc.r.a.ping together some dollars. All his life he's had to pinch, and now he hangs on to the mazuma with a deathlike grip. It about breaks his heart when he has to send me my monthly allowance, and one reason why he put me here into this little school was because he thought it would be less expensive. Your people are different. You always have money. They might have sent you to any big school if you'd insisted on it.”

”I explained my mother's reason for wis.h.i.+ng me to come here. After that exposure at Hadden Hall, it seemed best that I should put in a year at some obscure school before entering an inst.i.tution of importance. You see, considering our standing and family, she felt fearfully cut up over what happened at Hadden. If there's a repet.i.tion of it here, it will make her hair turn gray. I may not betray my feelings to the extent that you do, but I'll confess that this miserable mix-up has got me going. If you hadn't struck that blow--”

”Oh, now you can't blame me; you'd done the same under those circ.u.mstances. What I'd like to know is where that extra ace came from.

You don't suppose that sneak, Piper, slipped it into the pack, do you?”

Osgood shook his head. ”I examined the cards after you fellows left. You know I stated at the time that I had two packs with the backs alike.

Investigation showed me that the ace of spades was missing from the pack that was not in use. It got into the other pack, somehow, and that's what makes me blame myself. You understand, Charley, that it was really through my own carelessness that this whole thing came about.”

”It was rotten hard luck.”

”Yes, it was hard luck.”

Neither of them seemed to fancy for a moment that the element of Fate entered, even remotely, into the case, and perhaps they could be excused in this, for ”hard luck” is ever the cry of the erring who face exposure through seemingly chance twists of circ.u.mstances. Even hardened malefactors, which these boys were not, rarely understand how closely the threads of human destiny are woven, making it almost impossible completely and effectually to hide the slightest flaw in the web.

Although Osgood invited him in when Mrs. Chester's house was reached, Shultz declined; he was troubled by a vague aversion for the room of his friend, in which an event bordering on tragedy had taken place. They lingered outside near an old elm that was just beginning to show the least touch of tender green amid its branches, and continued seeking to ease their minds by talk.

”Under any circ.u.mstances,” said Shultz, ”this business seems to put the kibosh on our little plan. It's upset everything.”

Osgood nodded. ”Just when we had things pretty well fixed,” he sighed.

”We were standing in right with the majority of the baseball team, and Nelson's act at Wyndham would have helped us along.”

”Sure. I'll guarantee you would have been captain of the Oakdale Academy nine before long. If Wyndham had won that game after Nelson benched us, it would have settled everything our way. You're mighty clever, old man.

You worked the fellows who could be worked, and did it just right. They didn't realize for a moment what we were up to. Still, we had them sounded so that we knew which way every one would jump if a split came.”

”It was your idea; I'd never thought of it myself. Even after seeing how loosely athletics are run here, being only a short time in the school, I wouldn't have fancied it possible to depose Nelson had you not suggested it.”

For ten minutes or more they continued to talk without securing the least relief from the oppression and anxiety that was on them.

The face of Shultz, as he trudged toward the home of Caleb Carter, where he boarded, was clouded and gloomy. After supper he waited until the shadows had lengthened into twilight, and then set forth into the village. In their talk, neither he nor Osgood had spoken much of the probable result of Roy Hooker's injury, but Charley was inwardly consumed by a desire for some report on the unfortunate boy's condition.

In town he lingered around the post-office and the stores where the villagers occasionally gathered to gossip, hoping to learn what he desired without making inquiries. He joined some boys near the drinking fountain in the square, but took little part in their characteristic chatter.