Part 3 (1/2)

”If I thought he wouldn't be mad with me, I'd be tempted to try and find out from Minnie what she meant,” Ralph was saying to himself, as he sat opposite his chum at the table, and noticed the little frown that occasionally came upon the open countenance of the one he had in mind.

But he knew Frank's ways, and that the other would not like any meddling in his own private affairs.

”Better let him settle it in his own fas.h.i.+on,” was the conclusion Ralph reached. ”But if Lef Seller has had anything to do with it, I'm sorry for him, that's all. Once Frank makes up his mind that these pranks of Lef have reached a limit, he's going to give him an _awful_ licking; and I know it.”

Frank had been watching his sister Helen at supper. He knew that there was something worrying her, too, and the strange thought came that perhaps it might be along the same lines as his own vexation.

”I wonder, now, could that be possible?” was the question that kept confronting him.

Having once given way to this suspicion, he could not refrain from trying to find out the truth. Helen had gone upstairs, on some small excuse. He was surprised to find her in her room, and with traces of tears in her beautiful eyes.

”Why, what's the matter, sister mine? Has anyone been abusing you?

I wonder if I could guess. Is it about Minnie?” he asked, gently, for Frank was very fond of his only sister, but two years younger than himself.

She looked at him in surprise.

”Why, Frank, however did you guess?” she exclaimed.

”Because,” he replied, steadily, ”she gave me the cut direct when Ralph and myself were heading home from the athletic field this evening. She and Dottie Warren were in the carriage, and Minnie looked right through me when I bowed. Whew! it gave me a shock, I tell you.”

”The mean thing, to carry it to you! I suppose I've said something or other to give her offense, although I tried in vain to remember any cause; but since she chooses to include all my family in her resentment, I'm not going to do the least thing in the way of an apology,” exclaimed Helen, warmly.

”I'm of the impression that it's me who's to blame, though I don't know what I've done,” said Frank, immediately. ”If I did, I'd apologize decently, and have it over with, whether she accepted it or not. But Ralph suggests that perhaps it's the work of some outsider, who wants to make trouble between Minnie and the Allens.”

”Oh, how mean! And from the way you talk, I can imagine who it is you have in mind. That wouldn't be the first time Lef Seller has been guilty of meddling!” exclaimed the girl, indignantly.

”It was Ralph who said that. He heard Lef laugh when she cut me, as if it tickled him. If I could only get proof that he's been telling yarns about me, I'd soon settle old scores with him. But you won't try to make up, will you Helen?”

”Certainly not! I'm the innocent party. Minnie chose to give me to understand that she'd prefer to go out with Dottie this afternoon.

I just turned away and came straight home. I think she called out after me, but I wouldn't turn my head an inch. I shall decline to ever speak to her again until the time comes when she apologizes.

There!” and Helen stamped her little foot on the floor, for emphasis.

Frank sighed, and went back to the library, where Ralph was chatting with Mr. Allen, always deeply interested in the strange life story of the boy from Paulding.

Three times that evening Frank went to the telephone and held a little confab with some unknown parties. Each time when he came back he would be smiling in a way that mystified his friend, who wondered what the particular business could be that took up so much of his time.

But then, a captain of a school football eleven, on the eve of a great struggle, must have no end of difficulties to straighten out; and doubtless Frank found much to talk about with the various members of his team.

Helen had come down again, and showed nothing of the dreadful shock her feelings had sustained when her one particular chum so basely deserted her.

She sang for Ralph, and the three of them also joined their voices in many of the school songs dear to the heart of all Columbia students.

”Ten o'clock, and time I was getting away to my little den,”

remarked Ralph, at last; for even the best of evenings must come to an end.

”Wait just a few minutes,” said Frank, mysteriously.

”What's all this? You're up to something or other,” laughed the other.